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2014 Sochi Olympics: A chance for more Democracy or Repression?
Roughly 30 years ago, the Soviet Union staged the Moscow Olympics. This winter, Russia’s resort town of Sochi will play the host. One commonality is clear; the Kremlin is using...
Open Letter on the Termination of Russian Studies Faculty at Ohio University
Like you, we are wholeheartedly invested in the survival and recovery of higher education in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That recovery depends on the will of universities...
Minds and Bodies in the World, or: Learning to Love Dostoevsky
I'm not one of those American Slavists who came to the study of Russian literature by way of Dostoevsky. For a long time, I wasn’t even particularly interested—I’m afraid that...
Pregnancy and Writing the Female Body in Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s "The Kukotsky Case”
In her 2001 novel, Ulitskaya uses the medical gaze to bring the pregnant woman closer to her child.
Narratives of Childbirth in Tolstoy’s "War and Peace"
I started to wonder if the very fact that there is not much to Liza’s birth scene might precisely be the point. Because, while a birth scene can be understood...
Lamas, Leaders, and Lay Believers: A History of Buddhists in Russia
On November 2nd, 2021, the Jordan Center hosted Dr. Melissa Chakars, an associate professor and Chair of the Department of History at Saint Joseph’s University. Dr. Chakars research focuses on...
Utopia Interrupted
When I was designing "Utopia Interrupted," my main goal was to foreground the diversity of voices and forms of difference of Soviet and post-Soviet literature and culture that is often...
“Spiritual Materialism” and Realist Discourse
"To endlessly describe nothing but priests/ In my opinion, is boring and out of fashion;/ Now you’re writing in a declining family;/ Don’t blow it, L—v."