Interview with Elena Vasileva
Надя Хан
What inspired you to specialize in and teach Russian language and culture?
Lena Vasileva recalls that in 8th or 9th grade, her school underwent a major change when a teacher retired and was replaced by a new Russian language and literature teacher. The new teacher was tough but inspiring. She was sarcastic, witty, and sometimes brusque, but deeply invested in her students. Lena remembers that her new teacher made studying Russian literature fun, engaging, and meaningful. Through her, Lena discovered her favorite poet, Boris Pasternak, and from there the world of Russian modernism. She quickly discovered that analyzing long, complex sentences was one of her greatest joys. This love of Pasternak, combined with her fascination for intricate texts, ultimately guided her toward specializing in Russian language, literature, and culture.
What have been or are currently your research interests in Russian studies?
Since Pasternak was such an influential part of Lena’s life, she dedicated her undergraduate honors thesis to his prose works. In graduate school, she researched modernist culture at large, with a particular interest in memoirs about modernism. She examined how modernism is remembered especially after it ended in the 1930s in the USSR and following the outbreak of WWII in the émigré community. A striking finding from her research was how many memories of modernism were shared across communities, even among those who had not experienced them first-hand. Over the past eight years of her PhD, Lena has immersed herself in memory culture theory and sociological studies of memory.
More recently, she has begun exploring digital humanities as a method of approaching narratives. Her upcoming project will focus on gossip and narrative transmission in literature from the 18th century through the late 20th century, using digital tools for analysis.
What advice would you give to students studying Russian?
Speak more Russian! Lena stresses. Her biggest advice is to practice speaking as often as possible, to not fear mistakes, and, in fact, to embrace them. Making mistakes, she explains, helps build up mechanical memory so that speaking becomes more natural. She reminds students that language learning is a marathon, not a sprint, and to never expect to be perfect because even native Russian speakers make mistakes.
What’s one Russian word or phrase you think everyone should know? Or favorite?
Как пройти в библиотеку? – How do you get to the library?
After pondering for a moment, Lena offered this phrase, which she remembers from short, funny videos (perhaps like a meme) from a Soviet-era movie set during the gloomy years of застой (stagnation). The opening scene features a man teaching his friend how to hit on women, and “Как пройти в библиотеку?” is used almost like a pick-up line. Lena advises students to use this phrase sincerely, not as a pick-up line!
What do you enjoy doing outside of teaching and research?
Outside of her academic life, Lena enjoys dancing balfolk, a type of French country dancing, as well as contemporary dance. She also likes crafting, such as knitting, bead weaving, and crocheting. She is also fond of cats and currently has one cat named Lorien (after Lord of the Rings), though she definitely plans to expand her cat family.