Alexandra Noi is a PhD candidate in History department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She works in the fields of Soviet history, modern Chinese history, and history of science. Her dissertation is titled From Ape to New Socialist Man: Soviet and Chinese Labor Camps as Laboratories of Carceral Eugenics. She has been awarded a Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies to complete her thesis in 2025.
Prior to coming to UC Santa Barbara, she received a doctoral degree in modern Chinese literature from St. Petersburg State University in 2017. Her first book was published in 2024 titled Evoliutsiia personosfery kitaiskoi prozy vtoroi poloviny XX veka (The Evolution of the Character Portrayal in Chinese Prose of the Second Half of the 20th century).
From Ape to New Socialist Man: Soviet and Chinese Labor Camps as Laboratories of Carceral Eugenics
Books
Alexandra Noi, Evoliutsiia personosfery kitaiskoi prozy vtoroi poloviny XX veka [The Evolution of the Character Portrayal in Chinese Prose of the Second Half of the 20th century] (St. Petersburg: Renome, 2024)
My book was selected to be featured in a top list of books at the “Non/Fiction” book fair in Moscow, April 4-7, 2024.
Chapters in edited volumes
Alexandra Noi, “Ex-prisoners of the Gulag in the Siberian Expeditions,” in Invisible Labour in Modern Science, ed. by Jenny Bangham, Xan Chacko, and Judith Kaplan (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2022), pp. 81–88.
Peer-reviewed articles
Alexandra Nikitina, “The Song of Ouyang Hai: The Destruction of an Ideal Hero,” Archiv Orientalni: Journal of African and Asian Studies, 83 (Prague, 2015), pp. 117–136.
Alexandra Nikitina, “Character Portrayal in Chinese Novels of the 1950s,” Herald of St. Petersburg University, Series 13: Oriental Studies. African Studies, 4 (2013), 61–67.
Alexandra Nikitina, “Man in the Middle vs. Ideal Hero: Literary policy in PRC in 1961–1976,” Herald of St. Petersburg University, Series 13: Oriental Studies. African Studies, 3 (2013), 73–80.
Alexandra Nikitina, “The Role of the Policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Character Portrayal in Chinese Literature of 1949 – early 1960s,” Herald of St. Petersburg University, Series 13: Oriental Studies. African Studies, 2 (2013), 73–81.
Instructor of Record:
Summer 2023: History of the Soviet Union (HIST135C)
Graduate Teaching Assistant:
Fall 2022: Science and the Modern World (HIST 20)
Summer 2021: Introduction to the Research University (INT W 20)
Spring 2021: Modern Europe, 18th century–Present (HIST 4C)
Winter 2021: Science and Technology in the Cold War (HIST105CW)
Fall 2020: World History, c. 1000–1700 (HIST 2B)
Summer 2020: Introduction to the Research University (INT W 20)
Spring 2020: Modern Europe, 18th century–Present (HIST 4C)
Winter 2020: Medieval and Early Modern Europe (HIST 4B)
Fall 2019: World History, 1700–Present (HIST 2C)
Guest lectures:
“The Soviet Gulag and its Memory,” in SLAV182 Russia and its Prisoners from Dostoyevsky to Navalny (Spring 2024, UCSB)
“Russo-Ukrainian War as a Legacy of Soviet and post-Soviet History,” in HIST5 History of the Present (Fall 2023, UCSB)
“The Soviet Gulag,” in HIST135 History of Russia (Winter 2020, UCSB)
“Convict Labor and its Legacies in the 20th century Russia and China,” in HIST2C World History (Fall 2019, UCSB)
Lecturer:
Modern Chinese Literature at Moscow State Linguistic University (2017-2018)
Language Instructor:
Chinese (Mandarin) and Classical Chinese at St. Petersburg State University, Department of Asian and African Studies (2013-2016)
Chinese (Mandarin) at the Confucius Institute of St. Petersburg State University (2011-2016)
Graduate Student Essay Prize, Northwest Regional Conference for Russian, East European and Central Studies (ASEEES regional affiliate) (2025)
Barton Johnson Award, Best Critical or Scholarly Essay in Russian, East European or Eurasian Literature, Art, and Culture (2025)
Steve and Barbara Mendell Graduate Fellowship in Cultural Literacy (2025-2026)
ASEEES Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2024-2025)
UCSB China Studies Ph.D. Student Research Award (2024)
Ann & Stuart Rappaport Prize for the best dissertation chapter on European History (2024)
UCSB History Department Dissertation Fellowship (Spring 2024)
UCSB Center for Cold War Studies and International History Fellowship (Winter 2024)
UCSB Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grant (2023-2024)
Hoover Institution Silas Palmer Fellowship (2023-2024)
UCSB Robert O. Collins Prize (2023) for the publication of “Ex-prisoners of the Gulag in the Siberian Expeditions,” in Invisible Labour in Modern Science, ed. by Jenny Bangham, Xan Chacko, and Judith Kaplan (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2022), pp. 81–88.
ASEEES Internship Grant Program (2023-2024)
UCSB Graduate Student Internship Fellowship (Summer 2023)
Participant in Hoover Institution Workshop on Authoritarianism and Democratic Breakdown, July 2022
Summer Research Laboratory Associate at the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC) and the Slavic Reference Service (SRS), University of Illinois (2022)
Kenneth Mouré and Sara Norquay Graduate Student Award (2022)
Research Travel Grant, UCSB History Department and the Financial Aid Committee (2022)
Lawrence Badash Prize (2021)
Richard ’59 And Jeanne Williams Endowed Graduate Fellowship (2021)
History Associates Graduate Fellowship (2020)
John Coleman Award (2020)
Predissertation Travel Grant to China, Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies (2020/2022)
Emil Steck Jr. Fellowship (UCSB) (2018-2019)
UCSB Chancellor’s Fellowship (2018-2024)
Training Program for Overseas Sinologists organized by the PRC Ministry of Culture and Chinese Writers’ Association (Beijing, 2015)
Library Travel Grant from Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation and European Association for Chinese Studies, University of London, School of Asian and African Studies (2012)
Training Program for Teachers of Chinese as a Foreign Language, Beijing Language and Culture University, organized by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) (2012)
Fulbright Fellowship Finalist (Alternate) (2012-2013)
Chinese Consulate General in St. Petersburg Scholarship, Language Trainee Program at Central China Normal University (Wuhan) (2008-2009)
Prize of Outstanding’ at the 7th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, in Beijing and Changsha (2008)
Winner of the local-level Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition, St. Petersburg (2008)
Fulbright Fellowship Semifinalist (2008-2009)
Chinese Embassy in Moscow Scholarship, Exchange Program at North-Eastern Normal University (Changchun) (2006-2007)
Research Assistant to Professor Emeritus Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
Research Assistant to Professor Anthony Barbieri
Organizer and member of UCSB History Kruzhok (reading group in the history of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia)
Member of UCSB interdisciplinary Memory studies group (inactive)
More about me
Podcast with me about the legacies of carceral regimes in Russia and China (UCSB Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies)
Moderating the discussion of the documentary “Women of the Gulag” (UCSB Carsey-Wolf Center)