Diane Nemec Ignashev

Education & Professional History

University of Illinois (Chicago Circle), BA; University of Chicago, MA, PhD

Highlights & Recent Activity

See cv.

Organizations & Scholarly Affiliations

See cv.

Specializing in twentieth-century Russian cultural studies, Nemec Ignashev’s research includes articles and translations of Soviet Russian writers, including a compilation of the memoirs of Ariadna Efron (the daughter of poet Marina Tsvetaeva) and Ada Federolf—Unforced Labors (Moscow: Vozvrashchenie, 2006). Her edition of Efron’s childhood memoirs No Love without Poetry: The Memoirs of Marina Tsvetaeva’s Daughter (Northwestern University Press, 2009) was awarded the 2011 prize for Best Translation into English (Scholarly Edition) by the Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.

Supported by a 2011 Pen Translation Fund grant, in 2013 she completed a translation of Victor Martinovich’s novel Paranoia, banned in 2010 in the author’s native Belarus. In 2014 she published a translation of short stories by Russian Gulag survivor Georgii Demidov, Five Fates from a Wondrous Planet (Moscow: Vozvrashchenie), which included a story translated by Carleton Russian majors James Jackson (’11) , Brian Kilgour (’11), Ben Tyler (’11), and Denis Griffis (’12) as part of their comps. In 2016 Northwestern University Press published her translation of Liudmila Ulitskaia’s novel, The Kukotsky Enigma. Nemec Ignashev’s current research project is a monograph on the work of Russian filmmaker, Aleksandr Sokurov. Her 2021 article on Sokurov’s Father and Son – “On Cinematic Ekphrasis: Aleksandr Sokurov’s Otets i syn Redux,” published in Film Criticism, earned the 2021 SCMS Central/East/South European Cinemas Outstanding Essay Award.

Diane Nemec Ignashev (Ph.D. University of Chicago) has taught courses on a wide range of topics, from the culture of Old Russia to “Bestsellers of Perestroika,” from Russian Cinema to identity studies. A member of the Board of Directors of the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR), Nemec-Ignashev holds a joint appointment in the Department of Discourse and Communication Studies at Moscow State University. She has directed the Carleton Moscow Seminar since 1995, helped develop the ACM program in Krasnodar, co-directed the 2001 ACM Global Partners Faculty Seminar in Krasnador with Prof. Michael Hemesath (Economics) and co-directed the 2005 Carleton Alumni Tour to Moscow, Siberia, and St. Petersburg with Anna Dotlibova. Her courses taught at Carleton include:

• Russian language (beginning through advanced levels)
• Russian Literature/Culture Courses in Russian: “Arts of Rus’ (culture IX–XVII centuries), Readings inNineteenth-Century Russian Literature, Readings in Twentieth-Century Russian Literature, History of Russian Theater, Russian Poetry & Song, Poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva.  Seminars: “Sibiriana,” Russian Humor, Peasant Culture, Culture of Perestroika. Russian Literature/Culture Courses in English: Introduction to Russian Culture & Society; “Magical Russia” & “Family Happiness” (thematic surveys for Moscow Program), “Holy Fools, Idiots and Dissidents”: Madness in Russian Culture (11th–20th century); Dostoevsky (selected novels); Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina), Russian Short Prose (17th–20th centuries), Gender and the Russian Literary Tradition (cross-listed Women’s Studies), Russian and Soviet Film History and Theory (cross-listed Media Studies)
• Cinema and Media Studies: Film Adaptation, History of Cinema, pt. II (1945–present), individual courses on Tarkovsky and Sokurov, Russian-Soviet Film History, Adaptation
• Cross-Cultural Studies: “Empires, Colonies, Hegemony” (w/Shane Auerbach, Cherif Keita, Kofi Owusu)
• Seminars for First-Year Students: Soviet “Ethnics,” “Aliens” (US Cultures of Immigration).
• Translation Seminar (in English w/Anne Ulmer, Keith Harrison, Kathryn Sparling).
• Introduction to Literary Studies and Criticism (inter-departmental theory course)
• Women and Gender Studies: Introduction to Women and Gender Studies, “Amazons, Valkjeres, Naiads, and Dykes,” “Post-Modernist Sexuality,” Senior Research Seminar.
• Designed and supervised Carleton College Russian Studies in Moscow Program at Moscow State University (1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018).
• Designed and supervised Associated Colleges of the Midwest Consortial Russian Studies Seminar in Krasnodar, Russia (1988, 1989, 1993) and Global Partners Faculty Seminar (2000).

