«I am a postdoctoral researcher working at the intersection of (Soviet) Russian and Ukrainian literature, arts, and aesthetics. Originally, I am from Austria where I graduated both in Slavonic studies from the University of Vienna and in Design from NDU in Lower Austria. I received my doctorate in Slavonic Studies from the University of Vienna in 2017. The focus of my dissertation was on inconsistencies in the centre-periphery discourses of the late avant-garde in the Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s. Subsequently, I worked on Soviet and post-Soviet cultures as a postdoctoral fellow in Vienna and at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. I have taught various courses in literature studies, arts, and aesthetics at universities in Austria, in Zagreb in Croatia, and in Kyiv in Ukraine. My research and archive work also brought me to the US, Russia, and different parts of Ukraine. Moreover, I have extensive practical experience in photography and the design of digital and printed media.
In addition to Soviet and post-Soviet cultures and counter cultures, my research interests span intertextuality, intermedia, border aesthetics, cultural semiotics, photography, multilingualism, cultural memory discourses, and the interrelations of art and politics in the Soviet Union.
Currently, I am a Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions Individual Fellow at ILOS. My research project is titled Soviet Ellipses. Omissions as Techniques of Border Transgression in Photography, Literature, and Everyday Life, and it deals with the creation and representation of conscious omissions in selected spheres of Soviet cultural life. A central objective of my research at ILOS is to demonstrate how ellipses function as techniques that challenge (constructed symbolic) borders. I am thus focusing omissions as cultural practices of border transgressions that are closely tied to certain political, social, and historical frameworks. The project is linked to the research area of Border Studies at ILOS and is also connected to Slavonic Studies.
In my free time, I enjoy visiting exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, watching movies, and taking photographs. Moreover, I like travelling and learning more about culture(s), everyday life, languages, and landscapes.»