Education and Research

Oleh Kotsyuba is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, specializing in Ukrainian and Russian 20th century literature, while also working on Polish 20th century literature. He is also the Online Editor of Krytyka, an independent Ukrainian intellectual journal (www.krytyka.com).

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.

Dissertation Topic: "Challenges of Continuity: Moments of Transition in the Ukrainian 20th Century Literature"

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