FFMDAVID MACFADYEN

CONTACT INFORMATION
University of California, Los Angeles
Dept. of Slavic Languages & Literatures
2401 Hershey Hall, Box 951502
Los Angeles, California 90095-1502
Tel. (310) 825-9212 (office) or (310) 825-2676 (dept.)
Fax: (310) 206-5263
E-mail: dmacfady@humnet.ucla.edu

 

Research Interests

Post-war Russian literature, Soviet cinema and animation, popular entertainment, the "small stage" (èstrada) and song. Twentieth-century philosophy, literary theory.

Current research is focused on several areas:

Commissioned monograph on the history of "display culture" in Russia. Submission date: November 2008.

The role of digital media in provincial Russian culture (in particular video- and podcasting)

Digital representations of poetic production (based upon corrected transcriptions from the archives of Anna Akhmatova)

Ongoing digitization of major Soviet song collections.

Vita

2004 Promoted to Full Professor
UCLA
2001 Tenured as Associate Professor
UCLA
1999 Tenured and Promoted to Associate Professor
Dalhousie University, Canada
1995-1999 Assistant Professor
Dalhousie University, Canada
1995 Doctor of Philosophy
University of California, Los Angeles
1987 M.A. Russian Language and Literature
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London (U.K.)
1986 B.A. Russian Language and Literature
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London (U.K.)

