Bonnie Spanier
Irina Novikova, a visiting Fulbright Scholar in Women's Studies during the spring semester, brings a wide range of interests to the University at Albany. As an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Latvia, Dr. Novikova teaches American literature, but she is also deeply involved in understanding the problem of nationality in her own country. After completing her doctoral thesis on the works of Robert Penn Warren, Kurt Vonnegut, William Styron and John Champlin Gardner, Dr. Novikova turned her attention to American women's writing. A British Council fellowship at the Centre for Women's Studies of the University of Lancaster introduced her to feminist theory and feminist literary criticism, strongly shaping her current interests.
Professor Novikova's research as a Fulbright scholar focuses on African American, Native American, and Latina literature in the context of feminist and women's movements, feminist theory, and feminist literary criticism. But she also sees this work as a means to use class, gender, ethnicity, culture, and sexuality in women's literary experiences and discourses with her students at home. By creating a "defamiliarizing" perspective, she hopes to be able to address the problem of nationality within the context of Latvian women's dramatically changing experiences.
Dr. Novikova's wide-ranging interests also extend to Russian womanhood and its cultural representations. The historic changes in East European territories and the former Soviet Union as well as the attention to the diversity of cultures have posed vitally important questions about statehood, national identity and individual identity. She explains that her effort to understand her won roots and, thus, herself as a woman within the confronted legacy of the past, is addressed in her work on nineteenth-century cultural discourses on womanhood and on the "New Woman" in the Soviet Union.
According to Professor Novikova, neither the educational system nor publishers in Latvia support the growing interest in women's issues on the part of women students. Nonetheless, through the concerted efforts of a few faculty, the Centre for Women's Studies at the Academy of Sciences in Riga has managed to create a space for feminist scholarship. She notes that books and materials are badly needed, and would be much appreciated. They can be sent to Dean Assistant Professor Edgars Oshinysh, Visvalsha 4A, Riga LV-1051, Latvia or to Dr. Inna Zarinya, Department of Economy, Academy of Sciences, Turgeneva Str-8, Riga, Latvia.