School of Modern Languages & Cultures

Dr James Rann

  • Senior Lecturer (School of Modern Languages & Cultures)

Biography

While I am officially James Rann, I am most often known as Jamie Rann and most of my less academic work has appeared under that name. It's like having a very bad secret identity. 

I'm lucky that I've been able to turn my life-long interest in the languages and cultures of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and their successor states into not just one job, but many, and as well as being a researcher and teacher, I have worked as a translator, journalist, literary agent and more. 

Before joining the University of Glasgow, I worked at the universities of Birmingham, Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, and UCL, where I completed my doctoral research at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Until I succumbed to the irresistible glamour of academia, I worked on different projects related to contemporary Eastern Europe and Eurasia. I have translated novels, short stories and poems and I translated and edited Subkultura, a book on Russian subcultures. I was an editor of The Calvert Journal, an online magazine about East European culture, and was previously a trustee of the Calvert 22 Foundation. Articles I have written have appeared in The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement and on the NYU All the Russias blog. 

I am a trustee and secretary of the Edwin Morgan Trust, which honours the legacy of Scotland's first makar Edwin Morgan by supporting contemporary poetry and translation. I also serve as a mentor in the UK-Ukraine Twinning programme 

Research interests

At the core of my research is an interest in experimentation and identity and especially how these two intertwined in the turbulent years of the end of the Russian Empire and the beginning of the Soviet Union. My first book, The Unlikely Futurist (2020) investigated the question of originality in Futurist poetry written in Russian between 1910 and 1930 — how can modernist writers ever hope to create something genuinely new? — and how this affects the way they think about history, identity and society. 

Within that same late-imperial / early-Soviet context, I've written on a number of topics such as lifewriting, nonsense, and the interface of literature and architecture. I have examined the influence of Russophone modernism, via translation into Scots, on Scottish literature. My interest in Scottish literature, and especially Edwin Morgan, has also prompted me to write on the intersections of Scotttish and Ukrainian national consciousness in poetry.

This long-overdue interest in Ukrainian culture was, naturally, galvanised by my revulsion at Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and desire to protect and share Ukraine's culture riches. The war has also had significant impacts on my research priporities. In 2022-23, I carried out two projects devised in response to the war:

These projects have, in turn, helped to shape my research practice and plans, ensure that my scholarly reckoning with the early Soviet period eschews Russocentrism and acknowledges the diversity and tensions with different linguistic and cultural contexts. I have, for instance, begun to work in the context of early Soviet Uzbekistan, examining both Russophone and Uzbek-language texts as part of the British Academy-funded project Veils and Curtains: Sex, Spectacle and Stalinism in Uzbek Theatre, 1925-1941.

At the same time, Ukraine and Ukrainian have become more central to my practice as a researcher, supervisor, and teacher. I have worked with colleagues at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy on projects connected to trauma in literature and I serve as a mentor on the UK-Ukraine Universities Twinning scheme. I am currently working on a translation of a play written, in Ukrainian and Russian, in 1918 by Volodymyr Vynnychenko.

This broadening of my horizons, in combination with my longstanding interest in fashion and its intersection with literature, informs my second book, currently being written under the working title Red Threads: A Cultural History of the Early Soviet Union Told through Clothes, 1917-41. This multilingual, multi-perspectival project, which from September 2026, will be supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, uses the cultural imprint of particularly meaningful garments -- the leather jacket, the embroidered shirt, the overcoat, the top hat, and the veil -- to give a new more plural, ground-up account of questions of identity and belonging in the culture(s) of the early Soviet Union.

I am keen to pursue collaborative research  

 

 

Research groups

  • Modernities

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011
Number of items: 54.

2026

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2026) Inventing the “Woman of the East” in early Soviet Uzbekistan: coloniality, queerness, and the quest for authenticity in the Orientalist fiction of Lola-Khan Saifullina. Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies, (Accepted for Publication)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2026) Reorientalism: From Avant-Garde to Soviet National Form. By Nariman Skakov. New York: Columbia University Press, 2025. 360pp. List of archives. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. $35.00, paperback. Slavic Review, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

2025

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2025) Pushkin, The Decembrists, and Civic Sentimentalism by Emily Wang (review). Modern Language Review, 120(3), pp. 440-442. (doi: 10.1353/mlr.00118)[Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2025) Kahn, Andrew and Mark Lipovetsky. All the World on a Page: A Critical Anthology of Modern Russian Poetry. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2025. 560 pp. Notes and References. Suggestions for Further Reading. Index. $39.95: £35.00. Slavonic and East European Review, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

