OU’s Romanoff Center and WLT to Host Event on LGBTQ+ Representation in Russia

The University of Oklahoma’s Romanoff Center for Russian Studies and World Literature Today invite you to a free zoom conversation scheduled for Sept. 16, 2025, from 5:00-7:00pm cdt. The event will focus on Pioneer Summer, a young adult romance trilogy by Elena Malisova and Kateryna Sylvanova that went viral and prompted a new crackdown on LGBTQ+ representation in Russia.

The event will be moderated by Eliot Borenstein, professor of Russian and cultural studies at NYU. The speakers include:

• Anne O. Fisher, the book’s translator (and alumna of OU’s Russian program)

• Julie A. Cassiday, professor of Russian and gender studies at Williams College

• Rustam Alexander, historian and author of Red Closet: The Hidden History of Gay Oppression in the USSR

Please click on this link to register.

You can read Dr. Cassiday’s review of Pioneer Summer in the September issue of WLT and learn more about the trilogy in this New York Times article.