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Research

Dr Koplatadze's specialism covers the literature and culture of Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, with particular expertise in 19th century Russian literature and post-Soviet Russophone literature and film. She is one of the first proponents and theorists of Russian and post-Soviet postcolonial studies. 

Dr Koplatadze's forthcoming monograph Postcolonial Identities in Central Asian and Caucasian Literature (OUP) is the first major comparative study to examine post-Soviet literature from the Caucasus and Central Asia, and to employ postcolonial methodology for this enquiry. Her current book project, Post-Soviet Ecopoetics, is the first comparative study of post-Soviet ecocritical literature and film, including from Siberia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Her other interventions connecting Russian Studies with postcolonial theory include the award-winning article ‘Theorising Russian Postcolonial Studies’, an article on 'NGOs and Neocolonialism in Postcolonial Literature' and a special issue on Post-Soviet Postcolonial Studies which she is currently guest-editing for The Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies.

Dr Koplatadze has shared her research findings at many international conferences, as well as public engagement platforms, among them The Calvert Journal and the BBC.

 

Supervision

Dr Koplatadze welcomes interests of research supervision of projects, especially those exploring any of the following areas:

  • Post-Soviet Russophone literature and film
  • Ecocritical literature and film (especially from Siberia, the Caucasus and Central Asia)
  • The cultures of the Caucasus and Central Asia (19th-present day)
  • 19th century Russian literature
  • Postcolonial Studies
  • Gender and women's writing

Prospective applicants are encouraged to get in touch with her as they develop their research proposals for submission to Oxford. 

Topics supervised by Dr Koplatadze include the role of 19th century literary anthologies in shaping Russian national and imperial identity,  early 20th century Russian emigré women's writing, and the discourse of homosexuality in the 'Caucasian periphery' of the Russian Empire.

 

Publications

Postcolonial Identities in Central Asian and Caucasian Literature (OUP, 27 November 2025)

'NGOs and Neocolonialism in Postcolonial Central Asian Literature: The Case of Central Asia', Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies (2021) https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2021.1972820

'Theorising Russian postcolonial studies’, Postcolonial Studies, 22.4 (2019), 469-489, https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2019.1690762

'Salon de Variété’ (1881), English translation of Anton Chekhov’s short story,  in Anton Chekhov. Earliest Stories. Stories, Novellas, Humoresques, 1880–1882 (Academic Studies Press, autumn 2025)

‘Mother Country: Meet the Women at The Forefront of New Georgian Cinema’, The Calvert Journal (March 2018) https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/9579/women-in-georgian-film

 

Awards and Distinctions

BASEES (British Association of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies) prize for best postgraduate article, 2021, for ‘Theorising Russian Postcolonial Studies’, Postcolonial Studies, 22.4(2019), 469-489 https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2019.1690762

 

Media

Interview with Oriente Medio on 'Decentring Post-Soviet Literature' (in Spanish)

Interview with BBC Arts and Ideas, 'Russia and Fear' (from 24:42), on whether the Soviet Union was a colonial empire, from the perspective of post-Soviet authors from the Caucasus and Central Asia

Interview with BBC Free Thinking, 'Sesame Street and Soviet Culture'  (from 17:20), on how literature from across the former republics of the USSR is processing the Soviet past.