University of Southern California
USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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About
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Billy GunnLecturerContact Information E-mail: gunn@usc.edu Phone: (213) 740-2735 Office: THH 255 LINKS Curriculum Vitae |
Education |
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 Ph.D. Slavic Languages and Literature, University of Southern California, 2012
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M.A. Theatre, Brigham Young University, 2008
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M.A. Russian, University of Southern California, 2007
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B.A. Summa Cum Laude, Russian, Arizona State University, 2001
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Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History |
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Non-Tenure Track Appointments |
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Lecturer, School of Dramatic Arts and Slavic, University of Southern California,
Fall
2012
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Associate Faculty, Theatre Department, MiraCosta College, 2007-2011
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Adjunct Faculty, Theatre Department, Scottsdale Community College, 2002-2006
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Lecturer/Teaching Assistant, Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Brigham Young University, 2003-2005
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Assistant Lecturer, Writing Program, University of Southern California, 2010-2011
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Other Employment |
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Research Assistant - (Exhibition) Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910-1917, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2008-2009
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Description of Research |
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Summary Statement of Research Interests |
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| In my interdisciplinary research, I am constantly drawn to examine the process through which culture is produced. I am particularly interested in how discursive undercurrents impact artistic practice. This includes analyzing overt attempts by totalitarian regimes to prescribe aesthetic and ideological norms, as well as the ways individual artists respond to such demands—both consciously and unconsciously. Focusing on the theatre of the early Soviet era and working under the assumption that theatre production is an inherently synthetic undertaking—an arena in which the literary, visual, and aural arts confront social and political discourse before of a live audience—I explore how classical Russian literature was performed during the 1920s. My approach balances the theoretical training I have acquired as a literary scholar with my practical training as a theatre director and actor. | |
Research Specialties |
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| Russian Literature, Russian Language, Theatre History, Performance Studies, Acting Theories, Translation, Early Soviet Theatre Practice, Russian Avant-garde, Shakespeare Studies | |
Conferences and Other Presentations |
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Other Presentations |
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"Alexander Ostrovsky on the Stalinist Stage", The End of Music History, Princeton,
Spring
2012
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"Negotiating the Transition: Anatoly Lunacharsky and the Economics of Early-Soviet Theatre", American Society for Theatre Research, Montreal,
Fall
2011
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"Directors, Dramaturgs, and Deconstruction: Meyerhold’s and Eisenstein’s Textual Adaptations of Alexander Ostrovsky on the Soviet Stage of the 1920s", American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, Pasadena,
Spring
2011
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"Backward or Forward: Alexander Ostrovsky, Melodrama, and the early-Soviet Stage", Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Los Angeles,
Fall
2010
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"Theatre of Re-Appropriation: Reinventing Alexander Ostrovsky on Soviet Stages of the 1920s and 1930s", Comparative Drama Conference, Los Angeles,
Spring
2010
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"Branding Russica: Orientalizing Self and Other in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes", American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Boston,
Fall
2009
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"Bard Economics: Evaluating Shakespeare's Cultural Value", American Society for Theatre Research , Las Vegas,
Fall
2004
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