Research

Dr Beumers specialises in Russian culture, especially theatre and film, as well as Central Asian and European cinema. She has written a monograph on Yuri Lyubimov at the Taganka Theatre; on the filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov and a companion on his Oscar-winning film Burnt by the Sun; and on Russian popular culture (Pop Culture Russia!. With Mark Lipovetsky, she has co-authored a book on violence in Russian drama and cinema. She is the author of A History of Russian Cinema and has edited and co-edited several volumes on Russian cinema, visual culture and media, including a volume on the filmmaker Alexander Sokurov. During 2007-2009 she held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to explore Russian animation; she is currently researching animation, trick films and technical innovation in Soviet cinema of the first half of the 20^th century.

Biography

Birgit Beumers was born and raised in Aachen, Germany and came to the UK in 1982 to study English and French Literature at Oxford Polytechnic (now Brookes). She also studied Russian at the universities of Geneva and Paris. After graduation she spent a year in Moscow before she went on to St Antony’s College, Oxford, where she completed her D.Phil on Yuri Lyubimov and the Taganka Theatre. During her postgraduate research she spent time in Russia and worked with Anatoli Vasiliev at the School of Dramatic Art in Moscow. From 1992-94 she held a temporary appointment in the Slavonic Department at the University of Cambridge. In 1994 she joined Bristol University’s Russian Department as lecturer, then senior lecturer and reader. In 2012 she was appointed to a chair in film studies at Aberystwyth.

Publications

Authored Books

Performancy nasiliia. Literaturnye i teatral’nye eksperimenty “Novoi dramy”, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2012 [expanded Russian edition of Performing Violence]

Performing Violence: Literary and Theatrical Experiments of New Russian Drama. With Mark Lipovetsky. Bristol and Chicago: intellect books, 2009.

A History of Russian Cinema. Oxford and NY: Berg, 2009.

Pop Culture Russia! ABC Clio, Santa Barbara (CA), 2005.

Nikita Mikhalkov (KinoFiles: The Filmmaker’s Companion 1). I.B. Tauris, London, 2005.

Burnt by the Sun (KinoFile Film Companion 3). I.B. Tauris, London, 2000.

Yury Lyubimov at the Taganka Theatre 1964-1994. Harwood Academic Publishers/OPA, Amsterdam, 1997.

 

Edited Book(s)

(with Nancy Condee), The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov, London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.

Directory of World Cinema: Russia. Bristol and Chicago: intellect, 2011.

(co-editor and translator): Alexander Shiryaev: Master of Movement, edited with Victor Bocharov and David Robinson. Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 2009.

(co-editor) The Post-Soviet Russian Media: Conflicting Signals, with S. Hutchings, N. Rulyova. Routledge, 2009.

(co-editor) Globalisation, Freedom and the Media after Communism, with S. Hutchings, N. Rulyova. Routledge, 2009. Originally published as special issue of Europe Asia Studies 59.8 (2007)

24 Frames: The Cinema of Russia and the former Soviet Union, Wallflower Press, London, 2007

(text editor) Moskva v fotografiiakh / Moscow in Photographs / Moskau in Photographien (with Polina Vasilieva), Museum of Photography, Moscow, [2000].

Russia on Reels: The Russian Idea in Post-Soviet Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris, 1999. Reprint 2006.

 

Edited Works: Contributions

‘National Identities through Visions of the Past: Contemporary Russian Cinema’, in Mark Bassin and Catriona Kelly (eds), Soviet and Post-Soviet Identities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp. 120-153

‘Rossiiskaia mul’tiplikatsiia 2009g. Vzliad iz-za rubezha’ [Russian animation of 2009: a view from the side], in Irina Shilova, Ol’ga Ziborova (eds), Khroniki kinoprotsessa 2009, Moscow: Kanon+, ROOI Reabilitatsiia, 2011, pp. 88-105.

‘And the Ark Sails on…’, in Beumers and Condee (eds), The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov, London: I.B. Tauris, 2011, pp. 176-187.

‘Drama and Theatre’, in Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Russian Literature, ed. by M. Balina and E. Dobrenko, Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 215-234.

‘Nostalgic Journeys in Post-Soviet Cinema: Towards a Lost Home?’, in European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe, ed. by D. Berghahn and C. Sternberg, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp. 96-113.

‘Stage(d) Terror’, in Just Assassins: The Culture of Terrorism in Russia, ed. by Anthony Anemone, Evanston IL: Northwestern UP, 2010, pp. 277-296.

‘Die Blume im Staub. Das Zeit-Bild in Rustam Chamdamovs Anna Karamazoff’ [The Flower in the Dust: The Time-Image in Rustam Khamdamov’s Anna Karamazoff], in Das Zeit-Bild im osteuropäischen Film nach 1945, ed. Jurij Murašov and Natascha Drubek-Meyer, Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2010, pp. 225-243.

