Russell Berman holds the Walter A. Haas Professorship in the Humanities at Stanford University, with appointments in the Departments of Comparative Literature and German Studies. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

He received his B.A. from Harvard and his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis; he also studied at the University of Munich and the Free University of Berlin. He has written widely on German and Comparative LIterature, especially with regard to the traditions of Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School. Some of his publications include The Rise of the Modern German Novel: Crisis and Charisma, Enlightenment or Empire: Colonial Discourse in German Culture, and Fiction Sets You Free: Literature, Liberty and Western Culture. He served in 2011 as President of the Modern Language Association, and he is editor of the journal Telos.