Elena Siemens, PhD, MA
Contact
Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts - Modern Languages and Cultural Studies Dept
- esiemens@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Visual Culture Photography Performance Studies Fashion Studies Spaces of Performance Creative Non-Fiction Critical and Cultural Theory
About
Elena Siemens is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. Her research interests include Visual Culture, Photography, Performance Studies (especially Spaces of Performance), Fashion Studies, Creative Non-Fiction, Critical and Cultural Theory. Most recent publications include:
- Ole Nopea!: Multilingual Writing, Google Translate, and the Polaroid (2022)
- ’It’s You Plus It’s … Art’: The #Artselfie Debate From Douglas Coupland to Tolstoy (2021)
- "De-icing" - Structures of Anticipation Project (2021)
- 'Gift Me a Dream:' Retail Windows London to Vancouver (2021)
- Your Own Self is OK: 50 Years of Fluevog (2020)
- Remembering Paris 1968: Fashion Theatre of Protest (2019). Currently she is contributing to the project on Toxic Media Ecologies.
Research
Books & Edited Volumes
Siemens, Elena, Ed (w Kat Sark), Fashion Cultures and Media – Canadian Perspectives, Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Issue 9-2, 2018.
Siemens, Elena, Street Fashion Moscow (Intellect, UK), 2017.
Siemens, Elena, Ed. Subjective Fashion. The Polyglot Magazine of Poetry and Art, Issue 2, 2017,
Siemens, Elena, "Stirred 15 (A Critical Introduction)," in Ed. Elena Siemens, Stirred: Memories and Dreams. TranscUlturAl, Issue 8-1, 2016.
Siemens, Elena, Theatre in Passing 2: Searching for New Amsterdam (Intellect, UK), 2015.
Siemens, Elena, Ed. Translating Street Art, special issue of TranscultUrAL, Issue 6-1, 2014.
Siemens, Elena, Ed. The Dark Spectacle: Landscapes of Devastation in Film and Photography, special issue of Space and Culture, (Sage), 17-4, November 2014.
Siemens, Elena, Ed. (w Andriko Lozowy, Managing Editor), Scandals of Horror, Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Issue 4-1, August 2013.
Siemens, Elena, Theatre in Passing: A Moscow Photo-Diary, (Intellect UK), 2011.
Siemens, Elena, Ed. Picturing Second Geography, special issue of Space and Culture: International Journal of Social Spaces (Sage), Issue 11-1, February 2008.
Recent Articles
SIemens, Elena. "Ole Nopea!: Multilingual Writing, Google Translate, and the Polaroid." Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 49 no. 3, pp. 331-348, 2022.
Siemens, Elena. "’It’s You Plus It’s … Art’: The #Artselfie Debate From Douglas Coupland to Tolstoy." Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 48 no. 1, pp. 27-40, 2021.
Siemens, Elena, "De-icing," Structures of Anticipation, Fall 2021.
Siemens, Elena, "'Gift Me a Dream:' Retail Windows from London to Vancouver." Space and Culture, March 29 2021.
Siemens, Elena, “JE SUIS EN TRANSIT (Adventures in Google Translate),” TrancUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies, Issue 12-2, pp. 61-64, 2020.
Siemens, Elena, “Your Own Self is OK: 50 Years of Fluevog,” Book Review: Fluevog: 50 Years of Unique Soles for Unique Souls by John Fluevog” The Ormsby Review, March 1, 2020.
Siemens, Elena, “Remembering Paris 1968: Fashion Theatre of Protest,” Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Issue 10-2, 2019.
Siemens, Elena, "Gucci dans les rue," Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Issue 10-2, 2019.
Siemens, Elena, “Ice Cream Dreams,” The Polyglot, Issue 4, 2019.
Siemens, Elena, “Aerial View Honolulu,” in eds. Craig Campbell and Yoke Sum Wong, X-Situ (Un)Making Space Out of Place, Page 5-20, 2018.
