# Oleh Kotsyuba Director of Print and Digital Publications, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute PhD, 2015 ![a picture of Oleh ](/sites/g/files/omnuum2186/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-08/Screenshot%202025-08-05%20at%202.50.11%E2%80%AFPM.png?itok=K5Sm2Vuf) email Contact: [Current Harvard Profile](https://kotsyuba.scholars.harvard.edu/) #### **Dissertation Title:** "Rules of Disengagement: Author, Audience, and Experimentation in Ukrainian and Russian Literature of the 1970s and 1980s" Oleh earned his "Degree of a Specialist“ (equivalent to a Master of Arts degree) *summa cum laude* in German as Foreign Language and German Literature, English Language and Literature, and World Literature at the State (now – National) Pedagogical University of Ternopil, Ukraine, in 2002. In 2006, he graduated from Wayne State University (Detroit, MI) with a Master of Arts degree in English. In 2008, he earned a Master of Arts degree *summa cum laude* in Comparative Literature, Computational Linguistics, and Computer Science at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. #### **Oleh’s research interests include:** - Contemporary Ukrainian literature and culture, especially vis-à-vis Europe and Russia - Ukrainian and Russian literature in the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods - Literary process in countries under oppressive, socialist, or totalitarian regimes (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela) - Colonial and post-colonial studies, concepts of state and nationhood - Conceptualizations of literary history in terms of "change," "disruption," and "continuity" - Russian-Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Polish literary, cultural, and political relations - Soviet literature and film, in particular through the lens of *sotsrealism* - Feminist theory and gender studies in Eastern Europe #### **Scholarly Publications** - *Overtaking and Surpassing America: Ukrainian vs. Russian Literature in the post-Soviet period*. Hannover: Ibidem-Verlag (book, forthcoming). - Translations from Russian into German for the first collection of Roman Jakobson’s linguistic analyses in one language: Jakobson, Roman. Poesie der Grammatik und Grammatik der Poesie. Sämtliche Gedichtanalysen. Kommentierte deutsche Ausgabe. Ed. Hendrik Birus, Sebastian Donat. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007. - “Konceptualizacija intertekstual’nosti v romani Patrika Zjuskinda ‘Zapaxy. Istorija odnoho vbyvci’ (interpretacija obrazu Žana Grenuja jak kul’turnoho konstruktu postmodernists’koho pys’ma)”. Naukovi zapysky. Teorija literatury, porivnjal’ne literaturoznavstvo. Ternopil’s’kyj deržavnyj pedahohičnyj universytet. Serija literaturoznavstvo. Vypusk 3 (8) 2000. 100-112. #### **Teaching** Fall term 2013-2014: Language Course “German A: Beginning German I” (Course Head: Dr. Lisa Parkes, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures) Spring term 2012-2013: Advanced Russian Language Course (third year Russian) “Slavic 103: Reading, Composition, and Conversation” (Course Head: Dr. Natalia Reed, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures) Spring term 2011-2012: Course in General Education (Harvard College): “Slavic 148: Strange Russian Writers” (Prof. Stephanie Sandler, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures) Fall term 2011-2012: Course in the General Education (Harvard College): “Ethical Reasoning 28: Moral Inquiry in Tolstoy and Dostoevsky” (Prof. Justin Weir, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures) Fall and Spring terms 2010-2011: Intermediate Russian Language Course (second year Russian) “Slavic B” (Course Head: Dr. Natalia Reed, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures) #### **Conference Presentations** November 2013: Convention of the Association of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (formerly: American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies) (Boston, MA). Panel: Modernist responses to a "revolutionary' predicament in Ukraine. Presentation title: “Continuity in Disruption: Post-1991 Ukrainian Literature and its Soviet Heritage.” November 2012: Conference of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (Seattle, WA). Panel: Contemporary Ukrainian Literature. Presentation topic: “The Old Face of the New Ukrainian Literature: Lina Kostenko’s *Zapysky ukraïns’koho samašedšoho* \[Notes of a Ukrainian Madman\].” January 2010: Convention of the Association of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (formerly: American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies) (Los Angeles, CA). Panel: Sexuality and Ukrainian Literature. Presentation title: “Feminism vs. Patriotism: Oksana Zabužko’s Experiments with «Womb Voice» and Coarse Language.” #### **Invited Lectures** February 2012, Harvard University: Guest lecture on film adaptations of Leo Tolstoy’s *War and Peace*, with introduction to tools of text vs. film