Publications

Books Published
  • Joseph Brodsky and the Baroque. 1999. Montreal, London, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press. Published simultaneously in Europe by Liverpool University Press.
    • "A treasure trove of valuable information." Victor Terras
    • "This subtle and ambitious reading of Brodsky cannot be ignored ... While much summing up of the poet's career in the five years since his death has concentrated on the political drama of his biography (trial, exile, emigration, Nobel Prize) and its supposed reflection in his work, MacFadyen makes a strong case for seeing Brodsky's existential journey as directed, even scripted, by the protean force of his words themselves" Canadian Book Review Annual
  • Joseph Brodsky and the Soviet Muse. 2000. Montreal, London, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press.
    • "MacFadyen's strong command of the texts and contexts of Brodsky's formative years makes this book a must read for anyone who has an interest in the cultural milieu which molded a whole generation of poets. Joseph Brodsky and the Soviet Muse is an eloquently written, meticulously researched, perspicacious work of great value to Brodsky studies." Canadian-American Slavic Studies
    • "Through interviews, archival research, and textual analysis, MacFadyen reveals much about the cultural and literary milieu in which a young man from Leningrad - before the arrests, exile to the far North, forced expulsion from the Soviet Union, and fame as a Novel laureate - first tried his hand at poetry and established his own ethical and aesthetic sense." Slavic and East European Journal
    • "This is the first monograph dealing exclusively with the literary contexts shaping Brodsky as a poet in late 1950s-early 1960s Leningrad ... MacFadyen not only evokes a concise cultural portrait of this time period in Brodsky's poetic biography, but also constructs an intriguing argument for how the poet refashions the voices and intents of what he read as an individual creative quest... In a nod to Leningrad cultural influences, MacFadyen cleverly structures his thesis to match a proposed 'jazzlike' rhythm in Brodsky's poetic development, that is, free movement between fixed, opposing poles ... The study is enriched by reference to extensive interviews with a number of Brodsky's Leningrad contemporaries and by samples from the poet's manuscript archives and unpublished poems ... He does Brodsky scholars a great service in documenting Slutskii, Bagritskii, and Galczynski as early influences on the poet's voice. MacFadyen's book is an engaging contextualization of Brodsky's early artistic endeavors, and represents a thoughtful and convincing treatment of the poet's evolving creative philosophy." Russian Review
    • "The comparative analysis of anti-Stalinist poems by B. Slutskii and Brodskii merits special attention, as well as the discussion of allusions in Brodskii's Zof'ia and Kholmy to Pasternak and Tsvetaeva respectively... [Another] strength of the book lies in periodicals and certain poems that Brodskii first published in provincial periodicals which had not been re-reprinted or analyzed... [This] marginalized poet's irreverent tampering with the aesthetic canon, captured so aptly in MacFadyen's analogy to jazz improvisations, is the subversive legacy of Brodskii's playful 'Soviet Muse.'" Slavonica
    • "This book is as important [to the study of Brodsky] as...Lotman's commentary to Eugene Onegin. " Canadian Slavonic Papers
    • "This [study] fleshes out our picture of Brodsky's relation to his most urgent predecessors.... There is a wealth of valuable information in this book." Times Literary Supplement
    • "[The study] affords stimulating insight into this relatively neglected period, and offers a challenging account of Brodskii's artistic origins and essence... The argument is bold, ingenious and fundamentally persuasive ... This is a pioneering study." Modern Language Review
    • "The extensive research that informs this study is impressive.... MacFadyen's originality and insight shine through, and his argument about the power of poetic language to transcend political realities has implications that go well beyond the particular context of 1950s Leningrad." The Review of Politics
    • "MacFadyen demonstrates in exquisite detail the various ways in which these [Joyce, Dos Passos, Hemingway, Salinger, Dickens, Frost and Byron] entered the poet's imagination and sensibility." World Literature Today
    • "Directions in this investigation [of Brodsky] combine to provide a coherent, enriched picture that lends crucial oversight into the poet's life and work. David MacFadyen's love for and profound understanding of Brodsky's poetry translate into fine scholarship for his readers..." Slavic Review
    • "[The book] offers stimulating insight into this relatively reglected period, and offers a challenging account of Brodsky's artistic origins and essence .. The argument is bold, ingenious and fundamentally persuasive ... A pioneering study." Michael Basker, MLR
    • "Among the numerous monographs dedicated to Brodsky's work, Joseph Brodsky and the Soviet Muse occupies a special place. MacFadyen offers a most convincing contextualization of the writer's early work. He shows how the formation of a young poet's aesthetic related both to Soviet and English-language or Polish poets of the time. This is the first study to focus so closely on the Soviet context and the ways - either positively or negatively - in which Brodsky engaged it." Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie
  • Red Stars: Personality and the Soviet Popular Song after 1955. 2001. Montreal, London, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press.
    • "In Red Stars, David MacFadyen provides a highly original and often engaging study of the seven foremost stars of Soviet variety (estrada) in the post-Stalin period: Èdita P'ekha, Iosif Kobzon, Irina Ponarovskaia, Sofiia Rotaru, Lev Leshchenko, Valerii Leont'ev, and Alla Pugacheva ... MacFadyen ties together the different tangents of his argument with his conception of subjectivity. He argues that the songs of the estrada stars were so widespread that they fostered a "disassembling" of the Stalinist pattern of subjectivity, which he characterizes as the "relationship between imperial subject and venerated, lofty object." [This is] a provocative piece of scholarship that is sure to attract a wide audience. MacFadyen challenges readers to look beyond the realm of literature when considering the cultural vehicles of personal freedom after StalinÌs death." Canadian Slavonic Papers
    • "Red Stars is the first of three volumes that David MacFadyen is devoting to the study of Russian and Soviet popular songs since 1900. Described by the author as a "sentimental journey," it does more than merely chart the development of the popular song primarily, but not exclusively, from the Khrushchev thaw to the end of the Soviet Union ... MacFadyen convincingly argues that estrada was a more important vehicle of lichnost' than literature in post-Stalinist Russia, and that the cultural significance of song and the popularity of radio stations, such as Retro-Kanal or Nostalgie, is greater than a mere expression of nostalgia for a time when life was better for the majority of Russian citizens. Moreover, as befits the subject, Red Stars is entertainingly written in a reader-friendly style ... MacFadyen manages to display his undoubted enthusiasm for the subject ... [and] also successfully rights the wrongs of the past in proving the cultural significance of estrada, which "had often been on the defensive, struggling against accusations of triviality or, worse still, decadent maximalism" ... I warmly recommend Red Stars to anybody who wants an insight into post-Stalinist culture and look forward to the other volumes that David MacFadyen is writing on popular song." Slavic Review.
    • "This is the first serious consideration of post-Stalinist Soviet estrada - officially approved popular songs and singers ... MacFadyen has adapted the philosophy [of Eval'd Il'enkov] to explain the interaction [between performer and audiences] that created Soviet star personalities. In tracing the dialogue between audience and performer, which morphs into Pugacheva's monologue by the 1980s, MacFadyen relies on an impressive array of published sources. He has worked like a Cold War-era Kremlinologist, reading thousands of articles from the Soviet press to ferret out the subtleties that reveal the poverty of Stalinist and Cold War ideologies ... This study breaks much new ground. Russian Review
    • "An original, well-informed, and beautifully written overview of post-Stalinist culture. MacFadyen draws together a wealth of material and presents it in a meaningful, lucid way. His command over the vast body of information on which he draws is impressive and enables the reader to connect in a significant way with what might otherwise have been an embarrassment of riches." Olga Hasty, Princeton University
    • "A noteworthy contribution to the study of estrada." Olga Partan, College of the Holy Cross
    • "MacFadyen brings a number of invaluable assets to his study of the Soviet popular song, not the least of which are an understanding of music and an expertise in the Russian poetic tradition... What makes Red Stars unique, however, is MacFadyen's combination of exhaustive research and undeniable erudition with the ability to tell a good story. One need not share MacFadyen's enthusiasm for estrada to find Red Stars an informative and entertaining book." Prof. Eliot Borenstein, NYU.
  • Èstrada?! Grand Narratives and the Philosophy of the Russian Popular Song 1982-2000. 2001. Montreal, London, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press.
    • "Russian cultural studies in general, and in particular the examination of 'estrada' and popular music, is certainly underdeveloped and under-represented in the literature. MacFadyen indicates estrada's popularity and importance, and his book goes a long way to locating it within contemporary Russian culture. This is a well-written and well-documented addition to the field. It will not only serve the needs of the scholarly community as a significant contribution, but is almost certain to encourage other work in the same and contiguous areas." Professor Alan Reid, Culture and Language Studies, University of New Brunswick
    • "MacFadyen has undoubtedly succeeded in writing a theoretical work of a highest standard which will be welcomed by those interested in various aspects of traditional and popular cultures. Readers with a specific interest in pop culture will not find a better and more up-to-date book of Russian stardom. His conclusions are as original as the method of his analysis of all possible sources. This is a truly interdisciplinary study." Professor Yu. Kleiner, University of St Petersburg, Russia