Siemens, Elena, "The Ruby Slippers Across Time, Space and Media," in eds. Elena Siemens, Kat Sark, Fashion Cultures and Media – Canadian Perspectives, Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Issue 9-2, 2018.
Siemens, Elena, "Diesel® Plays the Fool: Translating Performance in Fashion Ads," TrancUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies, Issue 9-1, 2017.
Siemens, Elena. "Wearevers Danke" in ed. Elena Siemens, Subjective Fashion, The Polyglot Magazine of Poetry and Art, Issue 2, 26-27, 2017.
Siemens, Elena, "Intersections Palais Royal," Crosswalks, The Polyglot Magazine of Poetry and Art,, Issue 1, Spring 2017.
Siemens, Elena, Christine Wiesenthal, "Shabby Chic Afternoon," TranscUlturAl, Issue 8-1, 2016.
Siemens, Elena, "Paris Wall Flowers, Moscow Wall Wars," in Ed. Elena Siemens, Translating Street Art, special issue of TranscUlturAl, Issue 6-1, 2014.
Siemens, Elena, and Wiesenthal, Christine, "Clothes Lines," in Ed. Elena Siemens, Translating Street Art, special issue of TranscUlturAl, Issue 6-1, 2014.
Siemens, Elena, "High Rise Zhivago," in Ed. Susan Ingram, Perceived Peripherality and Places Images: The City, the Region, the Border, Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Issue 5-1, April 2014.
Siemens, Elena, "Death in Vienna," in Ed. Elena Siemens, The Dark Spectacle: Landscapes of Devastation in Film and Photography, special issue of Space and Culture: International Journal of Social Spaces (Sage), Issue 17-4, 336-345, November 2014.
Siemens, Elena, "Blue Door Havana," in Ed. Elena Siemens (w Andriko Lozowy, Managing Editor), Scandals of Horror, Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Issue 4-1, August 2013.
Recent Exhibitions
Siemens, Elena, The Forecast, November 2019.
Siemens, Elena, Restless, March 8, 2019.
Siemens, Elena, Hotel Metropole, November 1, 2018.
Siemens, Elena, Café Counterculture, March 7, 2018.
Siemens, Elena, Revolution 100, November 10, 2017.
Siemens, Elena, Bad Weather, January 2017.
Siemens, Elena, Fashion Lounge, October 2016.
Siemens, Elena, Stirred Memories Dreams Popup Exhibit, September 2015.
Siemens, Elena, Translating Street Art, November 2014.
Siemens, Elena, The Post Card Exhibit, November 2013.
Siemens, Elena, My Edmonton Photography Show, April 2012.
Siemens, Elena, The Vertical Exhibit and Performance, November 2012.
Siemens, Elena, Consumed Art Show, December 2011.
Courses
C LIT 352 - Literature and the Other Arts
Throughout history, literature had close relations with the other arts (such as painting and sculpture, music and theatre): more recently these relations extended to cinema television, and other media. Each year, the course will emphasize one of these relations, in an interdisciplinary perspective which stresses contacts and commonalities, but also the specific differences of art forms and the media.
C LIT 440 - Comparative Studies in Popular Culture
An international historical and typological analysis of selected topics in popular literature and media, their changing status in society and culture, as well as their interaction with canonized forms of literature and the arts.
ENGL 385 - Topics in Popular Culture
Prerequisite: *6 of junior English, or *3 of junior English plus WRS 101 or 102. Note: variable content course which may be repeated if topics vary.
MLCS 210 - Approaches to Cultural Studies
Introduction to key concepts in the study of cultures, languages, literatures, and media.
MLCS 299 - Special Topics
Course may be taken five times when topics vary.
RUSS 211 - Intermediate Russian I
Intended to expand comprehension and production skills in written and oral Russian with a focus on intercultural communicative competence. Prerequisite: Russian 30 (or equivalent), or RUSS 112, or consent of Department.
RUSS 325 - Readings in Russian Literature I
Study of pre-20th century Russian literature. Readings and discussion normally in English, but discussion may be in Russian.