For teaching beyond Carleton, see cv.

Books

• Trans., intro., Ludmila Ulitskaya, The Kukotsky Enigma. Evanston, IL: Northwestrn University Press, 2016.
• Trans., aftwd., Georgii Demidov, Five Fates from a Wondrous Planet. Moscow: Vozvrashchenie, 2015.
• Trans., intro., Victor Martinovich. Paranoia. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2013. Reviewed by: Ostrovsky, Arkady. New York Times Book Review. 9 June 2013: 22; Rayfield, Donald. “Just Because You’re Paranoid.” Times Literary Supplement. 13 April 2013; Lodge, Kirsten. Slavic & East European Journal. Vol. 60, no. 2 (2016): 365-66.
• Trans., ed., intro., Ariadna Efron. No Love Without Poetry: The Memoirs of Marina Tsvetaeva’s Daughter. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2009. Reviewed by: Sandler, Stephanie. “No Lullabies.” Times Literary Supplement (5 March 2010):9; Renner-Fahey, Ona. Slavic & East European Journal. Vol. 54, n. 3 (Fall 2010):532–533; Cherry, Kelly. Women’s Review of Books. Vol. 27, n. 5 (Sep/Oct 2010): 29–30.
• Trans., ed., intro. Unforced Labors. Ada Federolf: Memoirs and Ariadna Efron: Prose. Moscow: “Vozvraschshenie,” 2006. Reviewed by: Burgin, Diana L. The Russian Review 67, no. 2 (2008): 328-29; Rusica, Marilena. Slavic & East European Journal. Vol. 52, n. 1(2008):133–135.
• w/Anna Dotlibova & Laura Goering. Workbook to R. Leed & A. Nakhimovsky Beginning Russian, 2nd ed. Northfield, MN: Carleton College, 1994–.
• w/L. Kushnareva, E. Riabtseva, I. Tokareva. Cross-Sections [American English for Advanced Students]. Minsk: Vyssheishaia shkola, 1994.
• w/S. Krive. Women and Writing in Russia and the USSR. A Bibliography of English-Language Sources. NY: Garland, 1992. Reviewed by: Farris, June Pachuta. Russian Review 52, no. 4 (1993): 582; Kelly, Catriona. The Slavonic and East European Review 71, no. 3 (1993): 529; Zirin, Mary. Slavic Review 52, no. 2 (1993): 410.
• Trans., ed., intro., and aftwrd. Irina Ratushinskaia, ‘A Tale of Three Heads.’ Short Stories. [Bi-lingual edition.] Tenafly, NJ: Hermitage, 1986.

