A literary scholar and language teacher of Slavic languages (Russian, Bulgarian, and Czech), Mira Nikolova received her Ph.D. in Slavic Studies from Brown University and her bachelor’s degree in Russian and psychology from Bowdoin College. Prior to joining the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department at the University of Virginia, Prof. Nikolova taught language, literature, film, and culture courses at Bowdoin College. Prof. Nikolova’s teaching is influenced by a variety of language instruction paradigms as well as reflexive and inclusive pedagogical approaches. In her scholarly work, Prof. Nikolova explores environmental and spatial portrayals in the works of Indigenous Siberian poets, such as the Khanty author Maria Vagatova.