‘Transforming Animation History’, in Alexander Shiryaev: Master of Movement, edited by Beumers, Victor Bocharov and David Robinson. Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 2009, pp. 37-52.

‘The Serialization of Culture or the Culture of Serialization’, in The Post-Soviet Russian Media: Conflicting Signals, ed. S. Hutchings, N. Rulyova, B. Beumers. Routledge, 2009, pp. 159-177.

‘The Peculiarities of Russian National Cinema in the Rogozhkin Period’, in Uncensored? Reinventing Humor and Satire in Post-Soviet Russia, ed. by S. Graham and O. Mesropova, Slavica 2008, pp. 117-32.

‘Travma – performans – identichnost'. Intimnyi teatr Evgeniia Grishkovtsa’ [Trauma, performance, identity: The intimate theatre of Evgenii Grishkovets], co-authored with Mark Lipovetskii, in Nataliia Borisova, Konstantin Bogdanov, Iurii Murashov (eds), SSSR –territoriia liubvi, Moscow: Novoe izdatel’stvo, 2008, pp. 234-267.

‘Masiania’ in Veselye chelovechki [Funny Figures], ed. I. Kukulin, M. Lipovetskii, M. Maiofis, Moscow: NLO, 2008, pp. 507-524.

‘Killers and Gangsters: The Heroes of Russian Blockbusters of the Putin Era’, in Media, Culture and Society in Putin’s Russia, ed. Stephen White, Palgrave, 2008, pp. 204-25.

‘Through the other lens? Russians on the global screen’, Russia and its other(s) on film: Screening intercultural dialogue, ed. Stephen Hutchings, Palgrave, 2008, pp. 166-83.

‘Comforting Creatures in Children’s Cartoons’, in Reading Russian and Soviet Children’s Culture, ed. M. Balina, L. Rudova, Routledge, 2008, pp. 153-171.

‘The Mikhalkov Brothers’ View of Russia’, Russian and Soviet Film Adaptations of Literature, 1900-2001: Screening the Word, ed. Stephen Hutchings and Anat Vernitski, London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005. pp. 135-52.

‘Nina Sadur’, in Dictionary of Literary Biographies, Russian Writers since 1980, vol. 285, ed. M. Balina and M. Leiderman, 2003, pp. 268-276.

‘The “blue” stage: homosexuality in Russian theatre and drama of the 1990s’, in Gender and Sexuality in Russian Civilisation, ed. Peter Barta, London: Harwood Academic Publishers, 2001. pp.295-309.

‘Father Frost on 31 December: Christmas and New Year in Soviet and Russian Cinema’, in Christmas in the Movies, ed. Mark Connelly, I.B. Tauris, London, 2000. pp. 185-209.

‘Mikhalkov: The Barber of Siberia’, in European Cinema, edited by Sarah Street and Jill Forbes, London: Palgrave, 2000. pp. 195-206.

‘Eisenstein: The Battleship Potemkin’, in European Cinema, edited by Sarah Street and Jill Forbes, London: Palgrave, 2000. pp. 53-64.

‘The “thaw” and after: 1953-1986’, in A History of Russian Theatre, edited by Robert Leach and Viktor Borovsky, Cambridge: CUP, 1999. pp. 358-381.

‘To Moscow! To Moscow? The Russian Hero and the Loss of the Centre’ in Russia on Reels: The Russian Idea in Post-Soviet Cinema (ed. B. Beumers). London: I.B. Tauris, 1999, pp. 76-87.

‘Introduction’ in Russia on Reels: The Russian Idea in Post-Soviet Cinema (ed. B. Beumers). London: I.B. Tauris, 1999. pp. 1-11. 

‘Performing Culture: Theatre’, in Russian Cultural Studies: An Introduction, ed. D. Shepherd and C. Kelly, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 91-108.

‘Post-Revolutionary Russian Theatre’, introductory essay in Reference Guide to Russian Literature, ed. Neil Cornwell & Nicole Christian, London: Fitzroy-Dearborn, 1998, pp. 45-49. Republished as ‘Post-Revolutionary Theatre’ in The Routledge Companion to Russian Literature, ed. Neil Cornwell, 2001, pp. 209-222.

‘La politique contre l'art à la Taganka’, in: Liubimov. La Taganka. (ed. B. Picon-Vallin),   Paris: CNRS Editions ‘Les Voies de la création théâtrale’(volume 20), 1997, pp. 63-95.

‘Le vivant: thème paysan et spectacle-mythe’, in: Liubimov. La Taganka. (ed. B. Picon-Vallin), Paris: CNRS Editions ‘Les Voies de la création théâtrale’ (volume 20), 1997, pp. 265-291.

 

Academic Journal Papers (refereed)

(with Mark Lipovetsky), ‘”Bog–eto krov’”: teatr i kinematograf Ivana Vyrypaeva’ [God is Blood: theatre and films of Ivan Vyrypaev] , Kinovedcheskie zapiski 96 (2011): 210-224.

