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Ph.D.

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

• Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Program
• PhD Candidate (ABD)
• Started in 2018 - expected completion in June, 2025
• Dissertation: The Gorky Literary Institute: Creative Writing under Socialism

M.A.

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

• Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Program

M.A.

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

• Program in Comparative Studies: Russian Literature in the Cross-Cultural Perspective
• Thesis: The Higher Institute of Literature and Art in the Historical and Cultural Context of the 1920s.

M.Sc.

Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Paris School of Economics, Paris, France, and National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

• Program in Theoretical and Empirical Economics
• Double Degree
• Thesis: Central Bank Transparency and Public Information Acquisition

B.Sc.

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

• Program in Business Informatics
• Thesis: The Development of the Procedures of Client Database Checks

The Gorky Literary Institute: Creative Writing under Socialism

• This project examines questions of mutual influence among formal education, creative processes, and literary evolution in the socialist world including case studies from the Russian SFSR, the Buryat ASSR, the Mari ASSR, the Lithuanian SSR, the German Democratic Republic, Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, and other regions and countries. By analyzing the educational activities of the Gorky Literary Institute (1933-) which produced (or sometimes failed to produce) socialist writers, this project shows how socialist creative writing institutions impacted the formation of the transnational “Soviet Republic of Letters.”

• “From High Hopes to Bitter Disappointment: Mali in the Eyes of Soviets and East Germans (1962–1989).” In: Clemens Günther, Matthias Schwartz (eds.), The Red Globe: Writing the World in Eastern European Travel Literature of the Cold War. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2025. Forthcoming.

• “The Instruction of Non-Soviet Writers at the Gorky Literary Institute: Gaoussou Diawara and Malian Literature.” In: Susanne Frank (ed.), The Soviet Cosmopolis: A Project of World Literature and its Global Impact. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2024. Forthcoming.

• “Незаменимые помощники или убийцы вдохновения: сравнительный анализ руководств по литературному мастерству 1920-х годов” [“Irreplaceable Assistants or Killers of Inspiration: A Comparative Analysis of Creative Writing Textbooks in the 1920s”]. In: Творческое письмо в России: сюжеты, подходы, проблемы [Creative Writing in Russia: Topics, Approaches, and Problems]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2023. P. 72–92.
• “Брюсов-педагог: античная литература и класс поэзии в ВЛХИ” [“Briusov as a Teacher: Classical Literature and Poetry Class at VLKhI”]. In: Cluster of articles “Creative Writing Studies: исследования в области литературного мастерства.” Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, No. 183, 2023. P. 84–95.
• “От составителей” [“From the Compilers”] (co-authored with Maya Kucherskaya). In: Cluster of articles “Creative Writing Studies: исследования в области литературного мастерства.” Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, No. 183, 2023. P. 76–83.
• “Высший литературно-художественный институт им. В. Я. Брюсова (ВЛХИ)” [“Briusov Higher Institute of Literature and Art (VLKhI)”.] In: “Литературные институции как классы литературной школы: материалы к словарю” (eds. Oleg Lekmanov, Mikhail Sverdlov). Зборник матице српске за славистику, No. 103, 2023. P. 389—405.
• “Mali 2023: How Russia Made Its Way into Malian Life.” The Jordan Center Blog, NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia.

• “Blackness and Soviet Creative Education: African Writers at the Gorky Literary Institute.” In: Nana Osei-Opare, Sunnie Rucker-Chang (eds.), Cluster of articles “Blackness in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Societies.” Slavic Review, 2025.

• Soviet Literature
• Socialist Realism
• Socialist Internationalism
• Sociology of Literature
• Digital Humanities
• Soviet Education
• Creative Writing
• Postcolonial Literature
• Indigenous Studies

• “Digital Humanities Methods and Minor Languages: A Case Study of the Mari Journal Onchyko.” ASEEES Convention. Boston, MA. Forthcoming.
• Invited speaker “The Instruction of African Writers at the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow: Atukwei Okai and Ghanaian Poetry.” Swarthmore College. Swarthmore, PA.
• Participant in roundtable “The GDR in Slavic and East European Studies: East Germany as a Point of Contact during the Cold War.” AATSEEL Conference. Las Vegas, NV.

