Emily Schuckman-Matthews, Ph.D.
Professor, European Studies
Comparative International Studies
CINTS Advisor; European Studies Program Director
College of Arts and Letters
SDSU
Bio
Emily Schuckman Matthews joined the European Studies Department in 2011. She earned her B.A. in Government & Literature with a concentration in Women’s Studies from Claremont McKenna College. She completed her M.A. in Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies and her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at University of Washington.
Her research focuses on representations of sex work and prostitution in Russian literature, film, and culture. Dr. Schuckman Matthews’ book Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective was published in March 2023 with Lexington Books. She has also published several articles on issues of gender, sexuality, and Russian culture in journals such as Feminist Media Studies, The Russian Review, Studies in Documentary Film, and Studies in Soviet and Russian Cinema. She regularly reviews Russian films and television series for the online platform Kino Kultura. Other areas of interest include human trafficking, late/post-Soviet Russian literature and culture, cinema, and feminist activism in Russia.
Dr. Schuckman Matthews served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a small village in the Russian Far East from 1999-2002 and remains passionate about that beautiful and remote corner of the country.
Areas of Specialization
Gender and Sexuality in Russia and Eastern Europe, 20th and 21st century Russian literature, culture and film, and human trafficking in Europe
Courses
At SDSU, Dr. Schuckman Matthews directs the European Studies Program and teaches courses in a range of modalities including face to face, hybrid and fully online. She regularly teaches the following courses:
- EUROP 101: Introduction to European Studies
- EUROP 301: Contemporary Europe
- EUROP 320: Food Culture in Europe
- EUROP 424: European Cinema
- EUROP 435: Culture and Identity in Post-Communist Europe
- EUROP 440: Human Trafficking in Europe
- EUROP 501: Rotating Topics (Most Recently: Race and Identity in Europe)
Research
Brussels-Lux Study Tour
In June 2022, Dr. Schuckman Matthews participated in the Brussels-Lux Study Tour sponsored by the Center for European Studies at University of Pittsburgh. She joined a cohort of educators from around the country for a week of in-depth learning about and visiting the various institutions that make up the European Union, meeting with key EU representatives, and working with colleagues to develop lesson plans for educators teaching about Europe.
Professor Schuckman Matthews takes a selfie on a visit to the EU Parliament in Brussels.
Professor Schuckman Matthews samples Belgium's famous waffles in Brussels in preparation for teaching EUROP 320 "Food Culture in Europe."
Professor Schuckman Matthews visits the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Publications
Latest Book
Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective
2023, Rowman & Littlefield
Click to get the 30% discount code.
Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective weaves together a wide range of materials to examine the figure of the female sex worker in Russia from the early twentieth century to the present day. The book offers readers both an expansive and nuanced discussion of the significance of this archetypal female who appears with remarkable frequency in literature, film, and other cultural productions. The author explores the ways in which the fictional sex worker (and her real-life counterpart) has become a symbolic representative of social and moral instability, economic volatility, political, social, and ideological revolutions, and changing concepts of gender, sexuality, and the nation itself. Focus is given to the movement of the female sex worker from marginal foil to a hero in her own right, even finding a voice of her own in recent years. Works featuring this alluring and complex figure reveal critical insights into the changing position of women and other marginalized people in a volatile Russia. Read excerpts from the book.