With an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and a Ph.D. in Literature and Cultural Studies (both concentrating on Russian area studies), I have focused much of my work on the complex interrelationship between language, culture, and politics, particularly during times of radical political and social change. My first book, Speaking in Soviet Tongues: Language Culture and the Politics of Voice in Early Soviet Russia examines the emergence of a new language of state in the decades following the Bolshevik Revolution, and the role played in that process by institutions of literature, linguistics, journalism, and education. My second book, After Newspeak: Language Culture and Politics in Russia from Gorbachev to Putin (Cornell University Press, 2014) offers a cultural history of the Russian language since the collapse of the Soviet Union. I’ve also co-edited the volume, Digital Russia: The Language, Culture, and Politics of New Media Communication (Routledge, 2014).

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I am currently completing a book manuscript, “Networking Putinism: The Rhetoric of Power in the Digital Age,” which examines the impact of the internet and social media on political discourse spanning the presidency of Vladimir Putin (and the life of the Russian-language internet to date). Most recently I received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to work on the project during summer 2023, as well as a year-long residential fellowship from the National Humanities Center, during which I completed the manuscript (currently under review at a top U.S. university press).