Zhanna BudenkovaVisiting Assistant Professor

Zhanna Budenkova is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Emory University. Her area of expertise covers Soviet and Russian cinemas, and her dissertation focuses on science fiction films about outer space made in the USSR. Zhanna received her M.A. in Russian Studies from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Ph.D. in Film/Media and Slavic Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Her recent peer-reviewed publications include “Sanctuary Earth in Ecological Science Fiction Cinema in the USSR: Per Aspera ad Astra,” written for The February Journal (previously, The Garage Journal, the lead publication of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow), as well as a chapter on recent Russian cinema, “Fragments of Empire: The Heartland in Post-Soviet Film,” in the book Cinemasaurus: Russian Film in Contemporary Context. In addition to these publications, Zhanna has authored a number of film reviews for KinoKultura and for the Russian Film Symposium (recently, the New East Cinema Symposium) at the University of Pittsburgh. She helped to organize the Symposium in 2016-2022.