• “„Zwischen Moskau und Leipzig“: Exchange Programs between the Gorky Literary Institute and the Becher Literary Institute in the 1970s-1980s.” ASEEES Convention. Philadelphia, PA.
• Participant in roundtable “Centering Indigeneity in Russian Studies II: Transdisciplinary Possibilities of Critical Indigenous Theory.” ASEEES Convention. Philadelphia, PA.
• Discussant for panel “Western Other in the Late Soviet Culture.” ASEEES Convention. Philadelphia, PA.
• “The Gorky Literary Institute and African Writers: Gaoussou Diawara and Atukwei Okai.” Inaugural Conference of the African Humanities Association (AHA). Cape Town, South Africa. Online.
• “Atukwei Okai, Ghanaian Poetry, and Soviet Education.” Red World Literature. University of Iceland. Reykjavík, Iceland.
• “Formalism and Creative Writing: Viktor Shklovsky at the Gorky Literary Institute in the 1950s.” Research Colloquium. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Berlin, Germany.
• “The Gorky Literary Institute as a Network.” AATSEEL Conference. Online.
• “The Soviet Literatures of Dagestan and the Gorky Literary Institute.” AATSEEL Conference. Online.
• Participant in roundtable “Indigeneity in Post-Russia-Centric Pedagogy.” AATSEEL Conference. Online.
• “Ivan Kharabarov and Iurii Pankratov at the Crossroads.” MLA Convention. Online.

• “Digital Humanities and Soviet Cultural Institutions: the Case of the Gorky Literary Institute.” Gazeta: Russian, East European, and Eurasian Press History Workshop. Online.
• “Networks, Coalitions, and Factions at the Gorky Literary Institute: a Digital Humanities Analysis.” ASEEES Convention. Chicago, IL.
• “The Gorky Literary Institute: Teaching Creative Writing under Socialism.” Schlegeltag Colloquium. Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies. Freie Universität. Berlin, Germany.
• ““The Little Library of a Young Writer”: an Attempt to Transfer Literary Experience Between Generations.” Theories and Practices of Literary Craft. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia (online).
• “The Gorky Literary Institute, Gaoussou Diawara, and Malian Literature.” ACLA Meeting. Online.
• “Vasilii Zakharchenko - Introducing the World to the Soviet Youth.” The Red Globe: Writing the World in Eastern European Travel Literature. Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research. Berlin, Germany (online).
• “Soviet Creative Writing Textbooks on Versification: Alexander Kovalenkov against Ilia Selvinskii.” Princeton University Graduate Conference. Princeton, N.J.
• “The Intergenerational Exchange and Its Failures in the Gorky Literary Institute During the Thaw.” The Northeast Corridor Russian History and Culture Workshop. Rutgers University. New Brunswick, N.J.
• Keynote address “The Gorky Literary Institute: Teaching Creative Writing under Socialism.” Slavic Bazaar. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA.
• Participant in roundtable “Digital Humanities - Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature in Translation.” AATSEEL Conference. Philadelphia, PA.

• “The Instruction of Non-Soviet Writers at the Gorky Literary Institute: Gaoussou Diawara and Malian Literature.” (Post-)Soviet Cosmopolis: The Soviet Project of World Literature and its Legacies. Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research. Berlin, Germany.
• “For Party-Mindedness and Against “Peaceful Coexistence of Ideology”: the Gorky Literary Institute During the Thaw.” ASEEES Convention. New Orleans, LA.
• “Viktor Shklovsky’s Formalism: Creative Writing vs. Creative Reading.” Theories and Practices of Literary Craft. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia. Online.
• “Write or Translate: Cultural Transfers at the Gorky Literary Institute.” ACLA Meeting. Online.

