Valeriia Mutc (Ph.D., Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University) is a scholar of Russian literature and theater. Her research unites three divergent fields of inquiry: nineteenth-century literature, theater, and the history of science. In her first book project, "The Dramatic Turn: Science, Theater, and Russian Realism," she examines how theater helped Russian prose writers respond to scientific and technological modernity. "The Dramatic Turn" contends that such writers as Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, and Maksim Gorky mediated scientific ideas through theater, both by experimenting with dramatic writing and by injecting dramatic modes into functionally and aesthetically distinct prose fiction. Mutc’s work on science and Russian theater has appeared in the Wiener Slawistischer Almanach and the edited volume New Drama in Russia.

She also pursues public outreach and pedagogy projects aimed at providing opportunities for equitable access to education. Over the past four years, she has developed interactive online resources for learning about theater and has designed and led programming on equitable and inclusive pedagogy.