Writing this was a journey (I moved countries twice during the process), but I'm very proud of it, and very, very grateful to all those who helped make it possible.

If accounts of 20th century literature which play up atomization and individualism don't mesh with what you see when you read, this might be up your street.

6/ / While I was in Moscow, going under the radar was part of survival. It’s hard to unlearn. Not sure a Bluesky thread on an account I seldom use does much, but suffice it to say, I am proud of my contribution.

5/ The great majority of students were great, many much braver than me. Many of those are doing great work themselves now, either inside or outside Russia. I'm glad to have been told by a number of them that my work made a difference in their development.

4/ I didn't do that. I had to mask a lot of what I did to make it happen, write course programmes which didn’t tell the true story. Still I had to fight off official complaints from a certain fraction of students that I was teaching ‘conspiracy theories.’ Thankfully a tiny minority.

3/ I could be modest, but it’s unhelpful. Literary study in Russia is about enforcing an authorized culture, a corpus of great men with great ideas to parrot. I was recruited on the expectation that I would be an ornament, teaching a similarly superficial, decorative overview of English literature.

2/ In Moscow (among other things) I taught queer literary theory, post-colonial theory, a straight up class on critical thinking. I should be glad I made it to 2022 without serious pain falling on me. But of course I regret I’ll likely never do anything as directly impactful again.