Graduate Student

Semyon Leonenko

B. Phil., St. Petersburg State University, Russian Language and Literature, 2011
M. Phil., St. Petersburg State University, Literary Theory, 2013
M.A., Slavic Languages and Literatures, UC Berkeley, 2018

Entered Berkeley program in 2016

Dissertation title: Automation and Form: Soviet Literature Out of Work, 1917-1934

Languages known and studied: Russian, English, French, German, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Ukrainian

Michael Lerner

B.A. Reed College, Russian, 2021
Entered Berkeley program in 2021

Paper submitted with application to Berkeley:
Trotsky Writes the Russian Revolution: The Symbol of the Explosion in Trotsky’s My Life and The History of the Russian Revolution and its Meta-Symbolic Significance.

Languages known and studied: Russian, Yiddish.

Karina McCorkle

M.A. Slavic Languages and Literatures, UC Berkeley 2017

B.A. German and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2015

Entered Berkeley program in 2015

Paper submitted with application to Berkeley:
“There Once Lived a Woman: Folklore Motifs and Female Conflict in Tolstaya and Petrushevskaya”

Languages known and studied: Russian, French, Polish

Conference Participation:

“”Kruche Tsvetaevoi, kruche Akhmatovoi”: Persona and Play in the Lyrics of Liza Monetochka,” on the panel “Boundary-...

Alexandra Michaud

B.A Bard College, 2018
Entered Berkeley program in 2020

Paper submitted with application: Seize the Means of Reproduction! “Gender War & Revolution in Zamyatin’s We”

Languages known and studied: Russian, Spanish

Conference participation: “Problems in Translating Zamyatin’s We” at Bard Translation Symposium, 2018

Study abroad:
Smolny College at Saint Petersburg State University, summer 2013, spring 2017

Hank Miller

B.A. Oberlin College (Russian) 2017

Entered Berkeley program: Fall 2018

Paper submitted with application to Berkeley:
“Taking Pale Fire Less Seriously”Research interests: Nabokov, Jewry in the Russian Empire/Soviet Union, 19th-20th century novel, exile

Languages known and/or studied: Russian, French, German, Latin, Hebrew

Lev Oborin

Lucas Plazek

B.A. Ohio Wesleyan University, majors Art History and History, minors Film Studies and Philosophy, 2016

M.A. University of Illinois at Chicago, Slavic Languages and Literatures, 2018

Entered Berkeley program in 2020

Paper submitted with application to Berkeley: “Boris Ignatovich: Photographing the Socialist Object”

Languages known and studied: Russian, French, Latin

Presentations and Projects:

“Boris Ignatovich: Photographing the Socialist Object” at Affective Realisms Conference at the University of California, Berkeley, Spring 2019

...

Filip Sestan

B.A. Yale University, Comparative Literature, 2020
Entered Berkeley program in 2020

Paper submitted with application to Berkeley: “Mass Spectatorship and the Aesthetics of Production in Soviet Kulturfilm”

Languages known and studied: Russian, German, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Latin

Study/Work Abroad:
FLAS Study Grant and Tristan Perlroth Award, Saint Petersburg, Summer 2018
Charles H. Siegel Fellow, Moscow, Summer 2019

Katherine Sinyavin

Charles McKenna Smith

B.A. in Comparative Literature & Society, Columbia University, 2022

Entered Berkeley program in 2024

Paper submitted with application to Berkeley: “‘A Sniff’ of Violence: Meta-Artistic Practices in Isaac Babel’s Red Cavalry”

Languages known and studied: Russian, Spanish, Georgian