Graduate Students
Katya Jordan
B.A. English (Cum Laude), TESOL Certificate, University of Utah; M.A. Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia
Study Abroad: The London Program of the University of Utah, Renaissance Plays and Modern Theater, May – June, 2002; Chelyabinsk State University, Department of Linguistics and Translation, 1997-1999.
Research Interests: Interplay of music and literature; reflections of European visual art in Russian verbal art and Russian cultural identity
Papers Presented:
“Name That Tune: A Subversive Musical Subtext in Gaidai’s ‘Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future,” Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, 2009.
Publications:
“Muzyka kak sredstvo obshcheniia v povesti A. Kuprina ‘Granatovyi Braslet’,” Materials From II International Conference "Lichnost' i obshchestvo: problemy vzaimodeistviia”, Chelyabinsk University of Russian Academy of Education, April 23, 2009, pp. 197-199.
Languages: Russian, Polish, French
Courses Taught: Russian Phonetics Workshop; Second-Year Russian; Dostoevsky; Advanced Russian Conversation
Awards: Presidential Fellowship
Alla Lamp
B.A. Saratov State University; Kandidat nauk, Saratov State University; M.A. Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia
Research Interests: Russian language; nineteenth-century Russian literature; early twentieth-century Russian literature; Russian national identity; gender studies
Papers Presented:
“A Story of Female Initiation in Dostoevsky: Failed Mentors and Inner Struggle of Lise Khokhlakova,” Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, 2009.
“Becoming a Woman: Male Fantasies and Female Dreams: Tolstoy’s Family Happiness and Khvoshchinskaia’s The Boarding-School Girl,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 2008.
“New Approach to a Story about Childhood: Pasternak and Zhenia Luvers. Names and Opportunities for Interpretation,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 2006.
Languages: Russian, German, Polish
Courses Taught: Coming of Age in Russian Literature; First-Year Russian; Second-Year Russian; Third-Year Russian
Contact:
John Lyles
B.A. English, University of South Carolina; M.A. Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia
Study Abroad: St. Petersburg State University 2005-2006, Summer 2004
Research Interests: Early nineteenth-century Russian literature; depiction of minorities in Russian literature and film; Russian satire
Papers Presented:
“An Analysis of Varen’ka’s Relationship with Devushkin in Poor Folk,” Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, 2008.
“The Satire of Russian Literature in Moscow 2042,” AATSEEL of the Carolinas, 2002.
Languages: Russian, French
Courses Taught: Russian Culture and Civilization; Russian Literature and Society; Creating a Perfect World; Dostoevsky; Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature; Dracula; Amerika Through Russian Eyes; First-Year Russian; Second-Year Russian
Awards: Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award 2008-2009
Jill Mackenzie Martiniuk
B.A. Russian Area Studies, Emory University; M.A. Central and Eastern European Studies, La Salle University; M.A. Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia
Study Abroad: Russia 2003, 2008
Research Interests: the Russian novel, gender studies, Ukrainian literature, madness in Russian literature, children’s literature
Languages: Russian, Spanish
Courses Taught: First-Year Russian, Ritual and Family Life, Russian Masterpieces of the 20th Century: Magic, Murder and Madness; Faculty for Semester at Sea, Summer 2009
Heather Marie Mastapeter
B.A. Foreign Affairs and Russian and East European Studies, University of Virginia
Study Abroad: Denmark's International Study Program, Summer 2005; University of Arizona Russia Abroad, Summer 2008
Research Interests: Slavic folklore, Russian and Soviet politics
Languages: Russian, German, French, Danish
Courses Taught: Dracula; Ritual and Family Life
Extracurricular Activities: Graduate Student Arts and Sciences Council, Collegiate 4-H
Holly Myers
B.A. English and Music, Amherst College; M.A. Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia
Study Abroad: Moscow, Language Link, Inc., 2005-2006; Petrozavodsk, Russian Language School, Summer 2008; Severobaikalsk and Ulan-Ude, Great Baikal Trail, Summer 2009
Research Interests: twentieth-century Russian literature, Buryat literature, environmental literature, literary anthropology, connections in music and literature
Papers Presented:
"Nabokov's Pnin: An English Re-Working of Invitation to a Beheading," AATSEEL of the Carolinas Conference, 2008.
