Peter Steiner, a professor emeritus of Russian & East European studies in the School of Arts & Sciences, died on November 26, 2024. He was 78.

Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Dr. Steiner immigrated to the U.S. in 1968, in the aftermath of the Prague Spring. He first settled in New York, where he took up a variety of odd jobs, from stevedore to handyman. Awarded a fellowship to study literature at Yale University, he earned a doctorate in Slavic languages and literatures there in 1976. After graduating from Yale, Dr. Steiner taught at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. In 1978, he came to Penn as an assistant professor in the department of Slavic languages and literatures. He became an associate professor in 1985, and in 2000, a full professor; during the 1990s, he also chaired the department. In 2000, the department was renamed Russian & East European studies. Dr. Steiner also taught in the master of science in organizational dynamics program in the College of General Studies (precursor to today’s College of Liberal & Professional Studies). He retired from Penn in 2015 and took emeritus status.

Dr. Steiner was widely published, authoring peer-reviewed articles and the books Russian Formalism: A Metapoetics (1984) and The Deserts of Bohemia: Czech Fiction and its Social Context (2000). While at Penn, Dr. Steiner served for 15 years as a faculty college house fellow in the Modern Languages College House, which later became part of Gregory College House, and also served on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.

“In mourning his loss and celebrating his life, we remember his generous and incisive intellect, his dedication to his students, his warm laughter, and his witty mastery of the art of conversation,” said the department of Russian & East European studies in an online tribute. In Dr. Steiner’s honor, the department has established the Peter Steiner Prize for Czech and Central European Studies.

Donations to that prize are welcome at https://rees.sas.upenn.edu/donate.

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