Home Department: Russian and Slavic Studies (RSSS)
SLAT Area of Specialization: Instructional Dimensions of L2 Learning, Sociocultural Dimensions of L2 Learning
Colleen Lucey, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at the University of Arizona. She earned a B.A. in Russian from Barnard College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A specialist in Russian literature and visual culture of the long nineteenth century, Dr. Lucey publishes on works by both canonical writers (Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy) and the texts of their lesser-known contemporaries (Avdot'ia Panaeva, Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia). In addition to the representation of commercial sex in literature and art, her research and teaching interests include the history of Russian theatre and performance (from the nineteenth century to the present), and Russian language instruction.
Dr. Lucey is author of Love for Sale: Representing Prostitution in Imperial Russia (Cornell University Press, 2021). Love for Sale examines how a variety of writers and their contemporaries working in the visual arts utilized the theme of prostitution to tackle issues of public hygiene, fidelity, and the commodification of sex. As Russians eagerly discussed the legalization of prostitution in the 1840s, they witnessed the debate expanding beyond the realm of the brothel to include other types of transactional relations haunting the institution of the family. Studying a wide range of media--from little-known engravings that circulated in newspapers to works of canonical fiction--Love for Sale shows how the topic of commercial sex came to signify broader fears about women's entry into the marketplace as both consumers and objects of consumption. Streetwalkers, demimondaines, kept women, dowerless brides, and procuresses appear in cultural production as key symbols of a changing sexual and social hierarchy. While scholars have long been interested in these themes, Love for Sale is the first study to consider commercial sex as a cultural phenomenon in imperial Russia that dominated discussions related to women’s autonomy.
Dr. Lucey’s research has been supported by the Title VIII Research Scholar Program, the U.S.-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program, and the Foreign Language & Area Studies Program. She is an active member of the profession and currently serves as Vice President to the Executive Council of AATSEEL (American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, 2020-2022) and is on the Board of ALTA (American Literary Translators Association).