Biography
Stella is a Ph.D. student in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She works as a language instructor and translator in Russian and Polish, and assists with the Khvoshchinskaya Sisters Digital Collection through the Slavic Reference Service at the International and Area Studies Library. Stella additionally organizes the Socialist Realism Working Group affiliated with SEELANGS.
Research Interests
Socialist Realism, Soviet propaganda and censorship, literary and cultural production in Poland and Ukraine during Stalinism
Education
M.A./Ph.D. Slavic Languages and Literatures; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2026-present
B.A. Russian Language and Literature, European History; University of Vermont, 2026
Awards and Honors
Distinguished Graduate College Fellowship in the Humanities and Arts; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2026-2031
Critical Language Scholarship Program (Russian), U.S. Department of State, 2026
Recent Publications
"Wisdom in Submission: The Structural Containment of Female Knowledge and Autonomy Within the Russian Folkloric Tradition Through Social Subordination and Alienation." University of California Undergraduate Journal of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Volume 19, 2025-2026.