Now that All the Russias has turned 5 (its birthday passing unnoticed last month even by its proud, but distracted papa), it is time for the blog to venture out into the world and stand on its own two feet. So I am delighted to announce some big changes.
The first: I am stepping away from most of my editorial duties for the blog. As my failure to remember its anniversary suggests, I’ve taken on too many commitments to devote the time and care needed not simply to keep the posts coming, but to go out and solicit new contributions. In my first year as Senior Academic Convenor for the Global Network (I know, I know; it's a mouthful) and my fourth as the Acting Chair of East Asian Studies, I have to admit that I’m just not keeping up. When I have the time to work on the blog, i’d rather be writing for it.
All of which leads to Change Number 2:
Maya Vinokour, our new Faculty Fellow in the Department of Russian & Slavic Studies, is joining my as Co-Editor of All the Russias. Maya's research interests include Soviet labor culture, science fiction and film, and post-Soviet media. Her book project, Work Flows: Stalinist Liquids in Russian Labor Culture, investigates the metaphor of flow as a central figure in Russian labor discourse since 1870. She has written on current Russian politics and culture for All the Russias, Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She is co-editor (with Ainsley Morse and Maria Vassileva) and co-translator of Found Life: Poems, Stories, Comics, a Play, and An Interview (Columbia University Press, 2017), a collected volume by contemporary fiction author and Runet pioneer Linor Goralik. Maya is a brilliant humanist (both digital and analog), and I couldn't be happier to haver her join All the Russias.
While submissions can still be sent to me (eb7@nyu.edu) as well as to Maya (mvv221@nyu.edu), it is Maya who will be maintaining the blog on a day-to-day basis, and, more important, bringing a fresh perspective to its further development.
And, finally, the last announcement:
I am going to use the extra time afforded to me to recommit to writing for the blog. My goal is to post something myself once a week, along the lines of a regular column. Instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, I am going to hunt inspiration down and wrestle it to the ground. Every Thursday or so.
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I’d like to thank everyone who has made All the Russias possible:
Yanni Kotsonis, Founding Director of the Jordan Center;
Josh Tucker, current Director of the Jordan Center;
Patty Mouzakitis and Fiona Neale-May, past Jordan Center administrators;
Heather (Janson) Messina, current Jordan Center administrator;
Leydi Rofman, Russian Department Administrator extraordinaire;
Anne Lounsbery, Russian Department Chair
the many Jordan Center graduate assistants, including:
Natasha Bluth
Elena Borzenkova
Nicole Disser
Nigar Hacizade
Anastassia Kostrioukova
Corie Anastasia Little
Ingrid Nordsgaard
Ilaria Parogni
Dasha Prokhorova
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And, of course, thanks to Fran Bernstein, for everything.
