Julie Draskoczy

Lecturer in Slavic Languages and Literatures
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow

Contact:

Building 240, Room 109
julied1@stanford.edu

Office Hours:

By appointment

OVERVIEW:

Julie Draskoczy’s work on the Gulag combines her interests in Stalinism, criminal culture and Soviet subjectivity. In 2010, she received her PhD in Russian literature from the University of Pittsburgh, with concentrations in Cultural and Jewish Studies. Julie also works closely with film studies, publishing on contemporary Russian cinema and attending international Russian film festivals.

Julie earned a dual degree in Slavic Studies and Comparative Literature at New York University, writing her honors thesis on Stalin’s legacy in samizdat literature. After receiving her BA, she served as an editorial assistant for the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. She currently holds a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities at Stanford University and teaches in the department of Slavic Languages and Literature.

Courses

SLAVGEN

196

Incarceration as Inspiration: Russian and American Prison Narratives

Win

2011-12

This course will employ a multitude of prison-related texts (letters, memoirs, short stories, historical accounts, films, and theoretical criticism) to explore the connection between incarceration and inspiration. Together we will examine the following questions: what is the link between creativity and the penitentiary? What is the allure of crime and the function of prison? What effect does the restriction of space have on the mind? How does life-writing versus fictional writing capture the prison experience? The quarter will culminate with a visit to an area correctional facility.