About
Sam holds an M.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, where they also earned a B.A. in History and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and were a host and producer of the podcast The Slavic Connexion. Their MA thesis, "Croatian, Dalmatian, Queer: New Post-Yugoslav Film and Literature," examined two emergent trends in post-Yugoslav culture: a growing body of queer film and literature and antitouristic depictions of the Dalmatian coast. Sam continues to build on this work by researching a growing corpus of films and novels that feature ambivalent attachments to the Adriatic Coast amid deindustrialization and privatization. They also research contemporary narratives of queerness and migration in Eastern Europe; alternative cultural, political, and urbanist projects; socialist heritage; and new trends in ex-Yugoslav literature in the context of global/world literature and in relation to market categories. Their literary translations can be found in TROIKA, Asymptote, Zenithism (1921–1927): A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology, Turkoslavia, and Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation. In 2023 they were awarded Words Without Borders' first Momentum Grant for Early Career Translators. Sam is also pursuing certificates in Museum Studies, LGBTQ Studies, and Graduate Teaching (CRLT).
Research/Teaching Interests
Comparative Yugoslav, East European, Mediterranean, and North American film and literature; Marxist aesthetics and geography; cultural studies; cognitive mapping (Sandoval/Jameson); world/global literature; comparative postsocialisms; literary translation; queer and feminist theories; DEI and labor in universities/museums/libraries; critical pedagogy
Languages
Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian
Macedonian
Ukrainian
Professional Memberships
Feminist Autonomous Centre (
FAC)
Association for Slavic,East European, and Eurasian Studies (
ASEEES)
Association for "Women" in Slavic Studies (
AWSS)
American Literary Translators Association (
ALTA)
Courses Taught
—Slavic 312: Central European Cinema
—AMS 356: Main Currents in American Culture Since 1865 (UT-Austin)
—UGS 303: Tsars and Mystics (Russian history through Romanovs and religion, UT-Austin)