Dr. Marina Levina

About

Dr. Marina Levina is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar of critical/cultural studies, media studies, and critical rhetoric. Dr. Levina’s research focuses on critical refugee studies, anti-authoritarian activism and writing, Ukraine and post-Soviet decolonial studies, and horror/monstrosity studies. She is an expert in critical studies of pandemics and disease and has published extensively on COVID-19. She has published extensively in journals such as Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Television & New Media, Surveillance & Society, and Review of Communication. Dr. Levina is a recipient of numerous national awards, including the National Communication Association Robert J. Kibler Memorial Award.

Dr. Levina is the editor of Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, a top journal in critical/cultural studies. She has served as chair of the Critical Cultural Studies Division of the National Communication Association and co-chair of the Rhetoric Society of America 2026 Conference. She serves on multiple editorial boards, including an advisory board for Surveillance & Society journal.

Dr. Levina was born and raised in Odesa, Ukraine. She came to the United States as a Jewish refugee from the then Soviet Union.

You can find her at www.marinalevina.com

Education

Ph.D. Communication, 2006, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.A. Communication, 2000, University of Pennsylvania
B.S./B.A. Psychology and Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Publications

Books

Happe, K. E., Johnson, J., & Levina, M. (Eds.). (2018). Biocitizenship: The Politics of Bodies, Governance, and Power. New York University Press. (Reviewed in New Genetics and Society; Journal of Disability and Religion)

Levina, M. (2015). Pandemics and the Media. Peter Lang Press. (Reviewed in The Communication Review)

Levina, M., & Bui, D. M. T. (Eds.). (2013). Monster culture in the 21st century: A reader. Bloomsbury Academic Press.
(Reviewed in Choices; CINEJ: Cinema Journal; Information, Culture, and Society)

Levina, M., & Kien, G. (Eds.). (2010). Post-global network and everyday life. Peter Lang Press.

Special Journal Issues

Levina, M and Khrebtan-Hörhager, J. (Eds.) (2026). Understanding Authoritarianism: Lessons from the Soviet Union and Europe. Communication and Democracy, 60(1).

Levina, M (Ed.). (2025). Refuge. Special issue of Communication and Critical Cultural Studies, 22(2).

Levina, M. (Ed.). (2022). Cultural Chronicles of COVID-19 [Two Part Special FORUM Issue(s)]. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 19(1) and 19(2).

Levina, M. & Silva, K. (Eds.). (2018). Cruelty in the Age of Trump [Special FORUM Issue] Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 15(1).

Levina, M. & Hasinoff, A. (Eds.). (2017). The Silicon Valley Ethos: Tech Industry Products, Discourses, and Practices, Television & New Media, 18(6).

Editorials

Khrebtan-Hörhager, J and Levina, M (2026) Defining Authoritarianism: Legacies from the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe, Communication and Democracy, 60(1).

Levina, M. (2025). Toward Critical Refugee Studies. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 22(2), 137–143.

Levina, M. (2025). Doing critical cultural studies in the age of totalitarian thought. Editorial for Communication and Critical Cultural Studies, 22(1).

Levina, M., & Silva, K. (2018). Cruel intentions: affect theory in the age of Trump. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 15(1), 70-72.

Levina, M., & Hasinoff, A. A. (2017). The Silicon Valley ethos: Tech industry products, discourses, and practices. Television & New Media, 18(6), 489-495.

Levina, M. & Bui, D. (2013.) Toward a Comprehensive Monster Theory in the 21st Century, In M. Levina and D. Bui (Eds.), Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader, Bloomsbury Academic Press.

Sample Journal Articles (peer-reviewed journals)

Levina, M. (2026). Authoritarian Biopolitics and the Mechanisms of Debilitation: Lessons from Chernobyl and the Soviet Union. Communication and Democracy, 60(1).

Levina, M. (2022). Epidemiology as Methodology: COVID-19, Ukraine, and the Problem of Whiteness. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies,19(2).

Tabrizi, H. & Levina, M (2022). Conceptualizing “the end” of COVID-19: temporality and linear mobilization toward health, Review of Communication, 22(2)..

Christensen, K. & Levina, M. (2022). Saving White Women: Vulnerability and the Immobilized Body in Don’t Breathe (2016). Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, online first, June 26, 2022.

Levina, M. (2020). Queering Intimacy, Six Feet Apart. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 7(3), 195-200.

Dubrofsky, R. E., & Levina, M. (2020). The labor of consent: affect, agency and whiteness in the age of# metoo. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 37(5), 409-423.

Levina, M. (2020). The Violence of Merit. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 9(1), 20-24.

Levina, M. (2018). Whiteness and the joys of cruelty. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 15(1), 73-78.

Levina, M. (2017). Under Lenin’s watchful eye: Growing up in the former Soviet Union. Surveillance & Society, 15(3/4), 529-534.

Levina, M. (2017). Disrupt or die: Mobile health and disruptive innovation as body politics. Television & New Media, 18(6), 548-564.

Levina, M. (2014). From feminism without bodies, to bleeding bodies in virtual spaces. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 11(3), 278-281.