    • "These books [Estrada?! and Songs for Fat People] join Red Stars as welcome additions to Russian cultural and popular music collections ... These books are important additions to any collection supporting significant programs in popular music or Eastern Europe. Summing up: Essential." The American Library Association / Choice
    • "MacFadyen's book reveals the author's thorough knowledge and extensive research of the socio-cultural milieu of estrada performers and their audiences. He provides a noteworthy view of contemporary Russian estrada song at the turn of the twenty-first century ... Estrada?! unquestionably fills a gap in the still under-explored area of contemporary Russian popular culture." Slavic and East European Journal
    • "An important contribution to this relatively neglected field, MacFadyen's volume is well written and provides a sophisticated critical introduction to Russian estrada." Canadian Slavonic Papers
  • Songs for Fat People: Affect, Emotion and Celebrity in the Soviet Popular Song, 1900 to 1955. 2002. Montreal, London, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press.
    • "The trilogy [Red Stars, Estrada?! and Songs for Fat People] represents the most detailed and informative portrait of estrada available in the English language. It is essential reading for anybody with an interest in Soviet culture and should be of interest to scholars of popular culture in general. Through his captivating narrative and insightful analysis, MacFadyen presents a tour de force of the history of Soviet culture." Professor J. Veidlinger (Indiana University) in Canadian Journal of History
    • "MacFadyen provides a sophisticated view of Soviet popular culture that focuses on the genuine popularity of estrada and on the extent that popular appeal operated independently from, if not in opposition to the main trajectory of Soviet politics. He presents a unique and valuable perspective and there is currently nothing comparable available in English or Russian for this period." Professor A. Nelson, History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
    • "Through careful examination of archival materials, newspaper interviews, and selected memoirs MacFadyen exemplifies the interaction between the individual performers' talents and aspirations and the banal, impersonal, and often degrading institution of the Soviet State... Through a clever reading of archival documents the author analyzes what types of popular music Russians enjoyed and how these preferences operated within the 'linear workings of Soviet dogma'... The book provides a unique and valuable perspective on how popular songs operated within - yet often against - the ruling ideology of the Soviet regime." Slavic and East European Journal
  • The Sad Comedy of Èl'dar Riazanov: An Introduction to Russia's Most Popular Filmmaker. 2003. Montreal, London, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press.
    • "[This is] the first in-depth analysis of the oeuvre of one of Russia's most remarkable directors… MacFadyen's book is a valuable contribution to the scholarly field of Russian cinema and popular culture. It sheds light on the enduring appeal of Riazanov's comedies and will spark further interest in Russian cinema." Slavic and East European Journal
    • "This is a thorough, pioneering introduction to Eldar Riazanov. MacFadyen challenges the Cold War oppositions of state vs entertainment, dogma vs dissidence, and public vs private that have dominated Western academic discussion of Soviet and post-Soviet art and media, elucidating their much more complex emotional and psychological structure in the light of post-Freudian French analysis. He also provides an overview of Riazanov's work that allows readers to place each film within its own historical framework and which situates the filmmaker within the context of Soviet-Russian cinema." Christina Stojanova, Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Toronto
    • "David MacFadyen's work here is much more than an introduction to the oeuvre of this artist and showman. MacFadyen traces the interplay between subjective, 'lived' life and the public rhetoric of the State. A close reading of more than a dozen films is informed by a tightly-argued deployment of psychoanalytic and postmodern ideas. The scholarship is exemplary. The writer draws widely on primary sources, almost all in Russian, comprising excerpts from the press and other media, specialized magazines, theoretical works, official statements, government edicts, etc. Equally importantly, his excerpts are shrewdly deployed to clarify the often highly-nuanced 'understanding' between the official culture and its practitioners in the field. This is an important contribution to research." Patrick MacFadden, professor, School for Studies in Art and Culture, Carleton University
    • "A good example of how the chronological approach to a filmmaker can be abandoned for a thematic, psychoanalytical approach with great insight into a significant Soviet and post-Soviet Russian filmmaker" Scope
  • Yellow Crocodiles and Blue Oranges: Russian Animated Film since World War II. 2005. Montreal, London, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press.
    • "MacFadyen's book, a survey of Russian animation, includes an exhaustive bibliography of (mostly Russian) publications on the subject, an extensive filmography and a listing of more than 400 screenplays. The product of voluminous research, it will be a fundamental resource for readers seriously interested in the subject." The Moscow Times
    • "A significant contribution to our understanding of Soviet animation through the prism of phenomenology. This daring approach also reveals the author's profound knowledge of the difficult fate of alternative Western philosophies in the Soviet Union." Christina Stojanova, Global Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
    • "This will be a key reference text for university courses in Russian film studies and also animation courses in general." Esther Leslie, The School of English and Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London
    • "David MacFadyen's phenomenological reading of Soviet animation film breaks new ground both in film and Russian studies... I strongly recommend this unique volume to both film and Russian culture students." Russian Review
    • "A well-researched and important contribution to the field of Slavic cultural studies... the volume is highly original in its interpretations." Slavic and East European Journal
    • "For many, Soviet animation is a blind spot on the map of animation history, and therefore expectations run high when a book promises to shed light on this field. David MacFadyen, who has written extensively on popular culture in the Soviet Union and in Russia, can be regarded as the appropriate author to undertake such a task. His previous monographs – for example, Red Stars: Personality and the Soviet Popular Song (2001), Songs for Fat People: Affect, Emotion, and Celebrity in the Russian Popular Song (2002), and The Sad Comedy of El’dar Rjazanov (2004), to name but a few works on his formidable record – have contributed much to the understanding of Soviet cultural life... The chief strength of Yellow Crocodiles and Blue Oranges is MacFadyen’s successful endeavour to apply new theoretical and analytical methods to the study of Soviet cinema, which so far has mostly been addressed using historical, sociopolitical, and literary viewpoints.... The book deserves the credit of being a valuable addition to the growing body of scholarly works that analyse the range of possibilities for cinematic expression in a situation where ‘policy dictated sharp guidelines for subject matter’ (Moritz)." Animation
  • Russian Culture in Uzbekistan: One Language in the Middle of Nowhere. 2005. London: Routledge Curzon.
    • “An erudite fusion of theory and empirical content that is rare amongst studies of Uzbekistan.  MacFadyen has crafted a text that is both historically informative and highly original in its conceptualization of the Russian engagement with Central Asia.” Nick Solly Megoran, Cambridge University
    • “’The Big Event: Russian Culture in Uzbekistan’ provides an excellent contribution to debates around Russian national identity and the Russian ’diaspora’ experience, both past and present. The scope of the text and the complexity and subtleness of the author's analysis, encourages the reader to reflect not only on Russia ‘in’ Central Asia, but also on the contested understandings of Russia’s historical and contemporary positioning between East and West.” Moya Flynn, Department of Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow
    • “The author is to be congratulated on his extremely good and resourceful research… I found [the manuscript] most interesting and valuable… [It reflects] both elaborate and intensive work.” Pinar Akcali, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
    • "MacFadyen provides a sophisticated view of the Russian experience in Uzbekistan that is far removed from traditional 'black-and-white' accounts of the past in its complexity.  Thoroughly researched and with an exhaustive bibliography, there can be few books that provide informative insights into a wide range of cultural products while dealing with complex issues of Russian national identity and the nature of the Diaspora experience. Russian Culture in Uzbekistan will no doubt be an invaluable source for anybody interested in the complex relationship between the cultures of East and West and a model that could be applied to other parts of this contested region." Neil Edmunds, University of West England ("Soviet Music and Society Under Lenin and Stalin")    
  • "Я всем прощение дарую..." (Ахматовский сборник) Edited with N. Kraineva . 2006. Moscow and Saint Petersburg: Al'ians Arkheo/National Library of Russia
    • "Along with many studies, scorned by the [Soviet] press in years gone by, this collection also includes outstanding articles by today's researchers." Vremia
    • "This collection brings together important material, both from [Russia's] philological history and from writers' daily existence under the Soviets. The book is a true monument to human dignity, to a loftiness of spirit, a fidelity to verse and to friendship." Ruthenia
    • "Not only are the articles wonderful; so are their commentaries, which read like separate works of research." Irina Shevchenko