• “Socialist Content, (Inter)National Form: the Gorky Literary Institute and Non-Russian Writers.” ASEEES Convention. Online.
• “Style and Stylization in Literary Studies: The Experience of Twentieth-Century Russian and French Writers.” Theories and Practices of Literary Craft. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia. Online.
• “Teaching Creative Writing in the Soviet Union in the 1920s.” Constructivist Criticism Workshop for Graduate Students in the Social Sciences and Humanities Studying Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. New York University and Columbia University in the City of New York. New York, NY.
• “The Gorky Literary Institute: on the Emergence of a New Class of Soviet Writers in the 1930s—Early 1940s.” AATSEEL Conference. San Diego, CA.

• “Creative Writing Programs in the Soviet Union in the 1920s-1930s: From Briusov’s Writers Institute to Gorky Literary Institute.” ASEEES Convention. San Francisco, CA.

• “Literary Canon in Russia in the 1920s: the Role Models for Aspiring Writers.” Russian Literature in Comparative Perspective. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia.
• “The Writer’s Profession: Literary Educational Institutions in Russia in the 1920s.” Tradition and Innovation in Historical Perspectives. Central European University. Budapest, Hungary.

• “Theories and Practices of Literary Craft.” Conference co-organizer. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia. Online. Forthcoming.
• “The GDR in Slavic and East European Studies: East Germany as a Point of Contact during the Cold War.” Roundtable organizer. AATSEEL Conference. Las Vegas, NV.

• “Literature, Art, and Education Across Borders: Soviet-Eastern European Cultural Exchanges during the Cold War.” Panel organizer. ASEEES Convention. Philadelphia, PA.
• “Theories and Practices of Literary Craft.” Conference co-organizer. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia.
• “Network Analysis of Soviet and Post-Soviet Literature.” Panel organizer. AATSEEL Conference. Online.
• “Indigenous Possibilities in Post-Russian Spaces.” Stream co-organizer. AATSEEL Conference. Online.

• “Soviet Literature as a Network: Institutions, Languages, People.” ASEEES Convention. Chicago, IL.
• “Theories and Practices of Literary Craft.” Conference co-organizer. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia. Online.

• “Cultural Transfers: How Discourses, Forms, and Literature Moved within the Soviet Union and across Its Borders.” Panel organizer. ASEEES Convention. Online.
• “Constructivist Criticism.” Co-organizer. Workshop for Graduate Students in the Social Sciences and Humanities Studying Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Workshop co-organizer. New York University and Columbia University in the City of New York. New York, NY.
• “Soviet Literary Institutions.” Stream co-organizer. AATSEEL Conference. San Diego, CA.

• “Tradition and Innovation in the Soviet Literary Education: Who and How Taught Literature and Writing in the 1920s-1970s.” Panel organizer. ASEEES Convention. California, CA.
• “Constructivist Criticism.” Co-organizer. Workshop for Graduate Students in the Social Sciences and Humanities Studying Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Workshop co-organizer. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA.

• “Russian Literature in Comparative Perspective.” Conference co-organizer. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia.
• “Effects of Verisimilitude: Modes of Russian Realism.” Conference co-organizer. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia.

• “World Literature as a Soviet Cultural Project.” Conference co-organizer. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russia.

• Instructor. REES 0410 Masterpieces of 19C Russian Literature. University of Pennsylvania.

• Instructor. English Writing: Place and Belonging. Pre-First Year Program. University of Pennsylvania.

• Visiting Instructor (co-taught with Tsvetelina Yordanova). RUSS 004 Intermediate Intensive Russian. Swarthmore College.
• Guest Instructor. RUSS 107. Russia and Its Others. Class on Black Writers in the USSR: Gaoussou Diawara, Atukwei Okai, and James Lloydovich Patterson. Swarthmore College.

• Instructor (co-taught with Tom Dolack and Julia Katsnelson). Enhanced Intermediate Russian. Middlebury College, Middlebury Language Schools.

