Ania Aizman

Ania Aizman holds a PhD from Harvard and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago, both in Comparative Literature, and with a focus on Russian and Czech. At the University of Michigan, she is writing a book: From Tolstoy to Pussy Riot: Anarchist Currents in Russian Culture. Ania’s other research project focuses on contemporary theater in Russia. Her translations of plays by contemporary playwrights Mikhail Durnenkov, Mikhail Ugarov, and Elena Gremina were published by the Performing Arts Journal and Columbia University Press. An article exploring the anarchist aesthetics of Pussy Riot and the OBERIU was published in The Russian Review in January 2019. Ania has also written about trophy films, Russian “New Drama,” and the politics of Soviet children’s poems. Ania is teaching introductory and advanced courses on the cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe at the University of Michigan. In her courses, she shares her love of archival and library research with students and integrates creative assignments inspired by her research topics.