She specializes in nineteenth-century Russian prose with a particular interest in the development of realism. In recent years she has been combining two of her great loves, in a long-term research project on the image of the horse in Russian literature.
Cruise is known on campus as a dynamic and passionate teacher.
In addition to courses in Russian language at all levels from elementary to advanced, Cruise teaches Russian literature in both Russian and English. Cruise's publications include the textbook English Grammar for Students of Russian, as well as dozens of scholarly articles and translations. Before coming to Mount Holyoke, Cruise was a Fulbright lecturer in Russian and English at Hankuk University, Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation, in Seoul, Korea, from 1981-1982. She has also taught at Columbia University, William Paterson College, Middlebury College, and Williams College. Cruise received her B.A. in Russian from Barnard College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University.