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Michael S. Gorham

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Professor of Russian Studies
Ph.D., Stanford University

Office Hours — Fall 2024

  • Wednesdays 12–2 PM
  • or by appointment

Areas of Research

Language and Politics; Contemporary Russian Culture; New Media Culture; 20th and 21st-century Russian Literature; Language Pedagogy

Biography

Michael Gorham is Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Florida, where he teaches language at all levels, as well as courses in literature, folklore, culture, and the Russian mass media. He received his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Stanford University. Gorham is the author of two award-winning books on language culture and politics: After Newspeak: Language Culture and Politics in Russia from Gorbachev to Putin (Cornell U.P. 2014) and Speaking in Soviet Tongues: Language Culture and the Politics of Voice in Revolutionary Russia (Northern Illinois University Press, 2003). He also has two co-edited volumes to his name, Digital Russia: The Language, Culture, and Politics of New Media Communication (with Ingunn Lunde and Martin Paulsen, Routledge, 2014), and a special issue of Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie (2017, nos. 72:2–73:1) dedicated to “The Culture and Politics of Verbal Prohibition in Putin’s Russia”. His forthcoming book, Networking Putinism: The Rhetoric of Power in the Digital Age (Cornell U.P., expected 2025), traces the impact of the internet and social media on political language in the Putin era. External research grants and fellowships have come from such institutions as the National Humanities Center, Social Science Research Council, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, The American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) and The International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX).

Select Publications (see here for complete, updated list)

After Newspeak: Language Culture and Politics in Russia from Gorbachev to Putin

by Michael S. Gorham

Digital Russia: The Language, Culture, and Politics of New Media Communication

Edited by Michael Gorham, Ingunn Lunde, and Martin Paulsen

Speaking in Soviet Tongues: Language Culture and the Politics of Voice in Early Soviet Russia

by Michael S. Gorham

  • Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press (2004)
  • ISBN: 978-0-8758-03135

2014-gorham_afternewspeak_cover-3 Digital Russia Book Cover gorham_1