2024

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) 'Be ready to come back': A new avant-garde of Russian poetry. Times Literary Supplement(6330), [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) Stitches in time: Maiakovskii’s overcoat and temporal self-fashioning in the Soviet Union. In: Deschepper, Julie, Kalashnikov, Antony and Rossi, Federica (eds.) Time and Material Culture: Rethinking Soviet Temporalities. Series: Routledge histories of Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge, pp. 187-207. ISBN 9781032451657 (doi: 10.4324/9781003375715-13)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) Neither London nor Moscow: Decolonial Dialogues. [Website]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Mackinnon, Katherine (Eds.) (2024) Власними словами In Our Own Words: Poems, Translations and the Many Languages of Home, from Ukraine to Glasgow. Tapsalteerie: Tarland, Aberdeenshire. ISBN 9781738439645

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Mackinnon, Katherine (2024) Власними словами = In Our Own Words: Multilingual Translation Workshops. UNESCO RILA Podcast Episode 67. [Audio]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Mackinnon, Katherine (2024) UNESCO RILA: The sounds of integration. E67 - Власними словами | In Our Own Words: Multilingual Translation Workshops. [Audio]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) Russian poetry and the rewilding of Scottish literature: 1917 to the present. In: Maguire, Muireann and McAteer, Cathy (eds.) Translating Russian Literature in the Global Context. Open Book Publishers: Cambridge, pp. 253-280. ISBN 9781800649859 (doi: 10.11647/obp.0340.15)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) Marks of distinction. Quotation and ostranenie in the work of Vladimir Majakovskij. In: Meyer, Meyer and Berlina, Alexandra (eds.) A Hundred Years of Ostranenie: Readings of, in and with Viktor Šklovskij's Founding Word of Modern Literary Theory. sdvig press, pp. 253-275. ISBN 9782940738052

2023

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2023) Eddie and the Library Angel: Ukrainian Poetry in the Edwin Morgan Archive [blog post]. [Website]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2023) Ukrainians Wha Hae. [Website]

2022

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2022) Subcurrents: The nuances of Russian responses to James Joyce. Times Literary Supplement(6198), [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2022) How swearing became a weapon of resistance for Ukrainians. Guardian, 13 Apr.

2021

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2021) Signs and wonders: two approaches to nonsense in Russia. In: Barton, Anna and Williams, James (eds.) The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh. ISBN 9781474423847

Donovan, Victoria, Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Tsymbalyuk, Darya (2021) Slavic Studies Goes Public: Who? What? Why? Where? When? Modern Languages Open, 1, 4. (doi: 10.3828/mlo.v0i0.349)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2021) Does impact reinforce the boundary between the academy and the world? Modern Languages Open, 1, 11. (doi: 10.3828/mlo.v0i0.355)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2021) Clothes, costume, and fashion in Russian modernism. In: Rabinowitz, Paula (ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190201098 (doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1244)

2020

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2020) The Unlikely Futurist: Pushkin and the Invention of Originality in Russian Modernism. Series: Publications of the Wisconsin center for Pushkin studies. University of Wisconsin Press: Madison, Wisconsin. ISBN 9780299328108

2019

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2019) Happy endings. Times Literary Supplement(6070), [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2019) Review of Katharine Hodgson, Joanne Shelton, Alexandra Smith, Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry: Reinventing the Canon. Modern Language Review, 114(1), pp. 176-177. (doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.114.1.0176)[Book Review]

2018

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2018) Shimmering substance: Short stories shedding light on the career of a rediscovered author. Times Literary Supplement(6031), [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2018) The Rehearsals by Vladimir Sharov. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

2017

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Russian Absurd by Daniiil Karms. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Invisible, angry: some sights of the Russian populace. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Living as a legend: Modernist theatricality and Stalinist self-fashioning in the lifewriting of Vasilii Kamenskii. Modern Language Review, 112(4), pp. 953-980. (doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.112.4.0953)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Inferiority Complex: Why the New Film Adaptation of Lady Macbeth is Too Subtle for its Own Good. [Website]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) How to make a Russian salad: food, art and patriotism on the internet in Russia. Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media, 16, pp. 51-78.

