My research interests lie in three main areas: aesthetics, philosophy of myth, and Russian philosophy. More recently I have also begun explore the aesthetic thought of India, China, and Southeast Asia. In aesthetics, I am interested in the nature of aesthetic experience, art’s relation to religion and philosophy, as well as art’s transformative powers. With myth, I try to understand its role in cultural-historical change and in the evolution of artistic, especially musical, practices. In Russian philosophy I am primarily interested in the aesthetic doctrines of Vladimir Solov’ëv, Viacheslav Ivanov, and Aleksei Losev, but also in such themes as the history of Russian thought, Russian opera, and the so-called “Silver Age” (1890-1925).

I teach graduate seminars in the history of aesthetics (from ancient to postmodern) and world aesthetic ideas (Musical Aesthetics of India, China, and Southeast Asia), as well as specialized seminars in contemporary aesthetics (Art and the Dialectics of Personal Identity). I lead team-taught interdisciplinary arts seminars on such themes as “Poiesis, Praxis, and Teleology,” "Art in Contexts: The Arts in the Twentieth Century," "Wagner's Ring and German Philosophy," and "The Orpheus Myth." I also regularly teach upper-level undergraduate (tier iii) courses on "Art and Morality."

Books:

• The Orpheus Myth and the Powers of Music. Pendragon Press, 2009.
• Ontology, Reality, and Play: Art as Transfigurative Praxis (in progress).
• Aleksei Losev, The Dialectics of Myth. Translated by V. Marchenkov, Routledge, 2003.

Conferences Organized:

• A. F. Losev and Twentieth-Century Human Sciences, Columbus, Ohio, 2003.
• International Conference on Arts and Terror, Athens, Ohio, 2009.

Edited Volumes:

• Between Histories: Art’s Trajectories and Dilemmas, Hampton Press (forthcoming).
• Arts and Terror, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (in progress).

My papers have appeared in such venues as Philosophy in the Contemporary World, Analecta Husserliana, Studies in East European Thought, Phenomenological Investigations, Muzykal'naia akademiia (Musical Academy, Moscow, Russia), and Le Paon d'Héra. Hera’s Peacock. An International Thematic Interdisciplinary Journal (France).

Educational Background:

Ph.D., Interdisciplinary: Philosophy, Music, and Comparative Studies in the Humanities, The Ohio State University, 1998. M. A., Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1994. Diploma, English and Danish, Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages, 1980.