analysis; frame, composition, and camera technique analysis. December 2011, Harvard University: Guest lecture on psychology and psychologism in F. Dostoevsky’s works, Freudian interpretations, and stylistic aspects of Dostoevsky’s writing. March 2010, Shevchenko Scientific Society in America (New York, NY): Invited lecture on Russian travel literature of the late 18th and early 19th century and its connection to the work of Taras Shevchenko. #### **Extracurricular Activities** Oleh is an energetic and engaged member of the Harvard community. Moreover, he is actively involved in building civil society in Ukraine. **His extracurricular activities include:** - Online editor of the Ukrainian intellectual journal "[Krytyka](http://krytyka.com/)" (Kyiv, Ukraine), - Vice-president (2009-2010) of SUSTA - [Federation of Ukrainian Student Organizations of America](https://www.facebook.com/SUSTAportal) - Co-founder and president (2009-2011) of the [GSAS Harvard Ukrainian Student Society](http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=huss) - Co-founder (2004) and vice-president (2004-2005) of Association of Ukrainian Students in Germany (Союз українських студентів в Німеччині: [www.sus-n.org](http://www.sus-n.org)) - Conferences and discussion boards on EU – Ukrainian – Russian relations in Germany, Ukraine, and United States. #### **Publications in Press** Oleh has published in English, German, and Ukrainian on Ukraine in/outside the European Union, Ukrainian cultural politics and international relations from the cultural perspective, political process in Ukraine, education, and scholarship #### **In English:** The New York Times, November 30, 2013: “[Ukraine’s Battle for Europe](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/opinion/ukraines-battle-for-europe.html?_r=0)” #### **In German:** Die Welt, October 30, 2004: “[Vergiftete Nachrichten](http://www.welt.de/print-welt/article349372/Vergiftete-Nachrichten.html)” (Poisoned News) #### **In Ukrainian:** Ukraïns’ka pravda, September 24, 2009: “[Фрустрація Солани і фрустрація України](http://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2009/09/23/4200049)” (Javier Solana’s Frustration, and Ukrainian Frustration) Ukraïns’ka pravda, February 3, 2010: “[Adversus solem ne loquitur: Іще про телебати](http://www.pravda.com.ua/columns/2010/02/3/4708019)) (Don’t Speak Against the Sun: On the Presidential TV Debates) Krytyka, September 28, 2010: “[Паралельні реальності українсько-европейських стосунків: Урок про европейську ідентичність](http://krytyka.com/ua/articles/paralelni-realnosti-ukrayinsko-evropeyskykh-stosunkiv-urok-pro-evropeysku-identychnist)” (The Parallel Realities of Ukraine-EU Relations: A Lesson in European Identity) Ukraïns’ka pravda, September 30, 2010: “[То що, все таки, сказала баронеса Ештон](http://www.pravda.com.ua/columns/2010/09/30/5431180)” (After All, What *Did* Baroness Ashton Say?) #### **Audio podcasts:** With Andrii Kurkov: “[I am a Ukrainian writer](http://krytyka.com/ua/solutions/podcasts/audio/podkast-krytyky-andriy-kurkov-ya-ukrayinskyy-pysmennyk)” **(with George G. Grabowicz)** With Sławomir Sierakowski: “[Ukrainians are already in Europe, even if Ukraine is not (yet)](http://krytyka.com/ua/solutions/podcasts/audio/podkast-krytyky-slavomir-sierakovski-ukrayintsi-vzhe-v-evropi)” #### **Interviews:** **NPR, “Here and Now” with Robin Young,** December 4, 2013: “[«Tolerasty» vs. «Sovok»: Ukraine’s Battle for Values](http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/12/04/ukraine-values-battle)” **Chytomo, Ukraine:** [**On the Krytyka Online project**](http://www.chytomo.com/interview/zasnovniki-intelektualnoii-grupi-kritika-spodivayemos-shho-prixilnikiv-povilnogo-chitannya-pobilshaye), November 2013 **Voice of America, Ukrainian service:** [**An exclusive interview for the Voice of America on the project of a new web platform for Krytyka**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dutrYktUWE) ([www.krytyka.com](http://www.krytyka.com)), May 27, 2011 #### **Oleh has been awarded the following fellowships and grants:** - Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute's Graduate Research Fellowship (Fall 2012, Fall 2013) - Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute - Summer Research Travel Grants (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013) - Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies - Maurice Lazarus Graduate Research Travel Awards (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013) - Thomas C. Rumble Fellowship at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI (2005-2006) - German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Fellowship at Gesamthochschule-Universität Kassel, Germany (2000-2001) - Ministry of Science and Communication, Republic of Austria; Research Fellowship at Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Austria (1999) - ## Alumni Taxonomy [2010-2019\_Alumni](/alumni-taxonomy/2010-2019alumni) - ## People [Alumni](/people-taxonomy/alumni)