Professor Colleen Lucey (Russian and Slavic Studies) was awarded the Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS) Honorable Mention for best article in Slavic women's and gender studies for her recent publication, "Fallen but Charming Creatures: The Demimondaine in Russian Literature and Visual Culture of the 1860s," The Russian Review 78, no. 1 (2019): 103-121.
The AWSS Awards Committee announced the prize at the 2019 ASEEES National Convention in San Francisco with the following commendation:
"Through a meticulous reading of Vsevolod Krestovskii’s short story, “A Fallen but Charming Creature,” and an innovative exploration of an unknown album of lithographs for which Krestovskii wrote the captions, Lucey uncovers nineteenth-century public attitudes and imaginings about a new class of St. Petersburg women, the demimondaine. Lucey juxtaposes Krestovskii’s short story which depicts these women as “fallen” with a visual culture glorifying demimondaine as women who have sexual and financial agency. The article demonstrates the necessity of reading culture not only through literary sources but also to take seriously the role of visual culture in shaping the public’s attitudes and imagination. The article makes extensive use of the lithographs making this article accessible to scholars and students alike."
The full version of Prof. Lucey's article is available here.