Olga Basharina is a Lecturer of Russian at the University of New Mexico. Her research and teaching examine language, culture, identity, literacy, and power through Indigenous, regional, multilingual, and decolonial perspectives.

Her current work focuses on broadening Russian language and culture education beyond traditional metropolitan narratives by foregrounding the linguistic, ethnic, regional, and transnational diversity of the Russian-speaking world. Her interests include Indigenous peoples and ethnic republics of the Russian Federation, the post-Soviet world, multilingualism, language politics, and Sakha language, literature, and cinema.

Her earlier scholarship explored Sakha oral-to-literate traditions, digital literacies, technology-mediated language learning, and international telecollaboration. At UNM, she teaches Russian from beginning through advanced levels and develops curricula centered on the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Russian-speaking world.

Research Areas

Indigenous and Regional Studies; Decolonial and Postcolonial Approaches; Russian Language and Culture Pedagogy; Multilingualism and Language Politics; Sakha Literature and Cinema; Digital Literacies

Education

Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Dissertation title: An Activity system Analysis of International Telecollaboration: Contexts, Contradictions, and Learning

M.Ed. in Language, Literacy & Culture
University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Education — Fairbanks, AK, USA

B.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language; B.Ed. in Elementary Education
Yakutsk State University (now North-Eastern Federal University) — Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia

Representative Courses

• RUSS 1110, 1120: Beginner Russian
• RUSS 202: Intermediate Russian
• RUSS 301: Intermediate-Advanced Russian
• RUSS 401: Advanced Russian
• MLNG 1110: Approaches to Modern Languages and Cultures
• LLSS 456/556: First and Second Language Development within Cultural Contexts
• RUSS/COMP/ENGL 338: Modern Russian Culture and Literature
• RUSS 339/HIST 335: Russian Culture, Literature, and History through Film
• RUSS/HIST/COMP 340: Nations within Nations: Peoples, Cultures, and Identities in Russia and the Post-Soviet World (Spring 2027)