Articles

• Nemec Ignashev, D. “On Cinematic Ekphrasis: Aleksandr Sokurov’s Otets i syn Redux,” Film Criticism Vol. 44, No. 1 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/fc.13761232.0044.112
• Немец-Игнашева Д. (США) [Введение к рубрике: Трансмедийные методы филологического анализа текста. Вестник Московского университета им. Ломоносова. Серия 9: Филология. No. IV (2017): 99.
• Schleifer R., Townsend M.A., Tsiopos Wills Katherine V., Aksakalova O., Nemec Ignashev D.N., Venediktova T. “Under Lomonosov’s Watchful Gaze: A Case Study of an Early Faculty Development Writing Workshop in Russia.” Уральский государственный педагогический университет, № 5 (2016), с. 297-309.
• Немец-Игнашев Д. “Зачем мы обсуждаем театральность кино?” Четыре реплики Ромашко С., Купцова О., Немец-Игнашев Д., Рыбина П. Stephanos. Издательство Филологический факультет МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова (Москва), том 13, № 5, с. 69-72.
• Nemec Ignasheva, D. “RKI i printsipy ‘tret’ego mesta.” XII Kongress Mezhdunarodnoi assotsiatsii prepodavatelei russkogo iazyka i literatury “Russkii iazyk i literatura vo vremeni i prostrantsve”. Vol. 3, pp. 168ff. Ed. L.A. Verbitskaia, Liu Liminia, E.E. Iukova. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Educataion Press, 2011.
• “Of Politics and Poetry: Ariadna Efron on Marina Tsvetaeva, Redux.” Russian History/Histoire Russe, 36, nos. 3 (2009): 407–423.
• “MarginAlya: Rereading the Memoirs of Ariadna Efron.” Poetics, Self, Place: Essays in Honor of Anna Lisa Crone. Eds. Catherine O’Neil, Nicole Boudreau; Sarah Krive. Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 2007. Pp. 648–672.
• “(Re)constructing Alia: The Autobiographical Fiction of Ariadna Efron.” Out of the Shadows. Neglected Works in Soviet Prose: Selected Essays. Ed. Nicholas Luker. Nottingham, England: Astra Press, 2003. Pp. 79–108.
• “K vvedeniiu kursa vneauditornykh zaniatii po sovremennoi rossiiskoi kul’ture v programmu obucheniia russkomu iazyku kak inostrannomu.” Slovo. Grammatika. Rech’. Sbornik nauchnometodicheskikh statei, posviashchennyi voprosam prepodavaniia russkogo iazyka kak inostrannogo. Moskva: Filologicheskii fakul’tet MGU, 2003, Vyp. 5: 168-173.
• “The Mylodrama, or If All the World is a Stage,” pp. 154–164 in Alexander Lipson. In Memoriam. Ed. Charles Gribble. Columbus,OH: Slavica, 1994 (written in 1982).
• w/A. Dotlibova. “Learning the Lessons of the Past: The Actress as Heroine in Russian Literature.” UNESCO Division of Human Rights & Peace SHS–91 Conference 807/11 Women and Democracy in Eastern Europe, Prague, Czech Republic, 3–6 December 1991.
• w/A. Dotlibova. “The Soviet Actress in the Literature of Perestroika.” Canadian Woman Studies/Les cahiers de la femme 4(1989):89–91.
• “Vasily Shukshin and the ‘Art’ of Transition.” Slavonic and East European Review [London] 3(1988):337–356. Reprint in Lyudmila Parts (ed.), The Russian Twentieth-Century Short Story: A Critical Companion. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2015.
• “The Art of Vasilij Šukšin: Volja through Song.” Slavic and East European Journal 3(1988):415–427.
• “Soviet Russian and East European Post-Modernism [An Historical Survey of SEEJ Contributions, 1957–87].” Slavic and East European Journal 5(1987):110–125.
• “The Pushkin Museum,” “The Rublev Museum,” “The Russian Museum,” and “The Tret’iakov Gallery.” The Encyclopedia of World Museums. Vol. 2. Greenwood,VT: Greenwood, 1987.
• “Susanna Georgievskaia.” The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet Literature. Vol. 8. Ed. Harry Weber. Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press, 1986.
• “Towards the Structural Genesis of Nikolai Gogol’s Revizor .” Studia Ucrainica [Ottawa] 2(1984):85–101.
• Ed., Aleksandr Itsokhin. “The Dual System.” American Journal of Sociology, V. 85/6(1980):1317–1336.
• Review-article, Dmitrij Shostakovich. Testimony. Counterpoint [U of Chicago] 4(1980):24–26.

[for additional publications, see cv]