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Inferiority Complex: Why the New Film Adaptation of Lady Macbeth is Too Subtle for its Own Good
Oh great, I thought, as she suffocated the little boy, now we’re getting to my favorite bit.
The Americans: "Take Your Daughter to Work" Day
Previously, on the Walking Dead…
Russia’s “Great Game” in the Biden Era
Around an hour long including commercial breaks, "The Great Game" features two hosts, a moderator, and a rotating cast of expert commentators. Rather than just having Russian panelists, the show’s...
The Americans: The Marriage Plot against America
Even if our heroes survive the season, their future looks bleak.
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...
Money Is Not Enough: The Role of Economic Incentives in Cooperative Nonproliferation Initiatives
The current main threats to Russian nuclear materials are determined insiders, coupled with a questionable commitment by Moscow to ensuring sustainability and improving security culture.
Women Soldiers: Anna Krylova and Soviet Gender Categories
Elizabeth Banks is a Graduate Student in NYU's History Department. “God blessed Vasilisa with the greatest courage of all” Last Friday the Jordan Center joined with the NYU History Department’s...
Excerpt from "Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective," Part I
The character of the female sex worker has recurred pervasively across time, space, and genre, repeatedly used by writers, filmmakers, artists, intellectuals, and politicians to explore anxieties about the disruptive...
Kiss Me, Darling: The Monstrous in "The Bear's Wedding" (1926)
As the sole example of early Soviet supernatural horror (or perhaps even horror as such), "The Bear's Wedding" offers insight into the shape of the dreadful in the early Soviet...
Upcoming Columbia Event
In Search of Empire: the 400th Anniversary of the House of Romanov February 14th-16th 2013 Co-sponsored by the Bakhmeteff Archive, the Harriman Institute, the Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia...
Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! (Russia's Alien Nations)
Zhdun only makes sense as the herald of whatever comes next.
Talking with Yanni Kotsonis about "States of Obligation"
Most people would think taxes and Russia, and then think beatings, unfairness, repression, burden, squalor, and an overbearing state. That’s plain wrong.
Gender Trouble in The Double: Masculinity in Dostoevsky’s Novella and Ayoade’s Film
Right from the outset, Ayoade’s film establishes the presence of a masculine hierarchy.
Gothic Doubling and The Double, Gothically
Dostoevsky was well aware of the power of the gothic.
The Post-Soviet Future of FX's The Americans: A Modest Proposal
It’s time for The Americans to jump the shark.
Roaming Academics: An Immigrant Story
People ask me all the time where I will, or want to live when I finish my PhD, as if I am supposed to be able to answer that question.
Balanchine’s Neoclassical Serenade and the Washington Ballet’s New Signature Style
The Washington Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s Serenade this past weekend at the Kennedy Center was a watershed moment for the company. The program heralded the emergence of a Washington...
Born This Way (Russia's Alien Nations)
For the rich Russians, it’s not just genes; it’s genealogy.
How the Soviet Experience Shapes Crime and Punishment in Russia Today
Russia has been justifiably called a Mafia-state. Yet for two centuries it had been making steady progress toward the rule of law and a predictable, impartial, accessible, and fair criminal...
Russian Symbolists and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Part I
“Absurd!” “Perverse!” “Puerile!” “Frantic trash!” Thus fumed London critics who attended the 1850 exhibition of the little-known Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. For the three young artists who dreamt of revolutionizing the Royal...