• Instructor (co-taught with Maria Alley). Advanced Russian II Russian Society Today (Independent Study). University of Pennsylvania.

• Instructor. RUSS 002 Elementary Russian II. University of Pennsylvania.

• Instructor (co-taught with Maria Alley). RUSS 001 Elementary Russian I. University of Pennsylvania.

• Instructor. REES 145 Masterpieces of 19C Russian Literature. University of Pennsylvania.

• TA. REES 155 Masterpieces of 20C Russian Literature. University of Pennsylvania.

• TA. RUSS 145 Masterpieces of 19C Russian Literature. University of Pennsylvania.

• TA. War in 20C European Literature. National Research University Higher School of Economics.
• Lecturer. Russian Language in Literature and Media. National Research University Higher School of Economics.

• Instructor. Introduction to Macroeconomics. International College of Economics and Finance. National Research University Higher School of Economics.
• B.Sc. Term Paper Advisor. International College of Economics and Finance. National Research University Higher School of Economics.

• Penfield Dissertation Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania: for archival work at the University of Iowa.

• International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council (IDRF SSRC): for dissertation work abroad in Germany, Lithuania, Ghana, Mali, and Russia.
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) One-Year Research Grant.
• Penfield Dissertation Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania.

• Mellon Mid-Doctoral Fellowship from the Price Lab for Digital Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.

• Benjamin Franklin Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania.

• French Government Scholarship (Bourse du gouvernement français).

• DH Project “Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature in Translation.” University of Pennsylvania.
• Research Project “19C and 20C Literary Circles: History of Literary Education.” National Research University Higher School of Economics.
• The Graduate Initiative on Indigenous Studies in Russia.

• Research Group “The Questions of the Translation of Style.” National Research University Higher School of Economics.

• Volunteer for The Norton Anthology of World Literature — recording audio clips for the eBook to assist students with pronunciation.

• Volunteer for the Prospectus Workshop for third-year students of the Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Program. University of Pennsylvania.

• Representative of the Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Program at SASGov – a student government body for graduate students of Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences. University of Pennsylvania.

• Research Assistant, Eugenia Kelbert. National Research University Higher School of Economics.
• Assistant to the editors of the School of Philology’s website. National Research University Higher School of Economics.

• Writing Across Boundaries Program, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies at Arizona State University, and University of Amsterdam, January 24 – August 31, 2024.
• Digital Scholarship Research Institute, Swarthmore College, May 7, 2024.

• The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Teaching Certificate, University of Pennsylvania, October 6, 2022.
• “Digital Humanities in the Classroom,” Dream Lab, Price Lab for Digital Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, taught by Roberto Vargas and Dorothy Berry, June 13-16, 2022

• “Text Analysis,” Dream Lab, Price Lab for Digital Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, taught by Katie Rawson and Scott Enderle, June 14-17, 2021
• “Price Lab Summer Projects,” Price Lab for Digital Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, taught by Cassandra Hradil and J.D. Porter, June 14 – August 9, 2021

• “Creating Community in the Remote Literature Classroom,” Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Pennsylvania, taught by Jo Park and D. Brian Kim, August 11, 2020
• “Creating Community in Your Online Class,” Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Pennsylvania, taught by Ian Petrie, August 5, 2020
• “Incorporating Theory into Undergraduate Courses,” Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Pennsylvania, taught by Emily Steinlight, February 25, 2020
• “Russian Language Pedagogy,” University of Pennsylvania, taught by Maria Alley, January 21-May 26, 2020

• “Teaching in Translation: Using Translated Works and the Practice of Translation in the Classroom,” Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Pennsylvania, taught by Emily Wilson, February 11, 2019

• “How to Teach in the Contemporary Political Moment,” Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Pennsylvania, taught by Kevin Platt, November 5, 2018

• Humboldt University of Berlin. Berlin, Germany
• Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies. Freie Universität. Berlin, Germany

• American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL)
• American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA)
• Modern Language Association (MLA)

• Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)