Oksana Sarkisova

Born in Russia. She studied cultural sociology and communication science at the University of Moscow. After completing her studies in 1997, she received a study grant from the University of New Jersey. In March 2003 she received a grant from the Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Ostmitteleuropas (GWZO) (‘East-European Center for Studies in the Humanities’) for her research project, "Visuelle und historische Kulturen Ostmitteleuropas im Prozess staatlicher und gesellschaftlicher Modernisierung seit 1918” (‘Visual and Historical Cultures of eastern Middle-Europe during the Process of State and Societal Modernization since 1918’). In her dissertation "Visions of Community” – on which she is currently working as a doctoral candidate – she analyzes Soviet film of the 1920s in the context of the discourse of identity politics. In addition Sarkisova is interested in the correspondences between Soviet and German films of the 1920s. Among her current essays are "Early Soviet ‘Kulturfilms’: the ‘cine-conquest’ of Caucasus” (2003), "Life As It Should Be? Early Non-fiction Cinema in Russia” (2003), and "Grenzeprojektionen: Bilder von Grenzgebieten im sowjetischen Film” [‘Border Projections: Pictures of Border Areas in Soviet Film’] (2002).