The latest author to answer our Q&A call is Michael David-Fox, author of the new book Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. UPP: You’ve spent nearly two decades studying various aspects of Russian history. What intrigues you most about the region? MDF: When I first got into Russian Studies I was captivated by the nineteenth-century intelligentsia and its classic thinkers, from Herzen to Lenin. I was drawn in by the “cursed questions” about Russia and the West and the role of the revolutionary movement. The Possessed is still my favorite Dostoevsky novel. There was…

Writing against Racial Injury The Politics of Asian American Student Rhetoric Haivan V. Hoang RHETORIC/LITERACY/ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES “Hoang offers an insightful thick description of Asian American activism rhetoric at the sites of language and literacy production. It teaches us to rethink what we mean by ‘student writing’ and the ‘teaching of writing’ in light of a broad range of self-sponsored, extracurricular rhetorical acts by Asian American activists.” —Min-Zhan Lu, University of Louisville Bringing together language and literacy studies, Asian American history and rhetoric, and critical race theory, Hoang uses historiography and ethnography to explore the politics of Asian American language…

Soviet Space Mythologies Public Images, Private Memories, and the Making of a Cultural Identity Slava Gerovitch HISTORY OF SCIENCE/RUSSIAN STUDIES “Soviet Space Mythologies makes a major contribution to the history of Soviet space flight and culture. It places the story of Russian space conquest into the broader history of space flight—including references to pioneering scholars in the history of NASA. This is also the first book to focus on the professional identity of the cosmonaut and space engineer.” —Andrew Jenks, California State University, Long Beach Slava Gerovitch explores the history of the Soviet human space program within a political and…

Hemingway’s Café at 3911 Forbes Ave. in Oakland, in the heart of Pitt’s main campus, hosts a Summer Poetry Series. Founded by area poet Jimmy Cvetic in the 1970s, Pittsburgh Magazine dubbed it “a grand tradition of Pittsburgh literary culture.” The series brings together local and nationally known authors every Tuesday night at 8 p.m., from May through July. The events are free, and there is an open mic after the featured readers. Cvetic hosts the readings and poet Joan Bauer curates. On July 7, Ed Ochester, editor of the Pitt Poetry Series, is among the readers. Ochester also edited…

Our poet J. Allyn Rosser, author of Mimi’s Trapeze, muses about the rarity of seeing someone “unwired” on the Ohio University campus where she teaches, or so it seemed. . . Gazebo Gazer A month ago I was walking across campus. It was an almost-spring morning in Ohio, crocuses just up, squirrels unkinking themselves, and the birds making slightly more enthusiastic noises than one hears in January or February. The air smelled clean. The sun was visible in the sky, but pacing itself, rationing its rays – you could almost number them – supplying the faintest suggestion of warmth. I…