"Kreutzer Sonata: Tolstoy and Beethoven," Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, 2009.
"Tolstoy in Tarkovsky: Themes of Childhood, Autobiography, and Art," University of Chicago Annual Slavic Forum, 2009.
Languages: Russian
Courses Taught: First-Year Russian; Second-Year Russian; Amerika Through Russian Eyes; Dostoevsky
Awards: Carol Prize in Russian, Amherst College, 2005
Extracurricular activities:
Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra
Soccer Organization of Charlottesville and Albemarle
Oguljan Reyimbaeva
B.A. Sociology, American University of Central Asia
Research Interests: Nineteenth-century Russian literature, especially Gogol and Dostoevsky
Languages: Russian, Turkmen
Courses Taught: Second-Year Russian, Intermediate Conversation
Michael Abernathy Marsh-Soloway
B.A. History and Slavic Studies, Northwestern University
Study Abroad: ACTR Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies Program, St. Petersburg, Herzen University, Fall Semester 2007
Research Interests: Conceptions of Russian Empire and Identity, Lubki and Russian Folk Art, Silver Age Russian Poetry (Symbolism, Futurism, and Acmeism), the Cold War, Contemporary US-Russian International Relations
Languages: Russian
Awards: Undergraduate Research Grant from Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, 2008; Xenia Youhn Memorial Fund Scholarship Award, Northwestern University Slavic Department, 2009; Interdisciplinary Honors in History and Slavic Studies, Northwestern University, 2009
Publications: "Interactions Along the Fault Lines of Civilizations: Investigating Literary Legacies and Transitions in Textual Presentations of the Caucasian Conquest (1817-1864)", Publication Pending in Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal (NURJ), Fall 2009
Extracurricular Activities: SSGS (Society of Slavic Graduate Students), Slavic Film Series Coordinator, Digital Music Production, Drums, Piano, Soccer, Basketball
Stanley Stepanic
B.A. Philosophy and Art History, St. Vincent College
Study Abroad: St. Petersburg 2001, 2002
Research Interests: Russian animation, the gulag, Russian politics, China, Chinese Laogai, Chinese politics, Russian children's literature, Russian Gothic literature
Papers Presented:
“Slavic Identity: The Violent Underground of Modern Russia,” Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, 2009.
Languages: Russian, Chinese, Polish, German
Courses Taught: Dracula; Ritual and Family Life; First-Year Russian; Second-Year Russian
Kathleen Thompson
B.A. University of Virginia; M.A. Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia
Study Abroad: St. Petersburg State University, 2003; Petrozavodsk, 2008
Research Interests: Eighteenth-century drama; satire; Boris Akunin; visual and culture studies; Polish literature
Papers Presented:
“Beards, Babki, Lyres and Lenin: An Examination of the Development of Russian Satire Through Comparison of Lomonosov and Sumarokov to Zoshchenko,” Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, 2009.
Languages: Russian, Polish, French, Spanish
Courses Taught: First-Year Russian; Second-Year Russian; Intermediate Conversation
Extracurricular Activities; Outdoors Club, Live Arts, travel, music
Miri Zengina
B.A. Philosophy and Film Studies, Tel Aviv University
Research Interests: the relationship between Russian literature and philosophy, cultural history, Russian literary criticism and theory
Languages: Russian, Hebrew
Courses Taught: Guided Reading in Descartes’ Meditations (Tel Aviv University)
Awards: Rector Award for Academic Excellence, Tel Aviv University, 2006; Dean of the Arts Award for Academic Excellence, Tel Aviv University, 2007; Atia and Gordon Memorial Fund Award for Academic Excellence, Tel Aviv University, 2008