CHRISTINE D. TOMEI
Scope: Academic writing (thesis/dissertation consultant), research consultant, educational grant writing, dissertation editing, thesis editing, humanities research, modernism literature, modernism art, cultural theory, linguistics, social sciences, Russian history, Russian culture, Serbia, Croatia.
CHRISTINE D. TOMEI has a Ph.D. from Brown University and is presently an Associate in the Slavic Seminar at Columbia University. She is a former full-time professor and recipient of multiple awards, including Fulbright and IREX. She has a published monograph in linguistics and literary theory and has contributed to intelligence in computational linguistics and linguistic theory. She is also editor of two other books, including the highly acclaimed, two-volume edition of Russian Women Writers (Garland: New York, 1999) which won a national book prize. She has published research in literature, cultural theory, folklore, modernism and women's studies. She taught international relations and comparative culture; also comparative literature, all levels of Russian language, beginning and intermediate Serbo-Croatian and translates from both languages. She also translates Italian and can read German, French and Dutch. She has indexed scholarly publications including annotated indexes, has worked extensively in abstract writing, and has generated book-length camera-ready copy. Recently, she moved jobs to public administration and has finished coursework toward a Masters in Public Administration with a major in systems management. She has helped design and implement curriculum including research design.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Slavic Languages, Brown University, 1987. Victor Terras, graduate advisor.
Dissertation: The Structure of Verse Language: Theoretical and Experimental Research in Russian and Serbo-Croatian Syllabo-Tonic Versification. Published 1989.
University of Zagreb [Sveuciliste u Zagrebu], Croatia, Philology Department, U.S. Department of Education Fulbright Dissertation Abroad, 1983-84.
M. A., Slavic Languages, Brown University, 1981.
Portland State University, Summer Language Study and Study Abroad (Yugoslavia), 1979.
Indiana University, Slavic Linguistics, 1978-79.
B. A., Russian Studies, The Union Institute, Providence, Rhode Island, 1977.
Major in Russian Language and Literature. Coursework completed at Brown University, Yale Summer Language Institute, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Swarthmore College, Middlebury College and the Pushkin Institute, Moscow, USSR.
Ohio State University, Semester Abroad Program to the U.S.S.R. (Moscow), 1977.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1998-present. Associate, Slavic Seminar, Columbia University.
1999-2001. Education Program Specialist, US Department of Education, Washington, DC.
1995-1998. Visiting Scholar, The Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
1993-1995. Assistant Professor, The American University.
1989-1993. Assistant Professor, Allegheny College.
1988-89. Visiting Scholar, Brown University.
1987-88. Assistant Professor, Hunter College, City University of New York.
1986-87. Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, Athens, Department of Slavic Languages.
Courses taught:
Freshman Humanities, General Education, English as a Second Language. First-, second-, third- year Russian language; Russian Romanticism & Realism; Women in Russia and the U.S.S.R; The Silver Age in Russia. Graduate level: Soviet Socialist Realism; Soviet Film; Proseminar in Nineteenth Century Literature. fourth-year culture; graduate level: Russian Intellectual History; courses in translation: Twentieth Century Literature, Nineteeth Century Russian Literature. Also directed reading and research in Russian Folklore, Old Church Slavic and Soviet Journalism.
Administrative Service and Experience (details on request)
2000-2001 Education Program Specialist, US Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, Washington, DC, GEAR UP.
1995-2003 Research (see also publications)
Researched the works of over 100 Russian women writers at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University.
1995- present. Intelligence and research design consultant Consulted for the Department of the Army and the Army Research Lab. I evaluated programs for computerized translation in Russian and Serbo-Croatian and assisted in the design and implementation of microcomputerized translation, including the FALCON program, used in action in Bosnia.
1989-1995 Chair, National Program Committee, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.
PUBLICATIONS (books)
Historical Dictionary of Russian Literature, 1917 to the Present. New York: Scarecrow Press, ca. 2007.
Polnoe sobranie socinenij Mirry Loxvickoj [Complete Collected Works of Mirra Lokhvitskaia]. Moscow: Literaturnoe Nasledstvo, in preparation.
Russian Women Writers, two volumes [1604 pages]. New York: Garland Publishers, 1999.
Award: Best Book, 1999, AWSS Barbara Heldt Prize.
Favorable Reviews:
Victor Terras, World Literature Today.
Wolfgang Kazack, Die Welt der Slaven.
Charlotte Rosenthal, Slavic and East European Journal.
Helena Goscilo, Choice.
Critical Essays on the Prose and Poetry of Modern Slavic Women, with N. Efimov and R. Chapple. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1998.
The Structure of Verse Language: Theoretical and Experimental Research in Russian and Serbo-Croatian Syllabo-Tonic Versification, Verlag Otto Sagner: Munich, 1989.
