“‘Know yourself’ and ‘Deface the currency’: two Pythian proverbs. And the latter means, scorn common opinion and value truth over the moral coin of the masses.”— Diogenes
Faculty Information
Additional Faculty Information for Anna Navrotskaya
Education
Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 2017
M.Phil., University of Cambridge, 2003
B.A. and B.S., Kent State University
Publications
“Aleksandr Nevskii: Hagiography and National Biography,” Cahiers du Monde Russe, 46/1-2, janvier-juin 2005, 297-304.
(Forthcoming) “La singularité en relation: la performance dans le théâtre et la société contemporains,” Symbolon, The University of Arts Tîrgu-Mures, Romania
Translations
Interview with Alima Hamel, Trafika Europe Radio, May 2020
Translation: “Of Danes and Denmark,” by Anton Vershovsky; Russian into English; Trafika Europe Quarterly Literary Journal, 13, February 2018, 166-184.
Translation: Poems by Alima Hamel; French into English; Trafika Europe Quarterly Literary Journal, 6, December 2015, 84-101, 279.
Conferences
Atelier de recherche sur les nouvelles formes performatives, Institut de recherche théâtrale et multimédia, Université des Arts de Târgu-Mures Romania, November 2019
“Belonging to a Non-Place and Artistic Creativity as a Survival Strategy,” Crossing Over Symposium, Cleveland State University, October 2019
“Performing Poetry: Negative Ontology of the Migrating Self,” MLA Convention, 2018
“Performing In-Between and Migrating Self: Conversations with Immigrant Artists in Toulouse,” Crossing Over Symposium, Cleveland State University, October 2017
Roundtable Discussion of the 2015 Nobel Prize Svetlana Alexievich, Comparative Literature Luncheon Series, PSU, December 2015
“From The Burning Brazier to The Rules of the Game: Silent Ivan Mosjoukine Speaking to Jean Renoir,” Contemporary French Civilization Conference, September 2015
“Des lieux imaginaires aux non-lieux: le geste autoréflexif chez Marc Augé et Didier Van Cauwelaert,” MLA Convention, 2014
“La performance et l’identité culturelle en transformation: d’Afrique à Toulouse,” MLA Convention, 2014
“La création artistique comme pensée mythique dans la condition postmoderne,” NE MLA Convention, 2012
“Un argument cinématographique dans les débats sur la ville: Chacun cherche son chat,” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, 2011
“Mythopoesis in Historical Cinema and the Advent of Sound,” MLA Convention, 2009
Public Lecture
“Les arts du spectacle et l’identité: création, transformation, immigration,” The fête du quartier Saint Cyprien: Toulouse, France, 2013
I learned French because I wanted to sing like Edith Piaf. For many years now, French and Francophone cultures have been my intellectual home, with the main focus on theater and performance, and French-Russian cultural interchanges. I still sing, of course, but I have to admit the sad truth that my voice will never sound like that of the great French singer. “Every person has his/her own note,” says Lao Kouyate, a griot from Senegal whom I interviewed in Toulouse. I have had the great privilege of learning from both people and books, and sharing this wealth with my students while helping them on their own unique paths to acquire knowledge has been my biggest honor and pleasure.
Jaques Prévert once said: “There are no problems, there are only professors.” As a professor, I do my best to be as little of a problem as I can. My students and I agree that there is no boring knowledge: there is only a bored mind. My research and my teaching are very closely related, one informing and enriching the other. My goals as a researcher and writer do not represent a separate part of my professional existence but have always been intertwined with those as a mentor and educator. The more I discover on my own intellectual journey, the more I can share with my students, and the better I can help them to find their own way of lifelong learning. I do not want them to memorize information: I want them to keep an inquiring mind and learn how to analyze what they discover. Avançons!