Dr. Natalia Dame is an Assistant Professor of Russian in the Department of World Languages at USF. She received her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Southern California (2016) and her MA in TESOL from Lipetsk State Pedagogical University in Russia (2001). Her research investigates intersections between gender, politics, and art in Russian literature and culture from the 19th century to the present. She examines the changing perception of women in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian literature and culture with a focus on revolutionary martyr-heroines. Her other scholarly and teaching interests include visual studies, Russian cultural history, heritage language learners, and inclusive pedagogy.

Dr. Dame has published articles on class and species violence in Bulgakov, on music and women in Tolstoy, on Russian intertexts in Nabokov’s Lolita, and on the perceptions of authenticity in Russian heritage language teaching practices. Her current book project, “The Martyr-Heroine in Russia’s Public Imagination,” analyzes the destabilizing effect of the revolutionary martyr-heroine on literary portrayals of women in fin-de-siècle Russian fiction. Her other two projects investigate the battle between tsarist censorship and Russian satirical press in the historical context of 1905-1906 and the use of female images as a political allegory in the Russian Satirical Journals of 1905-1906.

Dr. Dame’s teaching experience is wide-ranging and diverse, and her teaching approach is student-centered and holistic. She aims to create a situation of success for each student by facilitating a supportive, engaging, and inclusive learning environment. Dr. Dame has taught English and Russian language, literature, and culture classes in the Czech Republic, Morocco, Russia, Ukraine, and the USA. While in the USA, she taught at Pomona College, Beloit College, and the University of Southern California. Some of her favorite classes to teach include Gender and Sexuality in Russian Culture, Modern Russian Culture, Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Russian Literature, Russian Prison Camp Literature, Russian Thought and Civilization, Revolutionary Russia, Women in Russian Culture, and Tolstoy.