Updated on 03.23.16
I am an interdisciplinary scholar with international background exploring issues of diversity and media. In my first doctoral program in St. Petersburg State University (graduated in 2008), I investigated how the social system exists both due to reproduction of normative scripts, and to challenging of these scripts through difference. Having arrived to the United States in 2011 to complete the doctoral program at Temple University, I focused my attention on how diversity is disrupted by or reflected in the media. I became interested in the potential of media literacy education to help people be more aware of how dominant ideologies disseminated through mediated communication may stifle diversity.
Since 2012 I have been a research assistant, and later an affiliated faculty, at the Media Education Lab under Renee Hobbs, one of the nation's leading authorities on media literacy education. As part of the Lab, I have been working with several international media literacy scholars investigating challenges and benefits of digital and media literacy around the globe. During summers 2012 and 2013, I conducted research at First Star Academy project at URI, investigating the role of media literacy education in developing social skills of youth-at-risk.
My dissertation (defended in 2015) at Temple University explored how media literacy education can be used to teach students about issues of gender; it was based on conceptualization of gender by Butler and my interpretation of the media as hegemonic. I applied ethnographic methods (interviews, focus groups, observations) and the case study approach to find out what happens in high school classrooms where media representations of gender are discussed.
In a different strand of my research I explore how principles of media literacy education, such as inquiry-based approach and media analysis, can be used in the classroom to help students better understand controversial issues connected with sexuality. In 2015 I worked on creating a comprehensive archive of LGBTQ representations in video games together with Adrienne Shaw, and published an article about it. With my colleague Donnell Probst I collaborate on a study that looks into using media literacy education to teach students about disability and gender. Additional topics that I investigated in the past include media literacy around the world, and using media literacy education with disadvantaged populations.
I have presented my studies at each of the communication field’s top conferences, including the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the National Communication Association (NCA), and the International Communication Association (ICA). I also regularly present at a variety of other venues, both academic and educational.
Among courses that I have taught are: Public Speaking, Introduction to Mass Communication, Communication Theory, Media and Society, Introduction to Humanities, and Gender in the American Mass Media. As a media literacy educator, I am committed to using a variety of digital tools and technologies in my classroom. In 2014 and 2015, I took part in a weeklong Summer Institute in Digital Literacy, where I deepened my knowledge of using project-based inquiry and multi-modal components to create challenging and engaging learning opportunities for my students. I have been involved in international teaching projects, including online professional workshops for Russian K-12 teachers, and online collaboration between Russian and U.S. high school students via digital technologies. Since August 2014, I have partnered with Durham College, Canada on a project called the Global Class, which connects classrooms around the world through a unique multicultural online experience.
I am currently working on a book that uses the interdisciplinary approach to challenge our understanding of the media, in order to help readers move beyond the blame directed at the media and embrace the common responsibility of challenging the status quo through communication.
I speak five languages: Russian, English, Spanish, German and French.
I am an interdisciplinary scholar with international background exploring issues of diversity and media. In my first doctoral program in St. Petersburg State University (graduated in 2008), I investigated how the social system exists both due to reproduction of normative scripts, and to challenging of these scripts through difference. Having arrived to the United States in 2011 to complete the doctoral program at Temple University, I focused my attention on how diversity is disrupted by or reflected in the media. I became interested in the potential of media literacy education to help people be more aware of how dominant ideologies disseminated through mediated communication may stifle diversity.
Since 2012 I have been a research assistant, and later an affiliated faculty, at the Media Education Lab under Renee Hobbs, one of the nation's leading authorities on media literacy education. As part of the Lab, I have been working with several international media literacy scholars investigating challenges and benefits of digital and media literacy around the globe. During summers 2012 and 2013, I conducted research at First Star Academy project at URI, investigating the role of media literacy education in developing social skills of youth-at-risk.
My dissertation (defended in 2015) at Temple University explored how media literacy education can be used to teach students about issues of gender; it was based on conceptualization of gender by Butler and my interpretation of the media as hegemonic. I applied ethnographic methods (interviews, focus groups, observations) and the case study approach to find out what happens in high school classrooms where media representations of gender are discussed.
In a different strand of my research I explore how principles of media literacy education, such as inquiry-based approach and media analysis, can be used in the classroom to help students better understand controversial issues connected with sexuality. In 2015 I worked on creating a comprehensive archive of LGBTQ representations in video games together with Adrienne Shaw, and published an article about it. With my colleague Donnell Probst I collaborate on a study that looks into using media literacy education to teach students about disability and gender. Additional topics that I investigated in the past include media literacy around the world, and using media literacy education with disadvantaged populations.
I have presented my studies at each of the communication field’s top conferences, including the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the National Communication Association (NCA), and the International Communication Association (ICA). I also regularly present at a variety of other venues, both academic and educational.
Among courses that I have taught are: Public Speaking, Introduction to Mass Communication, Communication Theory, Media and Society, Introduction to Humanities, and Gender in the American Mass Media. As a media literacy educator, I am committed to using a variety of digital tools and technologies in my classroom. In 2014 and 2015, I took part in a weeklong Summer Institute in Digital Literacy, where I deepened my knowledge of using project-based inquiry and multi-modal components to create challenging and engaging learning opportunities for my students. I have been involved in international teaching projects, including online professional workshops for Russian K-12 teachers, and online collaboration between Russian and U.S. high school students via digital technologies. Since August 2014, I have partnered with Durham College, Canada on a project called the Global Class, which connects classrooms around the world through a unique multicultural online experience.
I am currently working on a book that uses the interdisciplinary approach to challenge our understanding of the media, in order to help readers move beyond the blame directed at the media and embrace the common responsibility of challenging the status quo through communication.
I speak five languages: Russian, English, Spanish, German and French.