Professor Cathy Popkin of Columbia University showed a connection between Buddhism, Russian literature and business practices yesterday evening during her lecture entitled “Stretching Checkhov: Bishops, Buddhism, and Business Practices.”

She set out to question systems of knowledge, the notion of professionalism and the idea of attaining expertise in a given field.

“I want to know how much random, unconnected stuff is legitimate to bring to bear in comparative literature,” said Popkin. “I think there is going to be a lot of graduate students there on their way to becoming professionals and, at some point, you realize that you will be ignorant. You can’t know everything. You can get as much knowledge as you can, but eventually, you have to take a leap.”

The lecture itself dealt with famed Russian dramatist Anton Checkhov. Of great interest to Professor Popkin is how his second to last story “The Bishop” had traces of Buddhism lining its pages. Popkin inferred that the holistic nature of Buddhism contrasted sharply against the individualistic nature that Checkhov seemingly upheld.

The attendees looked on with sincere interest as Popkin discussed the idea of academic diversity, a theme revisited throughout her lecture that dealt with a willingness to wander across fields and disciplines to shed new light on a personalized field of interest. This is exactly what Popkin proposed to experts and aspiring experts in various academic fields.

“In colloquial terms, it is insightful to think outside the box,” said Donna Buchanan, director of Russian, East European, and Eurasia Center and associate professor of the School of Music.

Popkin’s way of analyzing her own field through means of other diverse academic realms results from her fascination with health, the human body and medicine. This came through vividly as Popkin upheld the validity of wandering across fields.

The large amount of questions asked and the flow of her speech seemed to encourage the audience to consider possibilities of drawing upon seemingly unconnected academic works. She said she worries that all too often scholars are concerned too much about what they need to bring to a field as opposed to what they might bring.

Popkin holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Comparative Literature and studies 19th century and 20th century Russian prose, 19th century scientific discourses, epistemology, corporality and Russian dramatist Anton Checkhov. She is the chair of the Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia University.

Andy Bruno, graduate student, said he still doubted the relevance of these types of lectures in his field of history, but he didn’t find the lecture a waste.

“Her approach in bringing in different disciplines is completely helpful,” Bruno said.