
Senior Lecturer – PhD, UT Austin
Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies
The University of Texas at Austin
2505 University Avenue, Stop F3600
Burdine Hall 452
Austin, TX 78712
marina.alexandrova@utexas.edu
Marina received her MA in English from Saratov State University, and her PhD in Comparative Literature (Russian and Spanish American Literatures) from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr Alexandrova’s current research interests include international modernism and avant-garde, Russian radical and revolutionary movements, and spirituality in Imperial Russia, especially the spread of Western esoteric thought and Eastern philosophies in the late 19th century. In the fall of 2020, she taught her new course Tsars and Mystics, examining (un)Orthodox spiritual practices and unusual confessors of Russian rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Nicholas the Bloody. Recently, Dr Alexandrova shared her expertise in Russian Imperial history as an onscreen expert for the acclaimed docudrama The Last Czars. As a visiting professor at Université Paris Nanterre during spring 2020, Dr Alexandrova taught two graduate seminars. Her publications include: “Experiential Learning in Drama-Based Russian Language Courses.” Teaching Russian Without a Textbook. Routledge Series on Russian Language Pedagogy and Research. Routledge, 2024; “The Occult Nineteenth Century: Roots, Developments, and Impact on the Modern World.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft. Forthcoming Summer 2023; “Helena Blavatsky,” “Theosophy,” “The Theosophical Society.” Great Russian Encyclopedia (Bol’shaya Rossiiskaya Entsiklopedia Online). Russian Academy of Sciences, 2023; “From Christ to Krishna: Tolstoy and Eastern Philosophies.” Critical Insights: Leo Tolstoy, edited by Rachel Stauffer, Salem Press, 2018, pp. 206-220; From Christ to Krishna: Tolstoy and Eastern Philosophies in Critical Insights: Leo Tolstoy (Salem Press, 2017).