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Vladimir M. by Robert Littell. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Voiceless Vanguard: The Infantilist Aesthetic of the Russian Avant-Garde by Sara Pankenier Weld. Modern Language Review, 112(1), pp. 289-291. (doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.112.1.0289)[Book Review]

Troitskii, Artemii (2017) Subkultura: Stories of Youth and Resistance in Russia 1815-2017 [Editor and Translator]. [Scholarly Editions]

2015

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2015) Evil empire: why is the post-Soviet world so obsessed with Star Wars? [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2015) Chiselled features: the hard-nosed politics of Moscow’s St Vladimir statue. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2015) Go forth and multiply: notes from an accidental fertility tour of Central Asia. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2015) Islands in the stream: the strange charm that for centuries has been luring people to Solovki. [Website]

2014

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Universal Pictures: Zvyagintsev, Dostoevsky and the Politics of the Particular. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Beauty and the east: allure and exploitation in post-Soviet ruin photography. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Manifesta destiny: what does the St Petersburg-set art biennial mean for Russia? [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Narkomfin: can a utopian housing project survive in modern Moscow? [Website]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Taboo Pushkin: Topics, Texts, Interpretations by Alyssa Dinega Gillespie; The Poetics of Impudence and Intimacy in the Age of Pushkin by Joe Peschio; Pushkin's Historical Imagination by Svetlana Evdokimova. Modern Language Review, 109(2), pp. 584-586. (doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.109.2.0584)[Book Review]

Starobinets, Anna and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) The Icarus Gland and Other Stories of Metamorphosis [Translator]. Skyscraper: Newbold on Stour. ISBN 9780955181054

2013

Fedorova, Anastasiia and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2013) A day on the Moyka, St Petersburg, Russia. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2013) Meanwhile, in Russia: Buzzfeed, Russia and the west. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2013) Double trouble: conceptualist masters John Baldessari and Ilya Kabakov at Moscow Biennale. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2013) Letter from the fascinating, forbidden land of Dagestan. [Website]

2012

Reyes, Heather, Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Samsonova, Marina (Eds.) (2012) St Petersburg. Series: City-pick. Oxygen Books. ISBN 9780956787620

Bykov, Dmitry and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) Mozharovo [Translator]. In: Shubina, E.D. and Bouis, Antonina W. (eds.) Read Russia! An Anthology of New Voices. Read Russia: New York.

Kostin, Pavel and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) It’s Time [Translator]. Urban Romantics: London. ISBN 9781907832185

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-35 at the Royal Academy [Exhibition Review]. Opticon 1826, 12,

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) Maiakovskii and the mobile monument: alternatives to iconoclasm in Russian culture. Slavic Review, 71(4), pp. 766-791. (doi: 10.5612/slavicreview.71.4.0766)

Starobinets, Anna and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) The Living [Translator]. Hesperus Press: London. ISBN 9781843913771

2011

Carr, Daniela and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (Eds.) (2011) A New Chapter, Part 2: Russian Writing from the 21st Century. Series: Rossica. Academia Rossica: London. ISBN 9781905345083

This list was generated on Fri Jun 26 05:11:18 2026 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Book Reviews | Edited Books | Scholarly Editions | Audio | Website
Number of items: 54.

Articles

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2026) Inventing the “Woman of the East” in early Soviet Uzbekistan: coloniality, queerness, and the quest for authenticity in the Orientalist fiction of Lola-Khan Saifullina. Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies, (Accepted for Publication)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2022) How swearing became a weapon of resistance for Ukrainians. Guardian, 13 Apr.

Donovan, Victoria, Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Tsymbalyuk, Darya (2021) Slavic Studies Goes Public: Who? What? Why? Where? When? Modern Languages Open, 1, 4. (doi: 10.3828/mlo.v0i0.349)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2021) Does impact reinforce the boundary between the academy and the world? Modern Languages Open, 1, 11. (doi: 10.3828/mlo.v0i0.355)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Living as a legend: Modernist theatricality and Stalinist self-fashioning in the lifewriting of Vasilii Kamenskii. Modern Language Review, 112(4), pp. 953-980. (doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.112.4.0953)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) How to make a Russian salad: food, art and patriotism on the internet in Russia. Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media, 16, pp. 51-78.