 

Articles and Presentations

G.L. Kline, D. MacFadyen et al. Translation of Ninel' by E. Rein, Nimrod 33/2 (1990): 40-42.

"Nikolai Kliuev's Correspondence with Aleksandr Blok." Paper: AAASS National Conference, Phoenix, Arizona (1992).

Translation of New Life by J. Brodsky, with author. New Yorker April 26 (1993): 86-87.

"Joseph Brodsky and the Baroque." Paper: California Slavic Colloquium, Berkeley (1994).

Translation of poems by E. Rein. Wilson Quarterly XVIII/4 (1994): 102-105.

"Brodsky, Kierkegaard and the Import of Tradition" (in Russian). Paper: St. Petersburg State University, Russia (1996). Published as article in Vestnik S. Peterburgskogo Universiteta, Winter 2000.

"Relativity as a Response to Exile in the Work of Joseph Brodsky." Paper: Commemorative Brodsky conference, University of Michigan (1996).

"A Reevaluation of Brodsky's Bol'shaia èlegiia Dzhonu Donnu," Russian Review 57/3 (1997): 424-446.

"May 24 1996, St. Petersburg, Russia: The Perceived Significance of Joseph Brodsky's Legacy," World Literature Today (winter 1997): 81-6.

"Kliuev, Vasil'ev, Akhmatova and Brodskii: The Metamorphosis of One Classical Metaphor" (in Russian). Rytual'no-mifolohichnyi pidkhid do interpretatsii tektsu (Kiev: Ministerstvo Osvity Ukrainy 1997), 206-22

"Aesthetics and Ethics: The Poetry of Anna Akhmatova and Joseph Brodsky." Paper: King's College University invited lecture series, Canada (winter 1997).

"Gavrila Derzhavin and Joseph Brodsky: Restaging a Fantastic Funeral." Paper: Atlantic Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Canada (April 1997).

Interview (1997) concerning Russian culture with CBC Morningside national radio program (rebroadcast later in the year).

"Brodsky and Byron's 'Stanzas to Augusta'" (in Russian). Paper: Zvezda Brodsky conference, St. Petersburg, Russia (1997). Published in Iosif Brodskii: Tvorchestvo, Lichnost', Sud'ba (St. Petersburg: Zvezda 1998), 161-166

"From Luxor to Leningrad: The Petersburg Sphinx as Russian Metaphor." Paper: Royal Egyptological Society, Canada (November 1997).

Co-editor and compiler (1997-1998 with L. Losev and V. Maramzin) of commentary to forthcoming Biblioteka poèta edition of Joseph Brodsky's verse.

"Where to Find the Russian Language: The Poetry of Mikhail Yeryomin," World Literature Today (Winter 1998): 27-33

Interview on CBC national television concerning collapse of Russian stock market (August 1998).

