Irina Paperno conducts research mainly in the fields of Russian literature and intellectual history in the nineteenth and twentieth century. She has worked on history of experience (marriage, adultery, suicide), personal documents (memoirs, diaries, letters), and dreams. Among the courses she has taught are Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, the European Novel, Russian Intellectual History, the Soviet Experience. Her books include Suicide as a Cultural Institution in Dostoevsky's Russia and Stories of the Soviet Experience: Memoirs, Diaries, Dreams. Professor Paperno’s current research project is on Lev Tolstoy and the narrative of self. She is also developing a course on psychoanalysis and literature.