Borshch of Art Research Fellowship

As a Research Fellow with Borshch of Art in 2025, I wrote a book called “Poetics of Displacement: Maya Deren Through a Ukrainian Lens,” featuring interviews with contemporary Ukrainian artists: Katya Grokhovsky, Slinko, Daria Dorosh, and Luba Drozd. In June 2026, I presented my research findings and facilitated a panel conversation with the interviewed artists at the Chelsea Academy of Design in NYC.

Like many Ukrainian artists, avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren’s legacy has historically suffered from erasure and appropriation under Soviet imperialism. While her groundbreaking influence as a feminist artist is properly celebrated, the distinctly Ukrainian aspects of her films and legacy have remained largely unexamined. This research aims to fill that significant gap in dance and film history, where her Deren’s work is canonically referenced but predominately subsumed into the American avant-garde.

Borshch of Art sold printed copies of this excerpt, which features key chapters on Deren’s biographical history alongside case studies of her first three films. The digital publication of this excerpt will be available soon via open access through Borshch of Art’s Discover Database. I look forward to sharing updates regarding the publication of the the full 80,000-word manuscript as a book down the line!