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-35 at the Royal Academy [Exhibition Review]. Opticon 1826, 12,

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) Maiakovskii and the mobile monument: alternatives to iconoclasm in Russian culture. Slavic Review, 71(4), pp. 766-791. (doi: 10.5612/slavicreview.71.4.0766)

Books

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2020) The Unlikely Futurist: Pushkin and the Invention of Originality in Russian Modernism. Series: Publications of the Wisconsin center for Pushkin studies. University of Wisconsin Press: Madison, Wisconsin. ISBN 9780299328108

Starobinets, Anna and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) The Icarus Gland and Other Stories of Metamorphosis [Translator]. Skyscraper: Newbold on Stour. ISBN 9780955181054

Kostin, Pavel and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) It’s Time [Translator]. Urban Romantics: London. ISBN 9781907832185

Starobinets, Anna and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) The Living [Translator]. Hesperus Press: London. ISBN 9781843913771

Book Sections

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) Stitches in time: Maiakovskii’s overcoat and temporal self-fashioning in the Soviet Union. In: Deschepper, Julie, Kalashnikov, Antony and Rossi, Federica (eds.) Time and Material Culture: Rethinking Soviet Temporalities. Series: Routledge histories of Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge, pp. 187-207. ISBN 9781032451657 (doi: 10.4324/9781003375715-13)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) Russian poetry and the rewilding of Scottish literature: 1917 to the present. In: Maguire, Muireann and McAteer, Cathy (eds.) Translating Russian Literature in the Global Context. Open Book Publishers: Cambridge, pp. 253-280. ISBN 9781800649859 (doi: 10.11647/obp.0340.15)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) Marks of distinction. Quotation and ostranenie in the work of Vladimir Majakovskij. In: Meyer, Meyer and Berlina, Alexandra (eds.) A Hundred Years of Ostranenie: Readings of, in and with Viktor Šklovskij's Founding Word of Modern Literary Theory. sdvig press, pp. 253-275. ISBN 9782940738052

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2021) Signs and wonders: two approaches to nonsense in Russia. In: Barton, Anna and Williams, James (eds.) The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh. ISBN 9781474423847

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2021) Clothes, costume, and fashion in Russian modernism. In: Rabinowitz, Paula (ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190201098 (doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1244)

Bykov, Dmitry and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2012) Mozharovo [Translator]. In: Shubina, E.D. and Bouis, Antonina W. (eds.) Read Russia! An Anthology of New Voices. Read Russia: New York.

Book Reviews

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2026) Reorientalism: From Avant-Garde to Soviet National Form. By Nariman Skakov. New York: Columbia University Press, 2025. 360pp. List of archives. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. $35.00, paperback. Slavic Review, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2025) Pushkin, The Decembrists, and Civic Sentimentalism by Emily Wang (review). Modern Language Review, 120(3), pp. 440-442. (doi: 10.1353/mlr.00118)[Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2025) Kahn, Andrew and Mark Lipovetsky. All the World on a Page: A Critical Anthology of Modern Russian Poetry. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2025. 560 pp. Notes and References. Suggestions for Further Reading. Index. $39.95: £35.00. Slavonic and East European Review, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) 'Be ready to come back': A new avant-garde of Russian poetry. Times Literary Supplement(6330), [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2022) Subcurrents: The nuances of Russian responses to James Joyce. Times Literary Supplement(6198), [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2019) Happy endings. Times Literary Supplement(6070), [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2019) Review of Katharine Hodgson, Joanne Shelton, Alexandra Smith, Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry: Reinventing the Canon. Modern Language Review, 114(1), pp. 176-177. (doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.114.1.0176)[Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2018) Shimmering substance: Short stories shedding light on the career of a rediscovered author. Times Literary Supplement(6031), [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2018) The Rehearsals by Vladimir Sharov. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Russian Absurd by Daniiil Karms. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Invisible, angry: some sights of the Russian populace. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Vladimir M. by Robert Littell. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Voiceless Vanguard: The Infantilist Aesthetic of the Russian Avant-Garde by Sara Pankenier Weld. Modern Language Review, 112(1), pp. 289-291. (doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.112.1.0289)[Book Review]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Taboo Pushkin: Topics, Texts, Interpretations by Alyssa Dinega Gillespie; The Poetics of Impudence and Intimacy in the Age of Pushkin by Joe Peschio; Pushkin's Historical Imagination by Svetlana Evdokimova. Modern Language Review, 109(2), pp. 584-586. (doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.109.2.0584)[Book Review]

Edited Books

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Mackinnon, Katherine (Eds.) (2024) Власними словами In Our Own Words: Poems, Translations and the Many Languages of Home, from Ukraine to Glasgow. Tapsalteerie: Tarland, Aberdeenshire. ISBN 9781738439645