"Anna Akhmatova: Poetry and Its Correlates in 1962" (in Russian, 1999). Forthcoming (2001) in collected Akhmatova studies from the National Library of Russia.

"The Philosophy of Translation: Tiutchev" (in Russian), Russian Studies / Etudes Russes (Summer 1999), 559-566.

Translations of poems by Evgenii Rein. Antigonish Review (Summer 2000).

Translations of poems by Mikhail Eremin. Antigonish Review (Fall 2000).

Translation of short stories by Iakov Gordin. Antigonish Review (Winter 2000).

"Putin and the Culture of Federalism." Paper: Canadian Atlantic Provinces Annual Political Science Conference - Multiple Sovereignties: Federalism and Other Solutions (October 2000).

"Estrada! Towards a Philosophy of Soviet Popular Entertainment." Paper: AAASS Annual Conference (December 2000) Washington, DC.

"Politics, Aesthetics and Ethics in Joseph Brodsky's On the Death of Zhukov." Article, forthcoming in M. Rawlinson (ed.), Between Ethics and Aesthetics: Crossing the Boundaries (State University of New York Press 2001).

"Soviet Comedic Cinema after the Thaw." Paper: University of Toronto (January 2001).

"What's So Funny? Sadness and Soviet Cinema." Paper: Emory University, Atlanta (February 2001).

"Unfolding the Contexts of Social[ist] Cinema." Paper: UCLA (March 2001).

"Pushkin, Biography and Grand Narratives." Paper: Los Angeles Opera prior to debut of Queen of Spades (August 2001)

"The Digital Restoration of One Leningrad Museum" (in Russian). Paper: From Museum Library to Information Space. Akhmatova Museum Conference / St. Petersburg International Center for Preservation, Russia (May 2002)

"Leskov, Shostakovich and Peripheral Genres." Paper: Los Angeles Opera prior to the debut of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District (October 2002).

"The Relationship of Children's Animation to an Adult Socialist Aesthetic" Paper: AAASS, Pittsburgh (November, 2002)

"Reassessing the Canon of Soviet Cinema." Paper: University of Exeter (Spring 2003)

"Affect and Soviet Light Entertainment." Paper: University of Bath (Spring 2003)

"Lacan, Laughter, and Socialist Lovers." Paper: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London (Spring 2003)

"The 'Oceanic Feeling' in Soviet Culture." Paper: University of Sheffield (Spring 2003)

"How Socialism and Sentiment Overlap." Paper: University of Surrey (Spring 2003)

"Somewhere Between Stalin and Bing Crosby: The Case of Aleksandr Vertinskii." Paper: University of Bristol (Spring 2003)

"An Ecocritical Approach to Soviet Literature." Paper: University of Bristol (Spring 2003)

"Stalin's Cultural Legacy: Consumerism and Celebration." Panel chaired: University of Bristol (Spring 2003)

"Central and East European Literature and Culture." Panel chaired: British Association for Slavonic Studies, Annual Conference. Cambridge University (Spring 2003)

"Recent Russian Poetry." Panel chaired: British Association for Slavonic Studies, Annual Conference. Cambridge University (Spring 2003)

"The Study of Language, Literature and Society in Leningrad (1920s & 1930s)." Panel chaired: British Association for Slavonic Studies, Annual Conference. Cambridge University (Spring 2003)

"Russian Mafia-Manufactured Pedo-Porn-Pop Duo? The Odd Provenance of Tatu." Paper: Cambridge University (April 2003)

"What's the Opposite of Australia? Ecologies of Wilderness in Soviet Prose." Canadian Association of Slavists, Annual Convention (May 2003)

"Russo-Commonwealth Literary Relations" Panel chaired: Canadian Association of Slavists, Annual Convention (May 2003)

"The Romance of Piracy: Bootleggers and Hackers in Russian Society Today." Paper: University of Surrey (September 2003)

"Sholokhov and the Economics of Excess." Forthcoming in collection of essays for Humanistica Press (St. Petersburg, Russia)

"Cabaret" and "Cartoons" for The Supplement to the Modern Encyclopedia Russian, Soviet and Eurasian History (Academic International Press: in press)

"Carnival Night" and "Tale of Tales" for 24 Frames: The Cinema of Russia and the Former Soviet Union (Wallflower Press: in press)

"Three Steps towards the Multiplicity of the Soviet Popular Song" for book of essays on Soviet music (Scarecrow Press)

"Restoring Akhmatova's Archives" St. Petersburg-Los Angeles Sister City Committee (November 2003)

" Nudity on Nevskii: Perceptions of Tatu in St. Petersburg" Paper: AAASS (Toronto November 2003)

" Iurii Norshtein's zastavka for Spokoinoi nochi, malyshi" Paper: AAASS (Toronto November 2003)

"Smash and Grab: How Soviet Culture Stole (into) Central Asian forms of Selfhood" Paper: Cambridge University (Spring 2004)

" 'The Greatest Animated Film Of All Time' And Why It Starred A Wolf Cub From The Soviet Union" Paper: Herriot-Watt University (Spring 2004)

" 'What the &*#$?!' The Soviet Heritage and Issues of Quality in Russian Popular Song Today" Paper: Newcastle University (Spring 2004)

" Children and Childhood in Russian Literature of the Twentieth Century and Beyond" Panel chaired: Cambridge University (Spring 2004)

" Gender in Russian Cinema and Society" Panel chaired: Cambridge University (Spring 2004)

Twelve entries for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture (2004-5): "Cars, Soviet and Post-Soviet," "Eralash," "Films, Comedy," "Films, Soviet (Stalin Era)," "Argumenty i fakty," "NTV," "Russkoe radio," "Soap Opera (Myl'naia opera)," "Contemporary Music," "Tatu," "Soccer," "Television, Post-Soviet."