Articles and Chapters in Books
"Evgeniia Tur."In Dictionary of Literary Biography: Russian Novelists in the Age of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, ed. J.Ogden, (Detroit, MI: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 2001), 339-344.
"Mirra Lokhvitskaia."In Russian Women Writers, ed. C. Tomei, (New York: Garland Publishing, 1999), 417-442.
"Mirra Loxvickaja and Anna Axmatova: Influence in the Evolution of the Female Lyric Voice."In Critical Essays on the Prose and Poetry of Modern SlavicWomen, ed. N. Efimov, C. Tomei and R.Chapple (Lewiston, NY: Mellen Press, 1998), 135-160.
"Landsafty fantazii, slysimoj molca za slovom : Psychical Dis/Juncture in Belyj's Peterburg. Slavic and East European Journal, 38, 4 (1994): 603-617.
"Light and Color in Andrej Belyj's Peterburg: Green and Twilight."Slavic and East European Journal, 36, 2, (1992): 57-67.
"Wassily Kandinsky,""Nina Katerli,""Anna Karavaeva." In Modern Encyclopedia of East Slavic, Baltic and Eurasian Literatures, vol. 11, Peter Rollberg, ed. Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press, vol. 12, forthcoming.
Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. K. Wilson, ed., Garland Publishing, 1991. Fourteen entries including Akhmadulina, Chukovskaia and Brlic-Mazuranic.
Handbook of Russian Literature. V. Terras, ed., Yale University Press, 1985. Six entries including Evgeniia Tur, Volynsky and Zvezda.
SELECTED PAPERS
2005 "Russian Women Writers and Publishing: Survey of republication records of 42 authors in the book."National Conference, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Salt Lake City, November 7.
2000 "Women and the Literary Voice in Russian Literary Polemics, 1800-1905."National Conference, Modern Language Association, December 28.
2000 "Lokhvitskaia's Virile Christ'."National Conference, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Denver, November 9.
2000 "Spirals in Parallel: Kandinsky, Scriabin and Belyj."International Modernisms Conference, II, University of Pennsylvania, October 23.
2000 "Women, the Law and Reading the Body in the work of Lokhvitskaia, Goncharova and Guro."The Slavic Seminar, April 7, Columbia University.
1999 "The Medusa: Hair and Self-Representation in the Writings of Russian Women Writers at Fin-de-Siècle."Modern Language Association National Conference, Chicago, IL.
1999 "Reawakening the Sphinx: From Stone to Allegory to Flesh in Nineteenth-Century Russian Poetry."AAASS National Conference, St. Louis, MO, November 20.
1999 "Marriage of the Mind: A Masculine Design on Immortality in the Poetry of Mirra Lokhvitskaia to Konstantin Bal'mont."British Association of Slavic and East European Studies Conference, Cambridge, England, March 21.
1998 Organized panel, "Gender and Genre"and paper, " Just' Love Songs: Lokhvitskaia's Lyric Poetry in Fin-de-Siècle Russian Culture."AAASS National Conference, Boca Raton, FL September 27.
1998 "Practically Pornography: Women's Artistic Appropriation of the Body in Fin-de-Siècle Russia."University of Southern California, Conference on Pornography in Russia, May.
1997 Organized and participated on the Roundtable, "Resubmission: Women Writers in Russian History."AAASS National Conference, Seattle, WA.
1996 "Changing With the Times: Lokhvitskaia and Sappho,"Modern Language Association National Conference, Washington, DC.
1996 "Desire, Fantasy and the Lyric Muse of Mirra Lokhvitskaia,"AAASS National Conference, Boston, MA.
1994 "Beyond All Bounds: The Creative Muse of Mirra Loxvickaja."AATSEEL National Conference, San Diego, CA.
1993 "Creative Parallels in Belyj and Scriabin." AATSEEL National Conference, Toronto, ON.
BOOK REVIEWS (sample)
Wachtel, Michael.The Development of Russian Verse: Meter and Its Meanings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, for Choice, August 1999.
Holton, Milne and Mihailovich, Vasa. Songs of the Serbian people: From the Collections of Vuk Karadzic. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997, for Slavic and East European Journal, 42, 2 (1999): 395-396.
Rosalind Marsh., ed. Women in Russia and Ukraine.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, for The Harriman Review, 10, 4 (1998): 41-42.
Marsh, Rosalind. History and Literature in Contemporary Russia. New York: New York University Press, 1995, for Choice, February, 1996.
Rueschmeyer, Marilyn. Women in the Politics of Postcommunist Eastern Europe. New York: Sharpe, 1994, for Slavic and East European Journal, 40, 2 (1996): 406-407.
Goscilo, Helena. Lives in Transit: A Collection of Recent Russian Women's Writing. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1995, for Choice, December, 1995.
