Russian Faculty
Full Time Faculty
Svetlana V. Cheloukhina
Associate Professor
Undergraduate Coordinator
Russian Program
PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto
MA in Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto
BA and MA (equiv.) in Russian Language & Literature, and English Language & Literature, Rostov State Pedagogical University
Queens Hall 330B
718-997-5992
svetlana.cheloukhina@qc.cuny.edu
Svetlana Cheloukhina is Associate Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator of Russian Program at Queens College.
Dr. Cheloukhina teaches courses, covering all levels and aspects of the Russian language and literature (Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Nabokov, Pasternak, Russian Fairy Tales, Russian Culture & Thought, The Russian Silver Age and Avant-Garde, Russian Drama, Russian & East European Cinema, and survey courses).
Her research interests concentrate on modernism, the Silver Age, Acmeism, avant-garde, aspects of iconography, cultural history of the North Caucasus, and contemporary Russian art. She has authored the book on Nikolai Zabolotsky (The Poetic Universe of Nikolai Zabolotsky. Moscow: Iazyki russkoi kul’tury, 2006), co-edited Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in the Republic of Kazakhstan (Astana: 2014), and is currently completing her monograph about Acmeist poet Mikhail Zenkevich, Mikhail Zenkevich: A Literary Biography.
Her most recent article, “You Are the Only One I Can be Myself With” [In Russian. S. Cheloukhina “‘Ty edinstvennyi, s kem ia mogu byt’, kak s samim soboi’: Perepiska G.P. Fedotova i M.A. Zenkevicha. 1912–1927”], is forthcoming in The New Review, New York (Novyi Zhurnal, New York), in No. 313, December 2023.
Her articles and book reviews were published by Brepols, Routledge, Studies in Theory of Literary Plot and Narratology, Slavic and East European Journal, Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue canadienne des slavistes, Australian Slavonic and East European Studies, and New Zealand Slavonic Journal.
At Queens, she has served as Deputy Chair of the Department of European Languages and Literatures, undergraduate advisor, adjunct supervisor, liaison for the National Slavic Honor Society Dobro Slovo and the College Study Abroad Office, and as alternate senator at the Academic Senate. She has developed and implemented the first Russian online program.
Dr. Cheloukhina has taught and delivered lectures in the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, Russia, and Kazakhstan. She has received Sloan, Mellon, PSC-CUNY Research Foundation and other grants and awards.
In March 2023, she received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching by Full-Time Faculty in the School of Arts and Humanities from President Frank H. Wu.
Adjunct Faculty
Rima Kulimova
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Russian language pedagogy and psychology.
Lomonosov Moscow State University and Nalchik State Pedagogical University, Russia.
Research Interests: Russian language and literature pedagogy and methodology; Russian language and literature in the bilingual environment; typology and comparative study of Russian and English.
Queens Hall 205L
718-997-5984
Rima.Kulimova@qc.cuny.edu
Olga Permitina
PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin-Madison
MA in Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College
BA in English, Mount Holyoke College
Research interests: Language pedagogy and second language acquisition; 19th century European travel literature and urbanism; Slavic folklore; Polish women writers.
Queens Hall 205L
718-997-5984
olga.permitina@qc.cuny.edu
Aksana Pisetskaya
PhD in Russian Language, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russia, 2002
MA and BA in Russian and Belarusian Languages and Literature, Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus, 1995
Research interests focus on Russian and Belarusian as foreign languages, linguistic and cultural learning needs of heritage speakers of Russian, intercultural competence, and methodology of teaching Slavic languages
Queens Hall 205L
718-997-5984
aksana.pisetskaya@qc.cuny.edu
Zinaida Sabitova
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Doctor of Philological Sciences in the Grammar of Old Russian,
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan.
Research interests: Russian grammar, syntax, historical grammar, lingua-cultural studies, intercultural communication, methods of teaching Russian, and functional literacy in education.
Publications: “Morphology of the Modern Russian language” (Almaty, 2011), “Lingua-Cultural Studies” (Moscow, 2013), “Historical Grammar of the Russian Language” (Moscow, 2014), “Russian Grammar. Advanced level” (Ankara, 2016, 2017), “Functional Syntax of Russian Language” (Moscow, 2019), “Developing Functional Literacy Skills of Teaching the Russian Language in High-Schools” (Moscow, 2023), and “The Russian Language for 5th–11th grades” (Almaty).
Queens Hall 205L
718-997-5984
zinaida.sabitova@qc.cuny.edu
Malika Ziyamova
MA in Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University
MA and PhD in Political Science, University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Research interests: Russian history, culture, literature, and language. Political, social, religious, and intellectual history of the imperial, Soviet and modern Russia.
Queens Hall 205L
718-997-5984
malika.ziyamova@qc.cuny.edu
Emeritus Faculty
Thomas E. Bird
Associate Professor Emeritus
During his fifty-plus-year career at Queens College, Thomas Bird has led the Slavic Department and the Russian Program, and served in multiple administrative positions both at the College and the university levels. With degrees from Syracuse University, Middlebury College, Princeton University, and Ukrainian Free University, Prof. Bird has taught undergraduate courses in Russian, Belarusian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Yiddish languages and literatures. He has published widely on the subjects of 19th- and 20th-century Russian and Belarusian literature and culture. He led the Spring Slavic Lecture Series, supervised the Russian Study Abroad Program in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev, and served as faculty in the field of Russian Studies for National Endowment in the Humanities-sponsored Summer Seminars. He has received the Presidential Teaching Award and other awards and honors from the Belarusian and Ukrainian governments.