Research Interests:
Transnationalism; posthumanism; subjectivity; animation; historiography; 19th-century Russian literature; 20th-century Slavic film; 20th-century Japanese film; early 20th century Slavic techno-utopianism; midcentury Soviet non-conformism; contemporary experimental Russophone documentary; comparative decolonialization
Education:
M.Phil Yale University (2023)
Hon. B.A. (cum laude) in Russian and Eastern European Studies, University of Chicago (2016)
B.A. in Visual Art, University of Chicago (2016)
Publications:
Dissertation:
The Kurosawa School of Russian Cinema: Tarkovsky, Kozintsev and Konchalovsky
Selected Publications:
“Determining Signs: From Dostoevsky to Kurosawa.” Migrating Minds: Journal of Cultural Cosmopolitanism 3, no. 1 (scheduled 2025): migratingminds.georgetown.edu
“Filmed Objects as Subjects: Representation of Survivors in Donbas Documentary.” In Re/Framing Eastern European Cinema, edited by Yuri Leving. Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, (scheduled 2025).
“Art Mediating Crisis: Documentaries on Children in Illegitimate National Spaces.” In Russian Contemporary Documentary, edited by Masha Shpolberg and Anastasia Kostina. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, (scheduled 2024).
“Book Review: The Russian Kurosawa: Transnational Cinema, or the Art of Speaking Differently.” The Russian Review 83, no. 1 (2024): 300-2. doi.org/10.1111/russ.12615
“Imitation of the Nonhuman: Wladislaw Starewicz’s Entomological Cinema.” Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe 16, no. 1 (2023): apparatusjournal.net. doi.org/10.17892/app.2023.00016
Conference Presentations:
“Rock. Paper. Grenade: Screening and Q&A live with director Iryna Tsilyk.” Yale University Humanities Quadrangle, New Haven, CT, USA: March 2024
Recording: https://youtu.be/xxAHEKhj4tg
“Inheriting Ukrainian Avant-Gardes: Kira Muratova’s Sentimental Policeman (1992) and Abram Room’s A Strict Youth (1936).” Society For Cinema and Media Studies. Boston, MA, USA: (March 2024)
“Determining Signs: from Dostoevsky to Kurosawa.” American Comparative Literature Association. Montreal, QC, Canada: (March 2024)
“Iryna Tsilyk’s Filmed Subjects as Co-creators of Donbas Documentary.” Association of Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies 55th Annual Convention. Philadelphia, PA, USA: December 2023
“Thresholds and Hands: Transgression through Corporal Space in Kurosawa Akira’s Idiot.” XVIII Symposium of the International Dostoevsky Society. Nagoya, Japan: August 2023
“Corporal Reclaiming of Nationalist Geographies: Wim Wenders and W.G. Sebald’s Reconstruction of Real in Postwar Germany.” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association. Los Angeles, CA, USA: November 2022
“Voyeurism and Abjection in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ‘White Nights.’” North American Dostoevsky Society. International Virtual Symposium: November 2022
“Introducing Kurosawa Akira’s The Idiot.” Yale Film Archive and Council on East Asian Studies, New Haven, CT, USA: April 2022
“The Superflat of ‘the Prophet’: Holograms of Alexander Pushkin’s Poetry,” American Comparative Literature Association. Virtual Conference: April 2021
Directed Films:
“In the Infinite Blissful Space Between World and Flight,” director. PATCHWORK Literary Journal: Film x Poetry. Season 2 (Summer 2021): https://counterclock.org/past-seasons
Artwork:
Fellowships and Awards:
Winner of the North American Dostoevsky Society Graduate Essay Contest, 2024
Macmillan International Dissertation Research Fellowship Award, granted by Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, 2024-2025
Symposium Travel Grant Recipient, North American Dostoevsky Society, 2023
Poorvu Center for Teaching Writing-in-Residence Dissertation Grant, Yale University, 2023
Macmillan European Studies Council Graduate Fellow, Yale University, 2022–ongoing
Council on East Asian Studies’ Summer Language Mini-Grant Award, Yale University, 2021
Summer Language Institute Scholarship, University of Chicago, 2021
George V. Bobrinskoy Award for excellence in the study of Slavic languages and literatures, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago, 2016
Honors Track Studio Grant, Department of Visual Arts, University of Chicago, 2015
Annual Spring Festival of the Arts Grant Recipient, University of Chicago, 2015
University Community Service Center’s Summer Links Grant Recipient, 2015
Silver Medal in National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest (NPSREC), Heritage Learners, Level 2, 2013
Honorary Mention in Utah Best of State Art Show, 2012
Professional Activities:
2024–ongoing: Yale Slavic Graduate Student Advisory committee
2022–ongoing: Volunteer Mentor with Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation
2022–2024: Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Student Government (GSA)
2021–2024: Co-organizer for “Rough Cut,” Yale Film and Media Studies Working Group
2021–2022: Organizer for Yale Slavic Film Series
2020–2021: Peer Reviewer, Yale Undergraduate Research Journal
Directed Animated Films:
“Purim in the Big Freeze: A Tale from Knish-tory,” director; screenplay by Jerome Krasnow (2025).
“In the Infinite Blissful Space Between World and Flight,” director. PATCHWORK Literary Journal: Film x Poetry. Season 2 (Summer 2021): https://counterclock.org/past-seasons
Professional Memberships:
North American Dostoevsky Society
American Comparative Literature Association
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies
Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity