Two professors in the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies have been promoted, demonstrating excellent performance in teaching, service and research.
Dr. Anastasia Gordienko is promoted from Assistant Professor to tenured Associate Professor, and Suzanne Thompson is promoted from Assistant Professor of Practice to Associate Professor of Practice.
Gordienko's interests lie in the intersection of Russian and Ukrainian politics, history, culture, and identity. Her monograph Outlaw Music in Russia: The Rise of an Unlikely Genre (UW Press, 2023) explores a paradoxical quid pro quo synergy among Russian criminal music, the shanson, and Putin’s politics.
Dr. Gordienko’s secondary interest embraces the issue of collective remembering: her ongoing empirical study, “Memories of the Past” (Pamiatʹ proshlogo), investigates the role of collective memory in Ukrainian and Russian national self-identity and intergenerational transmission of memories for these nations. Additionally, Dr. Gordienko studies stardom, fame, and politics, with a focus on how the concept of Slavic celebrity evolves during significant socio-political changes.
Thompson, an alumna of the University of Arizona Department of Russian and Slavic Studies, worked for many years in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia as an embassy attache, disarmament contractor, and journalist. She is excited to share her passion for all things Slavic with the next generation of Slavophiles.