• Ph.D. (Comparative Literature) University of Rochester (2001)
• M.A. (International Relations and Conflict Resolution) University of Notre Dame (1993)
• M.A. (English) Moscow State Pedagogical University (1991)

 Russian literature, culture, and film. My current research focuses on the female images of death/the figure of the mermaid in Vladmir Nabokov's fiction.

Ph. D. dissertation: The 'Ona' (She) of Nabokov\'s Hereafter: Female Characters as Otherworldly Agents in Nabokov\'s Fiction.

• "The 'Olgalized' Otherworld of Bend Sinister." Russian Studies in Literature 35:4 (Fall 1999): 61-94.
• "The 'Right' versus the 'Wrong' Child: Shades of Pain in Bend Sinister and Pnin" Nabokov Studies 6 (2000-2001): 35-51.
• "Nabokov's Otherworldly Mermaid: 'Spring in Fialta,'" -under submission to the Slavic and East European Journal.

Extracurricular Interests: as a certified court interpreter (Russian and English) I occasionally take on interesting cases in the Criminal and Family Courts.

"Curiousity is insubordination in its purest form." Valdimir Nabokov