" 'It Flooded the Room and Burst Through the Doors': Some Aspects of Music in Twentieth-Century Russian Storytelling." Symposium paper: University of Pennsylvania (March 2004)

" Song and the Difficulties of Journalistic Satire on MTV-Russia, Biz-TV, Telekanal 2x2 or MuzTv" (in Russian). Paper: University of Pennsylvania (March 2004)

" Joseph Brodsky, Repetition and Multiplicity." Two presentations: Skirball Center, Los Angeles (March 2004)

"'I Love You and I'm Not Afraid to Say So!' The Origins of Russian Romantic Comedy." Paper: University of St. Andrews (March 2004)

"Accessing the Anna Akhmatova Notebooks" Paper: Los Angeles Preservation Network (May 2004)

"3D Representations of 'Poem without a Hero' and Akhmatova's Communal Apartment" Presentation: St. Petersburg - Los Angeles Sister City Committee (September 2004)

"Selling the Empire: Soviet Promotional Rhetoric within Uzbek Culture." Central Eurasian Studies Society: Annual Conference, Indiana (October 2004)

"Russian Cultural Studies as Paradox: Some Stumbling Blocks" Paper: AAASS, Boston (November 2004)

" Central Asian Cinema: Video Work of Sevara Nazarkhan" Paper: AAASS, Boston (November 2004)

"Constructing a Soviet Central Asian Biography" and "Varities of Authoritarianism." Two Panels as Discussant: Central Eurasian Studies Society: Annual Conference, Indiana (October 2004)

"The Sociopolitical Contexts of Russian TV Drama." Paper: Florida State University (January 2005)

"Forgotten Melody for a Flute: Several Good Reasons Why It's Not Political Satire." California State University, Northridge (February, 2005)

"Russian Popular Music since TaTu." Pomona College (March 2005)

"Literature Has Left the Building: Russian Romance and Today's TV Drama." Article: Kinokultura (April 2005)

"TextArc Software and Akhmatova's Archives." Talk: Center for Digital Humanities (April 2005)

“The Role of Brezhnev in Today’s TV Drama.” Talk: AAASS, Salt Lake City (November 2005); extended version subsequently published in Kinokultura.

“Walter Benjamin and Russian Literature.” Panel Discussant, AAASS Salt Lake City (November 2005).

“Russian Cinema and the Dangers of Terrorism.” Talk: UC Davis (February 2006)

"How Russian Cinema Broke All Box Office Records on January 1, 2006." Duke University (March 2006)

“Amateur Song Production and the Russian Internet.” University of Surrey (April 2006)

“Tuning the Family Piano: Some Stately Harmonies in Russian and Uzbek Cinema.” Miami University (April 2006) Article: forthcoming in M.U. collection.

"Some Problems of Second-World Modernity: On-Line Music." UCLA Research Worskhop (April 2006)

"Vysotskii as Black and White Minstrel: Skaz pro to, kak tsar' Petr arapa zhenil ." Pittsburgh University (May 2006)

"Russian Pop Music Today: The Struggle for Independence." Article: Kultura - Russland-Kulturanalysen (May 2006)

"Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears: From Oscar to Consolation Prize." Article: Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema (Fall 2006)

"Casual Ironies: Ten New Russian Novels of Note." Article: Transitions (Prague, September 2006)

"Khalmamed Kakabaev's Film "Syn." Paper/Program Notes: University of Pittsburgh (October 2006)

"Usman Saparov's Film "Muzhskoe vospitanie. " Paper/Program Notes: University of Pittsburgh (October 2006)

"Changing Notions of Realism in Russian Television." Paper: University of Pittsburgh (October 2006); expanded version published in Kinokultura (April 2007)

"Russian Television and the World Cup." Paper: AAASS, Washington (Winter 2006)

"Mobile Podcasting and Music Formats in Today's Siberia." Paper: AAASS, Washington (Winter 2006)

"Anatomizing Russian Pop and Rock." Article: Transitions (Prague, February 2007); republished in Special Radio (Moscow)

"Valentin's cards: Refereeing the Dirtiest Match in World Cup History." Article: Eurozine (Vienna, February 2007)

"Can You Hear Me Now? Mobile Technology in Rural Russia." Article: Eurozine (Vienna, March 2007); republished in Caffè Europa (Rome)

"Independent Rock Music in Russia, 2002-2006." Article: Special Radio (Moscow, March 2007)

"'What's This Called?' Independent Russian Pop Music." Article: Special Radio (Moscow, April 2007)

"Melodrama or Simply Melodramatic? Ivan Vyrypaev's Euphoria." Paper: University of Pittsburgh (May, 2007)

"Ethical Masochism in Recent Russian Melodrama." Article: Kinokultura (July 2007)

"Strike Up Pipers! The Moscow Film Festival, 2007" Article: Kinokultura (October 2007)

"Russian Pop Music Today: The Likelihood of Western Success" Talk: Moscow State University (September 2007)