Clyman, T. and Greene, D. Women Writers in Russian Literature. Greenwich , CT: Greenwood Press, 1994, for Choice, November, 1994.
GRANTS AND AWARDS
1999 Barbara Heldt Award for Best Book in Slavic Women's Studies, American Women in Slavic Studies, for Russian Women Writers.
1995-8 Visiting Scholar, The Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
1997 IREX Short-Term Grant, four weeks, Moscow.
1996 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar: Women Writers in Russian Literature, Amherst College.
1994 Joseph Malik Award for Outstanding Service, National American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.
1994 IREX Short-Term Grant, four weeks, Petersburg and Moscow.
1992 ACTR Research Scholar Grant, four months, Moscow Linguistics University.
1983-4 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Fellowship, Yugoslavia.U.S. Department of Education.
Feedback:
"Chris is amazing!! She is supportive and kind. She gently kept me focused and on track. She put herself inside my head to beautifully articulate some of my hard to follow sentences. She advised me where I needed to be consistent, how to strengthen my work, where my gaps were and what I needed to do to bring it all into alignment. She responded quickly when I sent her work. She is the reason I completed my dissertation. I highly recommend her to everyone and I would definitely use her again for business or creative writing. She is wonderful to work with and I will miss her."
"I am humbled by the scientific editorial support that I have received from Christine. She has restructured my manuscript and helped me to strengthen my arguments for 'internal consistency'. In addition, she asked for additional data to complete the evaluation process, but more important, her skillful use of language allowed me to tell my story in a scholarly way. I will always request her services and encourage others to do the same. I thank God for Christine. Moreover, her compassion for her work and people comes through. I'm requesting that my name and affiliation not be disclosed at this time. Please know, she has taught me the value of an editor who is committed to serving mankind through her work. While my organization does not permit the use of its name, you are welcome to post my comments (but do not use my name at this time.) and refer others to my email address." — (Contact information on request)
"This past week, I was under immense pressure to meet an end of the semester deadline with my dissertation committee to schedule a prospectus hearing. I needed someone to read my work and provide feedback in a VERY short time frame. Dr. Tomei was extremely timely in her initial responses and willingness to help me in such a short timeframe. We worked through TWO edits of a 63 page document in less than 48 hours! Not only did Dr. Tomei edit the 'basic' grammatical structure of my writing, she challenged me to explore my topic further to develop a deeper level of understanding. She took the time to discuss with me (via email) the true meaning of the construct I am measuring. This further exploration of the topic enabled me to strengthen my rationale for my study and prepare for the prospectus hearing. She did a superb job editing all three chapters — the introduction, literature review and methodology section. I must admit, I have never hired an editor before and this experience turned out to be MORE than I ever expected! Not only did Dr. Tomei work tirelessly to meet every deadline, she has guided me through a challenging process. I am more prepared for my proposal meeting based upon my work with Dr. Tomei. Looking back on this experience, I don't think I would have arrived at this same understanding (and written draft of my work) without her! I am thankful for her help and look forward to working with her to finish my dissertation! Thank you!" — Heather Carter, Northern Arizona University, doctoral student in educational leadership
"Dr. Tomei’s advising is the kind every student dreams of - incisive, challenging and ultimately transforming. Although my initial request was for help paring down my focus, I soon realized that under Dr. Tomei's tutelage I had the chance to expand my creative vision. I came away with a document that has redefined my research and opened new doors in my academic career. In fact, consulting with her was more of a turbo course re-examining my field, while her invaluable insights and pithy wit buoyed my spirits at critical junctures. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity. The brainstorming and rewrite process was also tremendous fun, in large part due to Dr. Tome's remarkably refined analysis of a client’s style and objectives and deft cultivation of their skills. The depth and range of her expertise is staggering, and even as my project moved toward exigent reevaluation and a time crunch, her compassionate instruction inspired a growing confidence and trust in the progress rather than a daunting intellectual divide. Dr. Tomei is a rare mentor and incredibly generous with her feedback. Developing and editing my project with her help was always fascinating and provided me with a life-changing awareness. Once again, many thanks, and hope to work with you again!" — (Contact information on request)
"Chris willingly shares her incisive ability to organize ideas and words to maximize the clarity and impact. She is able to sculpt a raw document in concert with the vision of the author in order to realize a most impressive end product. Writing is a temperamental child often not conforming to the goals of the author for completion within planned parameters. Chris however always met her committed availability schedule and her commitments to return drafts. I never fancied myself much of a writer but, now that my dissertation has been successfully defended I am going on to write a book. This is an adventure I would never have considered had I not been the recipient of a kind of writing support I never knew existed until I experienced Chris's facility with her professional craft of editing." — Guy Hutt
