Natalia Plagmann
Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian
- Office
- 205 Freeman International Center
- nplagmann@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- Fall 2026: Monday and Thursday, 2:30 pm-4:00 pm, in person or on zoom, and by appointment.
Natalia Plagmann is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Russian Department. Her research interests include contemporary Russian literature and culture, post-Soviet documentary cinema and theater, and media and performance studies. Her current book project, Human Documents on Screen and Stage: A Contrapuntal Reading of Post-Soviet Documentary, explores documentary films and theatrical productions in Russia in the 1990s-2010s. She is also interested in the intermedial relationship between theater and technology, and in the emergence of new hybrid performance/media forms, their aesthetics and ideology.
Before joining Middlebury, Professor Plagmann taught a variety of courses in the Department of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Studies at Dartmouth College. Previously, she taught at the University of Colorado Boulder, Princeton University, NYU, and Saint Petersburg State University.
A native speaker of Russian, Natalia Plagmann teaches courses in all levels of Russian language, as well as courses in Russian and East European literature and culture.
Courses Taught
RUSS 0101
Upcoming
Beginning Russian
Course Description
Beginning Russian
This course is an approach to the language using four skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). It provides a firm control of the sound system and the structure of Russian. Although much emphasis is put on the spoken colloquial language, reading, writing, and a conscious understanding of the fundamentals of grammar prepare a strong foundation for work in advanced courses or for reading in specialized fields. 3 hrs. lect./3 hrs. drill.
Terms Taught
Requirements
RUSS 0222
Upcoming
E. Europe, Russ & Soviet Films
Course Description
Eccentric Cinema: Films and Their Authors from the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Russia (in English)
In this course we will study the history and theory of Soviet, Eastern European, and Russian cinema and watch the most significant films directed by Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, and Hungarian filmmakers. Beginning with the Soviet cinema of the 1920s-1930s (Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Aleksandr Dovzhenko), we will explore avant-garde techniques of cinematic narration. We will examine eccentric cinema of the 1960s-1970s with a generation of groundbreaking filmmakers across the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union: Vera Chytilová and Miloš Forman, Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Kieślowski, Larisa Shepitko and Kira Muratova. We will continue with analyses of Russian and East European auteur cinema (Béla Tarr, Agnieszka Holland, Andrei Tarkovsky) and conclude with films released in post-Socialist Russia and Eastern Europe. (Taught in English.)
Terms Taught
Requirements