"STS Lights a Superstar!" Jury Member on National Talent Show, Russian TV (STS) September 2007

"Russian Television Today: Comedy, Crime, and a Dash of Dogma" Talk: St Andrews University, UK (October 2007)

"Russian Pod- and Videocasting" Talk: Manchester University, UK (October 2007)

"Several Reasons to Assume the Death of Russian Cinema." Talk: Edinburgh University, UK (October 2007)

"Banal Fixations: Three New Books from Russian High Society." Article: Transitions (Prague, October 2007)

"Television and Tradition: Russian Independent Pop Music." Article: Special Radio (Moscow, October 2007)

"Documentary Cinema and Russian Rock Music." Talk: AAASS, New Orleans (November, 2007. Currently being extended as invited submission for Russian Review, 2008 )

"Western Perceptions of Post-Soviet Culturology (A che eto Vy tam delaete, a?)." Talk: Advanced Institute of Anthropology , Moscow (December, 2007)

"Recent Literary Adaptation on Russian Television: The Competition between Profit and Prestige." Talk: Russian State University of the Humanities, Moscow (February, 2008)

"Usman Saparov's Film Little Angel, Bring Me Joy (1992)." Talk: UCLA Asia Institute (March, 2008)

"The Political Use of TV Sitcoms in Russia." Talk: UCLA Extension (April, 2008)

"Aleksandr Mindadze's Film Soar (2007)." Talk: Pittsburgh Russian Film Symposium (May, 2008)

"Aleksandr Mitta's Film Someone's Ringing, Open Up! (1965)." Article entry: Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema (Summer 2008)

Coverage of Moscow Film Festival for the Los Angeles Times (June 2008)

Four lectures on the Russian music business: Russian State University of Management, Moscow (June 2008)

"The Presumed Threat of Digital Culture to Russian Cinema." Article: Kinokultura (July 2008)

"Historically Determined Identities in Today's Russian Media: Online Forums, Podcasting, and Web-Based Experimental Music." Talk: Cambridge University (August 2008)

 

Published Reviews

Batkin, L. Tridtsat' tret'ia bukva
Strizhevskaia, N. Pis'mena perspektiva
Grebenshchikov, B. Pesni / Ne Pesni
Bezrodnyi, M. Konets tsitaty.
Brodskii, I. Brodskii o Tsvetaevoi
Akhmadulina, B. Sozertsanie stekliannogo sharika
Shvarts, E. Zapadno-vostochnyi veter
Bitov, A. V chetverg posle dozhdia
Kenzheev, B. Sochinitel' zvezd
Novikov, D. Karaoke
Volkov, S. Conversations with Joseph Brodsky
Beliakov, B. Alka, Allochka, Alla Borisovna
Pelevin, V. Generation 'P'
Èpshtein, M. Bog detalei
Roll, S. Contextualizing Transition
Utesov, L. Spasibo, serdtse!
Safoshkin, V. Gori, gori, moia zvezda
Kraineva, N. and Perezhogina, E. Boris Kuzin: Vospominaniia...
Gutkin, I. The Cultural Origins of the Socialist Realist Aesthetic
Riazanov, È. and Braginskii, È. Tikhie omuty
Safoshkin, V. Liubov' nechaianno nagrianet
Man'kovskaia, N. Èstetika postmodernizma
Epstein, M. Russian Postmodernism
Sekatskii, A. Soblazn i volia

  • These reviews, listed here chronologically, were all published in World Literature Today.

  • For Russian Review: K. Ryan and B. Scherr, Twentieth-Century Russian Literature

  • Books reviewed for McGill-Queen's University Press; articles reviewed for MLA, MLR, Slavic Review, SEEJ and other journals.

  • For Modern Language Review: S. Zizek, Revolution at the Gates; D. Gillespie, Russian Cinema; F. Beardow, Little Vera; Kelpley, V. The End of St. Petersburg, Gronow, J. Caviar and Champagne: Common Luxury and the Ideals of the Good Life in Stalin's Russia; Franklin, S. and Widdis, E. National Identity in Russian Culture; Fleishman, Goelz, Hansen-Love (eds.) Analysieren als Deuten; M. Garcelon , Revolutionary Passage. From Soviet to Post-Soviet Russia, 1995-2000.

  • For Slavic Review: Milne, L. Reflective Laughter (Aspects of Humour in Russian Culture).

  • For Kinokultura: "Progulka" (Aleksei Uchitel', 2003); "Nochnoi dozor" (Timur Bekmambetov, 2004); "Angel na obochine" (Svetlana Stasenko, 2004);"Alesha Popovich i Tugarin Zmei" (Konstantin Bronzit, 2004); “Lichnyi nomer” (Evgenii Lavrent’ev, 2005); "Boys in the Sky - 2 (Osmondagi bolalar 2)" (Zulfiqor Musakov, rev. 2006); "Piter FM" (Oksana Bychkova, 2006); "Zona" (Petr Shtein, 2006); "Kadetstvo" (Sergei Arlanov, 2006-2008)

  • For Canadian-American Slavic Studies: D. Pesmen, Russia and Soul

  • For University of Toronto Quarterly: N.N. Sheidman, Russian Literature 1995-2002.