(with Mark Lipovetsky) ‘The Performance of Life: Documentary Theater and Film’, Russian Review 69.4 (2010), pp. 615-637.

‘Aleksandr Shiryaev: popravka k istorii animatsii’ [Aleksandr Shiryaev: corrections to the history of animation], Kinovedcheskie zapiski 94-5 (2010): 340-361.

‘Reality Performance: Documentary Trends in Post-Soviet Russian Theatre’, co-authored with Mark Lipovetsky, Contemporary Theatre Review 18.3 (2008): 293-306. DOI: 10.1080/10486800802123583

‘Pop Post-Sots: Mass Musicals in Russia’, Slavic and East European Journal 48.3 (Fall 2004): pp. 378-395.

‘Soviet and Russian Blockbusters: A question of genre?’, Slavic Review 62.3 (Fall 2003), p. 441-454.

‘Spinning the text: the play with infinity in contemporary Russian theatre’, Modern Language Review 97.1 (2002), pp.135-148.

‘Myth-making and myth-taking: Lost Ideals and the War in Contemporary Russian Cinema’, Canadian Slavonic Papers 42.1-2 (2000), pp. 171-189.

‘Cinemarket, or the Russian Film Industry in “Mission Possible”’, Europe-Asia Studies 51.5 (1999), pp. 871-896.

‘Commercial Enterprise on the Stage: Changes in Russian Theatre Management between 1986 and 1996’,  Europe-Asia Studies 48.8 (1996), pp. 1403-1416.

 

Conference Papers (refereed)

‘The Chopping of The Cherry Orchard: Stanislavskii or Chekhov?’, in Essays in Poetics, special issue 1, vol. 30 (autumn 2005), pp. 21-44.

‘Playing with Gogol: Gogol’s texts on the post-Soviet stage’, in Essays in Poetics, number 8, vol. 28 (autumn 2003), pp. 202-220.

‘Russian History in Film: from perestroika into the 1990s. History and the Memory of the Past in Abuladze's Repentance and Mikhalkov's Burnt by the Sun’ in: Memory, History and Critique. European Identity at the Millennium. Proceedings of the 6th International ISSEI Conference at the University for Humanist Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands, August 1996, eds. Frank Brinkhuis & Sascha Talmor, Utrecht: ISSEI/University for Humanist Studies, 1998. CD ROM.

 

Guest Editorship

Guest Editor, with Mark Lipovetsky: The Desire for the Real: Documentary trends in contemporary Russian culture, Russian Review 69.4 (2010).

Guest Editor, with Natalya Rulyova and Stephen Hutchings, Symposium on the Post Soviet Media Europe-Asia Studies 59.8 (2007)

Guest Editor: ‘Soviet and Russian Blockbusters’ Slavic Review vol. 62.3 (Fall 2003).

Other Publications: Entries to encyclopaedias and dictionaries

‘Russian cinema’, in Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies, ed. Krin Gabbard, New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2013

Entry on ‘The Mitten, by Roman Kachanov’ in the special feature on Real Images, in honour of Josephine Woll, (ed. D. Youngblood), SRSC 3.1 (2009): 87-88.

Entry on ‘Aleksandr Shiryaev: Harlequin’s Jest’ in the special feature on the Russian cinema centenary (ed. J. Graffy), SRSC 2.3 (2008): 329-30.

Entries for the Routledge Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Russian Culture, 2007.

Entries on ‘Yuri Lyubimov’ (pp.81-86), ‘Eimuntas Nekrosius’ (pp.227-231), ‘Anatoli Vasiliev’ (pp.190-195) in Fifty Key Theatre Directors, ed. Shomit Mitter and Maria Shevtsova, Routledge, 2005. ISBN 0-415-18732-X.

Entries for Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, ed. by Dennis Kennedy, Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-86017-43.

Entries in: BFI Companion to Eastern European and Russian Cinema, ed. by Richard Taylor, Nancy Wood, Julian Graffy and Dina Iordanova, London, 2000. ISBN 0-85170-752-1 (hbk), 0-85170-753-X (pbk).

Entries for the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, eds. S. and T. Pendergast, Gale Research, St. James Press, London and Detroit, 2000. ISBN  1-55862449-X.

Entries for Entsiklopediia kino, Cyril&Methodius, Moscow, 1998 (CD ROM).

Entries in Reference Guide to Russian Literature, ed. Neil Cornwell & Nicole Christian, London: Fitzroy-Dearborn, 1998. ISBN 1-884964-10-9.

 

Forthcoming

Cinema in Central Asia: Rewriting Cultural Histories, co-edited with Michael Rouland and Gulnara Abikeyeva, Londn: IB Tauris, 2013; includes an authored chapter on ‘Growing Up in Central Asian Cinema’

[in French] ‘Iurii Arabov and spirituality’ (provisional title), for Le cinéma russe, de Gorbatchev à Medvedev, ed. Marion Poirson-Dechonne, forthcoming 2013