The Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center extends a warm welcome to visiting scholar Dr. Joanna Kula, who will be affiliated with REEEC as a visiting scholar for the 2022 Fall semester. Dr. Kula is a scholar of Russian literature working in the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Wroclaw (Poland). Her dissertation focused on the problem of a 'hero' in modern Russian prose (A Hero of the End of the 20th Century in Works by Vladimir Makanin, 2013). The main subject of her current research is the region of the Caucasus and its reflection in Russian literature from 19th to 21st century, both fiction and non-fiction. She studies the interaction of the two contrary ideas of geopolitics and geopoetics, colonial and postcolonial narrations, the question of Caucasian self-identity in a post-Soviet era.

As a visiting scholar, Dr. Kula will be working primarily on a project titled "Moving Borders and Geocultural Transformations: The Image of the Caucasus in Modern Russian Literature and Culture." During her time on campus, she will introduce her research through a Noontime Scholars Lecture on October 18, 2022. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Kula to REEEC and UIUC.