Academic Bio
I am writing a book called “Anarchist Currents in Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Pussy Riot.” It shows that an intellectual and artistic anarchist culture has existed in Russia and among Russians abroad for over a hundred and fifty years. Despite suppression by every type of government that Russia has had in the tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet eras, anarchism has always appealed to Russians. In fact, I argue that the arts, whether elite or popular, are key to understanding the unlikely survival of anarchist ideas in Russia. When anarchism could not exist “aboveground” as a political movement, writers and artists continued to imagine life beyond the state in stories, paintings, manifestos, memoirs, and performances. Offering an alternative genealogy of non-Marxist political thought and art, Anarchist Currents contributes a novel perspective to cultural studies. Ultimately, it seeks to explain the continued appeal of anarchist ideas. One of my other, concurrent projects is a study of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has transformed the politics and cultures of radical antiauthoritarian groups (such as anarchists) in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
I have written about these topics, as well as about other themes in literature, theater, film for: The Slavic Review, The Russian Review, the Slavic and East European Journal, The LA Review of Books, and The New Yorker.
I teach seminars on Russian, Eurasian, East European, and Central European culture. Each of my courses brings together literature, film, anthropology, and history; most of my courses feature guest speakers, visits to the archive, and options for creative work. I look forward to working with students on thesis projects and other independent research or creative initiatives.
I advise undergraduate and graduate research in comparative cultural studies of Russophone and other Slavic language-speaking cultures. I especially welcome projects seeking to take an interdisciplinary approach to a historical study of movements, groups, and institutions. I believe that research in cultural studies must combine the analysis of published texts with historical writing and other methods such as analysis of images, deep archival research, data analysis, or anthropological fieldwork.
Selected Publications
"'The Center of Infectious Kindness:’ Tolstoy’s Communal Kitchens and Mutual Aid,” The Slavic and East European Journal
“Addressing Contingency in REEES Fields,” The Slavic Review
“Designing Digital Assignments in REEES,” Slavic and East European Blog
“Night with a Nihilist: On Utopia’s Discontents by Faith Hillis,“ The LA Review of Books
“The Poor Rhymes of Hooligans: The Anarchist Aesthetics of OBERIU and Pussy Riot,” The Russian Review
“War in Everyday Life in Russia,” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art
“Stiob and the State,” The Jordan Center Blog
“The Secret Lessons of Soviet Children’s Poems,” The New Yorker