CV
Education & Training
- PhD, University of Pittsburgh, Slavic Languages & Literatures and Cultural Studies, 2003
- MA, University of Texas at Austin, Slavic Languages & Literatures, 1994
- BA, University of Texas at Austin, 1990
Courses Taught
- Ire, Irony, Ideology: Humour and Satire in Russian Culture (UCL)
- Gender and Sexuality in Modern Russian Culture (UCL)
- Contemporary Cultural Studies: Between Post-Communism and Post-Modernism (UCL, co-taught)
- Russian Cinema: Innovation and Experiment (UCL)
- Russian Literature from the Death of Stalin to the Present: Experiment and Emigration (UCL)
- “Models of Male Kinship in Perestroika Cinema.” Cinepaternity: Fathers and Sons in Soviet and Post-Soviet Film. Ed. Helena Goscilo and Yana Hashamova. Indiana UP, 2010. 70-86.
Representative Publications
“Soviet Film Comedy of the 1950s and 1960s: Innovation and Restoration.” Companion to Russian Cinema Ed. Birgit Beumers. Blackwell-Wiley, 2016
Resonant Dissonance: The Russian Joke in Cultural Context. Northwestern UP, 2009.
Co-edited with Olga Mesropova. Uncensored? Reinventing Humor and Satire in Post-Soviet Russia.. Columbus, OH: Slavica, 2008.
Edited. Necrorealism: Contexts, History, Interpretations. Pittsburgh Russian Film Symposium, 2001.
“Contemporary Tajik Cinema in Context: On Jamshed Usmonov.” Central Asian Cinemas: The Complete Companion. I.B. Tauris, 2013.
Research Interests
Russian and Soviet Culture (especially film) from the 1950s to the present
Cultural studies
Gender studies
Humor theory
Central Asian cinema
Representative Conference Presentations
“Postcoloniality and Regionality in Central Asian Cinema since 1991.” Association of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) National Convention. Boston, 2018.
“Auteur fatale? On Renata Litvinova.” New Directions in Russian and Soviet Cinema. Conference to honor Professor Julian Graffy. Cambridge University. 2014.
“Starost’ i radost’: The Geriatric Protagonist in Post-Soviet Cinema.” British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) Conference. Cambridge. April 2007.
“The Power of the Yurt: Cinema, Metaphor, and Orientalism.” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) National Convention. Salt Lake City, UT. Nov. 2005.
“Second Cinema? The Legacies of Soviet Film in Central Asia Since 1991.” Modes of Contemporary Central Asian Culture. Conference. UC Berkeley. Sep. 24, 2005.
“Is the Central-Asian Screen Postcolonial?” AATSEEL Annual Meeting. San Diego. Dec. 2003.
“Reflexive Ethnic Satire in the Russo-Soviet Anekdot.” Through the Looking-Glass of Russian Culture: Self-Reflection in Russian Literature, History, Arts and Media. International Conference. University of Oxford, UK. Feb. 7, 2003.
Employment Since Graduation
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, Lecturer, Sep. 2006-Sep. 2013; Senior Lecturer [equivalent to Associate Professor], Oct. 2013 –present.
Humanities Fellow and Lecturer, Slavic Dept., Stanford University, Sep. 2004-Aug. 2006
Lecturer and Coordinator of first- and second-year Russian, Slavic Dept., University of Washington, Seattle, 2003-2004
Dissertation Title and Year
A Cultural Analysis of the Russo-Soviet Anekdot, 2003