Reyes, Heather, Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Samsonova, Marina (Eds.) (2012) St Petersburg. Series: City-pick. Oxygen Books. ISBN 9780956787620

Carr, Daniela and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (Eds.) (2011) A New Chapter, Part 2: Russian Writing from the 21st Century. Series: Rossica. Academia Rossica: London. ISBN 9781905345083

Scholarly Editions

Troitskii, Artemii (2017) Subkultura: Stories of Youth and Resistance in Russia 1815-2017 [Editor and Translator]. [Scholarly Editions]

Audio

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Mackinnon, Katherine (2024) Власними словами = In Our Own Words: Multilingual Translation Workshops. UNESCO RILA Podcast Episode 67. [Audio]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 and Mackinnon, Katherine (2024) UNESCO RILA: The sounds of integration. E67 - Власними словами | In Our Own Words: Multilingual Translation Workshops. [Audio]

Website

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2024) Neither London nor Moscow: Decolonial Dialogues. [Website]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2023) Eddie and the Library Angel: Ukrainian Poetry in the Edwin Morgan Archive [blog post]. [Website]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2023) Ukrainians Wha Hae. [Website]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2017) Inferiority Complex: Why the New Film Adaptation of Lady Macbeth is Too Subtle for its Own Good. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2015) Evil empire: why is the post-Soviet world so obsessed with Star Wars? [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2015) Chiselled features: the hard-nosed politics of Moscow’s St Vladimir statue. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2015) Go forth and multiply: notes from an accidental fertility tour of Central Asia. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2015) Islands in the stream: the strange charm that for centuries has been luring people to Solovki. [Website]

Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Universal Pictures: Zvyagintsev, Dostoevsky and the Politics of the Particular. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Beauty and the east: allure and exploitation in post-Soviet ruin photography. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Manifesta destiny: what does the St Petersburg-set art biennial mean for Russia? [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2014) Narkomfin: can a utopian housing project survive in modern Moscow? [Website]

Fedorova, Anastasiia and Rann, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2013) A day on the Moyka, St Petersburg, Russia. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2013) Meanwhile, in Russia: Buzzfeed, Russia and the west. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2013) Double trouble: conceptualist masters John Baldessari and Ilya Kabakov at Moscow Biennale. [Website]

Rann, Jamie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-4502 (2013) Letter from the fascinating, forbidden land of Dagestan. [Website]

This list was generated on Fri Jun 26 05:11:18 2026 BST.

Grants

  • Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Workshops award (2023)
  • UUKi UK-Ukraine Twinning Scheme mobility grant (2024)
    • Identity on the Stage and on the Page - Contemporary Connections between Scotland and Ukraine
  • University Council for Languages small grant (2022)
    • Teaching Russian after February 24 workshop
  • Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities workshop funding (2022)
    • Documents and Barbarism: Studying the Humanities in Times of War, PGR workshop

Supervision

I am currently the primary supervisor for Emily Borst, who is pursuing a project about the legacy of Scythian material culture on Russian and Ukrainian literature. 

I am a secondary supervisor for Nayden Tafradzhyiski, who is working on the mock heroic in Beckett, Bernhard, and Nabokov, and for Iryna Makedon, who is researching the collection policies of art galleries in Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s.

I would welcome the chance to work with other post-graduate resarchers working in many different areas. In particular, I'd be eager to collaborate on projects related to:

  • Early Soviet literature and culture
  • Russian-language literature, especially poetry 
  • Ukrainian-language literature and culture
  • Clothes and culture in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union
  • Literary translation from/into Russian.
  • Makedon, Iryna
    From Ukrainian Perspective: Managing Interactive Provenance Research on Modern Artworks acquired by Ukrainian Public Museums during the Early Soviet Period
  • Dr Liudmila Tomanek, 'Svetlana Alexievich: a polyphonic writer in translation'

I previously supervised a PhD project comparing Osip Mandelshtam and Hugh MacDiarmid and one on the speeches of Vladimir Putin.

I have also co-supervised postgraduate projects about memory in contemporary Russian media, French and Soviet avant-garde writing, and on translation.

Teaching

I teach and convene a number of language and culture courses in Russian and contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Comparative Literature, Translation Studies, Global Communication, and Dress and Textile History. 

Additional information

I was the co-convenor of Histories and Subjectivities research clusters at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and am a member of the Modernism, Avant-Garde and Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture cluster in the College of Arts. 

I am the Residence Abroad Convenor for the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and the Programme Director for Russian.


James Rann