معرفی
Rita Safariants is an Assistant Professor of Russian in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Rochester, School of Arts & Sciences. She holds a PhD from Yale University. Her research focuses on late-Soviet/post-Soviet cinema, Russian literature, and the interplay between music, media, and cultural identity. She is completing a monograph on Soviet rock films and their role in Soviet collapse, and another project examining the KGB’s relationship with late-Soviet counterculture.
Her scholarly work bridges film studies, musicology, and cultural history, with a particular emphasis on gender performance, adaptation of literary works, and the socio-political dimensions of rock music in authoritarian contexts. She teaches courses such as Russian Cinema after the Fall and Hipsters, Rebels and Rock Stars in Russian Literature and Culture.
Her publications explore topics like rock music’s impact on Soviet film audiences, gender in Russian popular music, and Dostoevsky adaptations. Her research has been supported by prestigious fellowships, including the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship and grants from Vassar College.
- Education: PhD, Yale University
- Research Projects:
- Book: Soviet Rock on Screen: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of a Film Genre
- Book Project: The Bureaucracy of Rock-n-Roll: the KGB and Late-Soviet Counterculture
Awards include the Dobro Slovo National Honor Society (2018) and the AAASS New England Graduate Student Essay Prize (2005-2006). Her work challenges traditional narratives of state-culture relations in late Soviet society.
