My name is Eve Barden, I am a 5th-year doctoral candidate in the Film & Media Studies program and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. My academic research interests lie in Soviet bloc innovative animation.

My interdisciplinary alternative-model dissertation project focuses on a significant aesthetic and conceptual trend in animation that flourished in three countries of the Soviet system (the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Poland) in the period of late Socialism—commonly known as Stagnation— from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The project offers an interdisciplinary cultural analysis and critique of innovative animated media made for adults which was by and large conceptually murky, abstract, ludic, and therefore relatively safe in the eyes of a censor. My research methodology incorporates a survey of cross-cultural film-texts in the context of historical and socio-political factors that played a significant part in distinguishing the Soviet bloc (with its substantial varieties) as the producer of culturally notable avant-garde animated films distinctly different from the films made in the West. The project itself consists of a series of video essays that link to the written material and various cross-linked data which is intended to be published on a public-facing open-access website (titled sovietanimationscholar.com, currently in progress!) as an accessible and immersive educational tool that exists independent of the university settings.

As a creative professional and a film & media studies specialist, I find the multimedia component of my project is both the most thrilling and the most challenging. During the proposal phase of my dissertation, I was perhaps somewhat overly ambitious and a bit unfocused as to the core research questions and objectives of my dissertation. My scope was too wide and too encompassing in technical and research aspects. My goals to create a written dissertation with a creative video component, and also a professional website that would be engaging and educational to a wide public are still exciting and valid at this stage of my work. However, what I have learned is that this dissertation is not my magnum opus but only the first large-scale project that opens up various avenues for future research. So, I learned to adjust my focus for the sake of time and sanity. I also had to abandon the illusion of academic impartiality when accessing cultural artifacts. I searched for conceptual and subjective threads in individual films instead of offering a bird’s eye view of the immense collection of these cultural objects. After all, these films did not appear spontaneously out of their socio-historical conditions, they were created by artists, animators, and directors, each with their distinct condition, in other words, individuals who shared their subjectivities and their unique voices through their work.

I also discovered a simple truth that the essential quality of a true innovator is adhering to one's own vision. I still have worries about how my project might compare to the requirements of the conventional dissertation process and what difficulties lie ahead. Precisely because this kind of approach is innovative, it is natural to worry that it will be misinterpreted or even rejected due to its unfamiliarity. Since there is no convenient model for what I am doing, there is an additional risk associated with the freedom to build something ostensibly unique and make wrong choices along the way losing precious time and resources. The counsel I gave myself may seem trite, but it is a reality I had to face: never lose sight of the original motivation for your work, and don't let unimportant worries and minor setbacks derail you from your larger goals. For me, it was the thrill of building an open-access hub for original, approachable, informed, and—dare I say it—fun content for everyone. Essentially, I am driven by the desire to share why I love my research subject and why I love animation in general with everybody