Metcalf Cup and Prize: Past Awardees

2024 Metcalf Cup and Prize Recipient

Yuri Corrigan

College of Arts & Sciences

Yuri Corrigan is an associate professor of Russian and comparative literature at Boston University’s College of Arts & Sciences. His teaching and mentorship, in the classroom and outside it, focus on the life-changing value of literature and the humanities.

In his 11 years at Boston University, Professor Corrigan—by fostering a curious, empathetic, intellectual community—has shown that any student can find personal meaning in even the most challenging literary texts. Regularly hailed by students as one of the best professors they have ever had, he has been commended for his efforts to cultivate moral and intellectual foundations for students’ daily lives.

Professor Corrigan’s students praise his “uncanny ability to stimulate interest” and ability to inspire “a new understanding and appreciation of life” in his courses. He appeals to his students’ experience, rather than just accumulated academic knowledge, to inform lively, spontaneous classroom discussions. As one student commented, “There are rare moments when it feels I am being enfolded into something larger than myself…Professor Corrigan is the type of educator who brings out this feeling.”

Beyond the classroom, Professor Corrigan continues to invest in students, his peers, and the humanities at BU. As one faculty member put it, he has probably advised on more senior theses than any other world languages and literatures professor; such is his magnetism and commitment. One area he focuses on is translation, and several of his advisees have received the Robert Fitzgerald Translation Prize.

Professor Corrigan earned his BA in Russian from the University of Saskatchewan and his MA and PhD in Russian literature from Princeton University. A prolific presenter, author, and contributor, he is recognized as an authority on Russian literature and is a member of the Executive Council of the North American Dostoevsky Society. To echo the refrain of students and colleagues alike, “Yuri Corrigan is that one professor who changes your life.”