 

Recent Funding

  • Conference Travel annually since 1996

  • Research Development Fund, 1996

  • SSHRC, 1997. Three years of exclusive access to the archives of Joseph Brodsky (National Library of Russia)

  • Burgess Award. University-wide competition (one recipient): Class-release for 1997-8 in order to further research goals

  • SSHRC, 1998. To fund conference held at Dalhousie in March 1999

  • Dalhousie Sabbatical Research Grant, 1999-2000

  • Research Development Fund, 2000

  • SSHRC, 2001. For major paper conservation, restoration and textological work in the archives of Anna Akhmatova

  • UCLA. 2002. To continue work into Soviet animation and related projects

  • UCLA. 2003. Senate Grant for research into Soviet song and digitizing projects

  • UCLA. 2004-present. OID multiple grants for cinematic materials

  • UCLA. 2004-present. CEES conference grants

  • UCLA (International Institute): Two-year funding to examine cultural change in Central Asia in connection with Tashkent's University of World Economy and Diplomacy (2003-4)

  • UCLA. 2005. Funds to digitize archival manuscripts of Anna Akhmatova's Poem without a Hero (National Library of Russia)

  • UCLA. 2006. Funds to digitize major Soviet song collections in Russia

  • UCLA 2007. Funds to research web-based culture and criminality in Russia

  • UCLA 2008: Funds to maintain song and film collection

 

Courses Taught since 1995

Russian language (on all levels)
Survey of Russian Literature (year-long)
Russian Contemporary Culture
Russian Culture under the Czars
Twentieth-Century Russian Civilization
Dostoevsky and the Russian Idea
Dostoevsky and the West
Gogol
Literature of the Revolution
Chekhov and Turgenev
History of Russian Cinema
Russian Society Today (in Dept. of History)
The Russian Heroine
History of Russian Theatre
Literature and Revolution

 

At UCLA:

  • Nabokov

  • Nineteenth-Century Literature

  • Literature and Revolution

  • Twentieth-Century Literature

  • The Russian Novel

  • Tolstoy

  • Russian Literature and World Cinema

  • History of Russian Cinema

  • Russian Realism

  • Post-Stalinist Literature (graduate seminar)

  • Contemporary Russian Literature (graduate seminar)

 

Students Supervised

  • Coordinator and supervisor of Dalhousie University Intensive Russian Program in Russia (St. Petersburg State University) 1997-2001.
  • Ph.D. examination committee for Dalhousie Department of History; supervision of history dept. graduate students in St. Petersburg (field and archival research).
  • Independent student research supervised in Russia: History of Scottish medicine in Russia (with State Museum of Military Medicine) and furniture / fabric restoration (with Pushkin Museum).
  • Honors theses advisor 1998-2000. Research topics: North American Perceptions of Yeltsin's Re-Election Campaign and Soviet Rhetorical Stances towards Baltic States since World War Two.
  • UCLA doctoral research: Contemporary Russian Women's Fiction; Representations of the East in Soviet Film and Prose; The Apartment in Soviet Culture; History of the Tashkent Music Academy; Cinematic Adaptations of Dostoevskii .
  • External PhD reader: Gay Performance and Russian Popular Music.

 

Extramural Activities

Founder of Russian Association of Atlantic Canada (1998)

Weekly large-screen presentations of Russian films to students and local Slavic community in Canada every Sunday during academic year 1996-2001. No film was ever shown twice. Seasons have included "Comedies of Èl'dar Riazanov," "Films of (and Starring) Nikita Mikhalkov," "Films of Andrei Tarkovskii," "Classics of Soviet Cinema," "Silent Movies in Pre-Revolutionary Russia," "Films of the Thaw," "Russian Film After World War Two," "Films of Mark Bernes," "Movies of Perestroika," "The Role of Song in Soviet Cinema," "Contemporary Police / Mafia Drama for Russian Television" and "The History of Soviet Animation."

Ongoing private audio-collection of Russian and Uzbek songs (approximately 250,000 at present) and Soviet feature/ animated films (approximately 3,000)

UCLA film series: Russian Literature and World Cinema; Recent NIKA Awardees; Monthly presentations of new Russian films with introductory lectures

Editorial Board, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema

 

Conferences Staged

The Creation, Dissemination and Preservation of Literature. Held at Dalhousie, March 4-6, 1999. Three-day conference of writers, journalists (from Zvezda), archivists and conservationists from both Atlantic Canada and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Multi-university tour around the Western US for Artemii Troitskii, Russia’s most famous music journalist and cultural commentator (Spring 2008).

 

Administrative Positions

  • Dalhousie University Student Affairs Committee 1997-2001

  • Planning Committee for Dalhousie University European Studies Program
    2000-2001

  • Co-editor of philological quarterly Russian Studies (St. Petersburg, Russia) since 1999 in cooperation with the State Hermitage Museum and St. Petersburg State University.

  • ISOP Center for European and Russian Studies Faculty Advisory Committee, UCLA 2001-2002

  • Lenart Committee for Graduate Research, UCLA

  • UCLA Slavic Dept. Library, Reading Room, Graduate Colloquium and Internet Committees. Graduate Student / New Faculty Search Committees.

  • UCLA Distance Learning Committee

  • UCLA Center for Digital Humanities Affiliated Faculty

  • Center for Digital Humanities Faculty Advisory Committee (Chair 2004-2005)

  • UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies Committee (2007-)

  • UCLA Academic Assembly (2006-present)

  • Departmental Chair, UCLA Slavic Studies (since 2007)