Lera
Co-Host of The Slavic Connexion
Lera, while born in Tiraspol, Moldova, was happily raised in the suburbs of South-Eastern Pennsylvania and the land of Wawa. After getting her B.A. in Japanese from Penn State, she spent the next 6 years bouncing around between Japan, the DMV area, and Pittsburgh before finally landing in Texas to start her dual-degree Master's program in Global Policy Studies and Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at UT. Her research interests include U.S.-Russia relations, foreign diplomacy, grassroots exchange, and protest/dissent in Russia. Her limited free time interests include showing everyone pictures of her two cats, engaging in the Fast and the Furious franchise discourse, and never finishing any of her knitting projects.
B.A. in Japanese, minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Penn State University
INTERESTS
Post-Soviet Russia, Putinism, grassroots cultural exchange programs, U.S.-Russia relations, foreign diplomacy, national security, relationship between Russia's government and its citizens, Russian political protests
Lera has hosted 46 Episodes.
-
Post-Soviet Protests, Politics, and Premature Dismissals of Russia's Regional Governors
August 18th, 2023 | Season 5 | 33 mins 6 secs
elections, politics, protest, russia, war
On this episode, Lera and Cullan chat with Tatiana Tkacheva, a research fellow at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, about authoritarianism in Russia and the strategies of the autocrat in dealing with regional governors. In her paper, she and her co-authors attempt to answer this question by using the example of premature withdrawals and dismissals of Russia’s regional governors from office. Tatiana also talks about her previous publications about the United Russia (UR) party and their declining popularity in Russia. Thanks for listening!
-
The Case of DOXA: A New Chapter in Russian Youth Repression
July 30th, 2023 | Season 5 | 38 mins 6 secs
journalism, politics, protest, russia, war
On this episode, Lera sits down with Anastasiya Osipova, a scholar of Soviet and contemporary Russian and Ukrainian cultures, who shares about her research on DOXA, an anti-authoritarian student journal on harassment in academia that emerged from Higher School of Economics in Moscow in 2017. DOXA was stripped of its status as a university organization in 2019 and since then exists as an independent magazine. After February 2022, DOXA left Russia and continues to operate outside of the country. Thanks for listening!
-
Behind Black & White Frontlines: Literature Development in Wartime Ukraine, 2014-2022
July 8th, 2023 | Season 5 | 41 mins 45 secs
culture, history, literature, teaching, ukraine war
On this episode, Lera and Misha sit down with Dr. Alexander Chertenko, a professor of Ukrainian literature at the University of Giessen in Germany. Dr. Chertenko is uniquely positioned to trace the wartime development of Ukrainian literature in the country since 2014. He also illuminates the usually underdiscussed topic of literature in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts from 2014 until Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Thank you for listening!
-
The Reception Desk: Soviet Bureaucracy with a Human Face, 1979-1985
December 13th, 2022 | Season 5 | 32 mins 18 secs
bureaucracy, history, migration, social history, soviet union
On this episode, Lera speaks with Emily Joan Elliott, H-Net associate director for research and publications, about what got her interested in Soviet and post-Soviet history and her particular focus on migration to Moscow and the Priemnaia (reception desk) of the Supreme Soviet--a bureaucratic space available to all citizens for voicing concerns and petitions.
-
Russian Law: "Is There Any?" with Will Pomeranz
November 16th, 2022 | Season 5 | 36 mins 39 secs
aseees, history, law, russia, ukraine, war
On this episode, recorded in-person at the ASEEES 2022 Convention in Chicago, Lera and Taylor sit down with Will Pomeranz, the director of the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute, to talk about his experience practicing Russian law in Russia, the work of the Kennan Institute, the evolution (and devolution) of Russian law from the tsarist period through Putin today, and the legality of the referenda in Ukraine. We hope you enjoy!
-
"Oil, the State, and War" with Emma Ashford
October 31st, 2022 | Season 5 | 39 mins 34 secs
energy, foreign policy, history, middle east, oil, russia, war
On this episode, continuing the discussion about the effects of the War in Ukraine on the energy sector, Taylor and Lera speak with Foreign Policy columnist and Stimson Center senior fellow Emma Ashford who shares about her book "Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policy of Petrostates." Thanks for listening!
-
Putin's War in Ukraine: Mobilization, Annexation, and the Coming Winter
October 7th, 2022 | Season 5 | 42 mins 13 secs
current events, politics, putin, russia, ukraine, war
On this episode, Lera and Taylor welcome returning guest Leonid Ragozin who candidly updates us on the war in Ukraine and helps us make sense of the fog of this conflict and the continual stream of headline-making actions emanating from the Kremlin.
