On Tuesday 3 December 2024, my new colleague and PhD student Ilya Skokleenko, from Belarus, will present his research project at the International Workshop ‘Reflections on Russian and German Literary Exile’, which is being organised by Professor Arvi Sepp (VUB), co-supervisor.
Ilya’s research, funded by the Flemish Research Council (FWO), explores contemporary Russophone dissident poetry of exile and political resistance in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The project examines the Resistance and Opposition Arts Review (ROAR) journal as a new modality of tamizdat – a dissident network of authors, editors, and translators – focusing on how the intersection of political commentary and literary aesthetics in the works of poetry published in ROAR shapes cultural identity within the Eastern-European post-Soviet space, both in the metropolia and in exile.
Prior to commencing his PhD at KU Leuven, Ilya was awarded a Doctoral Grant by the Doctoral Programme in Literary Studies (DPL) at the University of Basel, where he spent one semester initiating his research. He holds a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literary Studies Magna Cum Laude from the University of Brussels (VUB). His MA thesis, titled “Transcending the Curtain. Joseph Brodsky’s Bilingual Poetry: A (Self) Translation Study”, received the Jeanne Lonnoy Award for Literary Studies as the best MA thesis in English, German, or Dutch. His academic interests include poetics and politics, literature of exile and political dissent, and translation as a form of cultural activism. Beyond academia, Ilya is a publishing poet-translator.
You’re very welcome to join our discussion on literary exile in Brussels. Please sign up by sending an e-mail to Prof. Sepp.
Van Poesjkin tot Poetin en snel terug 