Sandra Joy Russell

Sandra Joy Russell serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Mount Holyoke College. Trained in Comparative Literature and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, she is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in Ukrainian and Eastern European literature and visual cultures from the Soviet era to contemporary times. She concurrently holds editorial positions as Associate Editor of Apofenie Magazine and Editor of Ukraïnica: Ukraine’s Primary Database—an online catalog of English translations of Ukrainian literature and film supported by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Her research critically examines how neocolonial frameworks have constrained global understandings of gender and sexuality in Eastern Europe. She actively positions Ukrainian queer and feminist movements within transnational feminist discourse, challenging Western-centric narratives. Key research domains include:

• Ukrainian and East European studies
• Comparative Literature
• film and visual cultures
• transnational feminisms
• gender and communism
• translation studies

Russell’s editorial work with Ukraïnica directly supports accessibility of Ukrainian cultural production through its Harvard-backed digital archive, amplifying marginalized voices in academic and literary spheres.