Finnin, Dr Rory

Rory Finnin's primary research interest is the interplay of literature and national identity in Ukraine. He also studies Soviet Russian dissident literature and Turkish nationalist literature. His broader interests include nationalism theory, human rights discourse, and problems of cultural memory.

Franklin, Prof Simon

The general topic of Simon Franklin's research is the social and cultural history of information technologies in Russia. He am currently working on a wide-ranging study of cultures of writing and material texts in Russia from the mid 15th to the mid 19th century, using the concept of the 'graphosphere', defined as the space of the visible word.

Kingman, Dr John

John Kingman's doctoral thesis was on Russian Modernism, particularly Boris Pilniak. He is currently researching a book on the development of animal imagery in Russian literature.

Polonsky, Dr Rachel

Rachel Polonsky works mainly on nineteenth and twentieth century literature and cultural and political history. She is currently researching Russia's relationship with the near east.

Reich, Dr Rebecca

Rebecca Reich’s primary research interests are in twentieth-century Russian literature and culture. She also has interdisciplinary interests in film and popular culture; intellectual and cultural history; and the history of science, medicine, print culture, law and dissent. Her current project examines psychiatric and literary conceptions of insanity in the Soviet Union from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Richardson, Dr Kylie

Kylie Richardson’s research has focused in the past on issues in Slavonic linguistics, and primarily on Slavonic morpho-syntax. She is still interested in topics in Slavonic aspect. She is, however, currently working on language and consciousness, which includes researching the shamanic explorers of consciousness in Slavonic history and culture.

Tapp, Dr Alyson

Alyson Tapp's areas of research are Russian literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: genre, narrative, subjectivity; history and theory of the novel and of the lyric; natural history, nature writing.

von Zitzewitz, Dr Josephine

Josephine von Zitzewitz's main interest is Russian poetry from the period of modernism to the 21th century. Her published research to date focuses on the late Soviet period, in particular 'underground' literature. She is also working on religious thought and its intersection with literature. An additional field of research is the literature and material memory of the Gulag.

Widdis, Dr Emma

Emma Widdis works mainly on Soviet cinema and culture before 1953; her research treats a broad range of historical materials, including literature, visual art, theory, architecture and popular science. In particular, she is interested in the relationship between cultural production and the project of creating 'new' subjectivities to correspond to revolutionary ideals.