Emily Finer

Dr. Emily Finer is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Russian at the University of St Andrews. She specializes in transnational and multilingual interactions between Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Yiddish, and English cultures. As founder of the Comparative Literature degree program, she bridges language studies across the School of Modern Languages. Her research spans multilingual children’s literature (focused on Ukraine), science fiction’s intersection with exoplanet science, and space policy ethics. She leads a STAIRS grant exploring ethical communication in space colonization and co-directs the St Andrews Centre for Exoplanet Science. Finer’s work appears in journals like Journal of Science Communication and Modern Languages Open. She teaches Honours modules on Russian children’s literature, modernist prose, and Pushkin studies. Notable roles include convening the School Ethics Committee and serving on the British Comparative Literature Association’s executive committee.

Research highlights include a collaborative grant with Emory University on Ukrainian multilingual print culture and the Ostroh Academy partnership. Media contributions include BBC Radio features on cultural history and science fiction. Her translation of Bulgakov’s Kiev-town (2023) critically examines colonial attitudes toward Ukrainian identity.