-
"Black Garden Aflame": The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict with Artyom Tonoyan
September 21st, 2022 | Season 5 | 56 mins 10 secs
armenia, azerbaijan, caucasus, conflict, geopolitics, history, russia, turkey, war
On this first episode of season 5, Lera and Zack talk with Dr. Artyom Tonoyan about the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, delving into the history of tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia's role and presence as mediator, and the various geopolitical vectors in the region. Thanks for listening!
-
"All Future Plunges to the Past" with José Vergara
May 28th, 2022 | Season 4 | 35 mins 43 secs
cold war, culture, history, literature, soviet union, teaching
With the end of the 2021-2022 academic year, we are taking a short reprieve before beginning our new season. In the meantime, we have the pleasure of bringing out a wonderful episode from our backlog with guest José Vergara who speaks both about his passion for Russian literature and his book on the reception of James Joyce in Soviet Russia, which came out in October 2021. We hope you'll enjoy this conversation.
-
The Far-Fetched Far Right Non-Story with Andreas Umland
May 10th, 2022 | Season 4 | 46 mins 9 secs
international law, nuclear war, politics, propaganda, russia, ukraine, war
On this episode, Andreas Umland talks with Lera and Cullan about the Right and the Far Right political movements in Ukraine, addressing the ultranationalist claims propounded by Russian propaganda versus the reality reflected at the election polls in Ukraine since 2014. Dr. Umland convincingly argues that the Far Right narrative is a "non-story" and largely a "manipulation of consciousness."
-
Operation "Denver" and Russia's Disinformation Playbook with Douglas Selvage
April 30th, 2022 | Season 4 | 35 mins 55 secs
cold war, disinformation, intelligence, propaganda, russia, ukraine, ussr
On this episode, continuing our series on Putin's War in Ukraine, Lera and Sergio speak with Douglas Selvage at the Humboldt University of Berlin about his research on the disinformation cooperation between KGB and STASI during the Cold War and specifically the work of Operation "Denver" in the 1980s. Dr. Selvage talks of how these same Cold War propaganda tactics are nearly verbatim recycled today in Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine.
-
Youth Political Engagement in the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential Election
April 15th, 2022 | Season 4 | 45 mins 34 secs
elections, politics, social media, ukraine
In this episode, we feature participants of a UT student-driven project back in spring 2019 which examined Ukrainian youth political engagement during the presidential election in which Volodymyr Zelenskyy ultimately beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko. The team discusses the fascinating process by which they began their research, how they connected with Ukrainian students via Skype (not Zoom!), and what it was like when they eventually traveled to Ukraine itself. The lasting relationships and connections they made during that memorable month abroad in summer 2019 inform their thinking and processing of the War in Ukraine today. Take a listen!
-
Putin's War in Ukraine: "Truth will be told" with Alex Kokcharov
March 9th, 2022 | Season 4 | 48 mins 12 secs
information, propaganda, putin, russia, ukraine, war
Returning guest, Alex Kokcharov, joins us from London to share his personal views and stories on the war in Ukraine. He talks of the stark informational divides that have arisen between Russia and Ukraine, wherein even family on both sides of the Ukraine-Russia border cannot agree on what is happening in this conflict or why.
-
Putin's War in Ukraine: The History of the Conflict with David Marples
March 5th, 2022 | Season 4 | 46 mins 40 secs
belarus, conflict, history, nato, politics, soviet union, ukraine russia war
On this episode, returning guest Dr. David Marples, professor of history at the University of Alberta, graciously joins us to help unpack, if not understand, Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine by providing a basic yet thorough overview of the conflict's history. Visit slavxradio.com/ukraine for ways you can help organizations addressing this humanitarian crisis.
-
Российская оппозиция: Беседа с Владимиром Кара-Мурзой
February 19th, 2022 | Season 4 | 34 mins 19 secs
current affairs, history, politics, russia
В этом выпуске Лера и Миша берут интервью у известного российского оппозиционного политика, историка, и публициста Владимира Кара-Мурзы. Они обсуждают перспективы российской оппозиции на ближайшие годы, состояние гражданского общества в России, положение оппозиционной прессы в России, преследование про-демократических активистов и постепенную, но плавную смену риторики президента Путина в отношении демократии и сменяемости власти в Российской Федерации. Мы искренне надеемся что вам понравится! Желаем приятного прослушивания!
-
"Čas proměn": Prague in a Time of Transformation with Mark Baker
February 3rd, 2022 | Season 4 | 43 mins 45 secs
eastern europe, journalism, prague, travel, writing
On this episode, Lera and our newest host Misha speak with travel writer and journalist Mark Baker based in Prague. They discuss how he went from writing for the likes of Bloomberg and working for Radio Free Europe to researching and creating travel books for Lonely Planet and others. Mark Baker expounds on his latest book, not a travel guide but a memoir, which covers his amazing stories and experiences in Prague in the decade following the Cold War. We hope you enjoy!