Naomi Caffee
Associate Professor of Russian
Russian Department
Division of Literature and Languages
My research focuses on issues of postcolonial identity and transnational connectivity in the works of writers and culture workers from Central Asia, the Caucasus, Siberia, and the Circumpolar North. I have a BA in Russian from Grinnell College (2004) and an MA (2008) and PhD (2013) in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UCLA. Prior to my arrival at Reed in 2018, I taught at Santa Monica College, UCLA, and the University of Arizona. My research has been published in Russian Language Journal, Russian Literature, Journal of Central Eurasian Studies, and Experiment: a Journal of Russian Culture, as well as in the edited volumes Picturing Russian Empire (2023), Russia in Asia: Interactions, Imaginations, and Realities (2020) and The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies (2011). My collaborative projects include “Beyond Caricature,” a digital archive of early 20th century political caricature from the South Caucasus, and “Russophone Voices,” a public humanities collective that brings together authors, scholars, and readers for conversations on contemporary Russophone literature. I am a co-editor of Tulips in Bloom, a forthcoming anthology of Central Asian literature in English translation. At Reed I teach Humanities 110, all levels of the Russian language, and Russian literature from the Medieval period to the present. I also teach courses on interdisciplinary and comparative topics, including “Nuclear Literatures,” “Multicultural Russia,” and an upcoming course on Indigenous film and literature of the Arctic.