Dr. Yana Hashamova is Professor and Chair of the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at the Ohio State University. For seven years (2008–2015), she directed the Center for Slavic and East European Studies and created two funded Initiatives (Polish Studies and Slovene Research). She is also an Associate Faculty member of the Departments of Comparative Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Film Studies Program, and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. She strives to establish links between political ideology and the arts (cinema, media, and literature), while analyzing post-Soviet conditions.