Brian Kilgour
Credentials: Slavic Languages and Literature
Position title: Graduate Student
Email: bkilgour@wisc.edu
Address:
Languages: Russian, Kazakh, Serbo-Croatian
Area(s) of Study: 20th Century Russian Literature and Film
Pronouns: he/him
About: Brian takes a multidisciplinary approach to research, using his background in political science to approach literature, film, and theater. Brian is interested in areas and times of transition, particularly the early 20th century and the Thaw. Brian received his BA in Russian and International Relations from Carleton College. After graduating from Carleton, he was awarded a Fulbright Graduate Student Research Fellowship in Russia. Brian lived in Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia, and researched the cultural sustainability of tourism development. Brian completed his MA in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at UW-Madison and wrote a Master’s Thesis titled: “Shaken Aimanov and Abdullah Karsakbaev’s Foundations of Kazakh National Cinema.” During his time at UW-Madison, Brian has been closely involved with the Pushkin Summer Institute-Abroad program, working as a project assistant for the program before serving as the Assistant Resident Director and the Resident Director from 2016-2018.
Brian completed his PhD minor in Film, in which his main interests are theories of audiovisual montage and the use of film for nation-building in the Soviet Union. Currently, Brian is writing his dissertation on tragedy in Russian literature and theater of the 1920s. His first chapter analyzes Konstantin Vaginov’s Goat Song as a response to the influence of tragedy on the literary theories developed by his contemporaries. Brian’s second chapter uses theories of political economy to interpret the intertextual references to tragedy in Yury Olesha’s Envy. His final chapter will explore Nikolai Erdman and/or Mikhail Bulgakov’s tragicomic theater of the 1920s.
Education:
– University of Wisconsin-Madison, MA in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies
– Carleton College, BA in Russian and International Relations
Courses Taught:
– First Semester Russian
– Second Semester Russian
– Survey of 19th Century Russian Literature
– Survey of 20th Century Russian Literature
Awards:
- Fulbright Graduate Student Research Fellowship
- Thomas Shaw Prize for Best Presentation at the 2019 Wisconsin Slavic Conference
Selected Publications:
- Translated short story in: Demidov, Georgiĭ, and Diane Nemec Ignashev. “No Toe Tag.” Five Fates from a Wondrous Planet. Moscow: Vozvrashchenie, 2014.