Anatoli Ulyanov is a media researcher and documentary filmmaker whose interdisciplinary work bridges Critical Media Studies, Environmental Humanities, and Visual Anthropology. His research focuses on post-Soviet and transnational contexts, exploring how toxic narratives shape identity, enable violence, and fracture social relations. Before joining UCLA, he led international media initiatives at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center and an AI-driven hate-speech detection project supported by Google. His recent projects have examined Soviet media in the context of genocide and analyzed hate-offender discourse in collaboration with the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, the California State Commission on Hate, and the California Department of Civil Rights.
ANATOLI ULYANOV
research | projects | bio | contact
2024 — PhD Researcher,
Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures,
University of California, Los Angeles / Los Angeles, CA
2006 — M.A. in Journalism,
Taras Shevchenko National University / Kyiv, Ukraine
2005 — B.A. in Journalism,
Taras Shevchenko National University / Kyiv, Ukraine
EDUCATION
LCHP Research Institute (2025) — UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy: Intensive training in historical methods, archival research, and policy analysis.
Multispecies Humanities (2025) — UCLA Department of European Languages & Transcultural Studies: Experimental seminar on environmental relationality, in collaboration with the Santa Rosa Island Research Station.

Urban Humanities Institute (2025) — UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative: Cross-disciplinary program on spatial justice, care, and public scholarship, in collaboration with CityLAB and the Los Angeles Public Library.
Experimental Critical Theory (2025) — UCLA Department of Comparative Literature: Advanced seminar on psychoanalysis and political economy; presented with Michael Hardt.
CERTIFICATES AND TRAINING
Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship: Premier fellowship for public scholarship and transformative humanities (2024)
Graduate Research Mentorship Award (GRM): For international interdisciplinary research on hate (2025—26)
Harry and Yvonne Lenart Graduate Travel Fellowship: Supports fieldwork on media, memory, and propaganda (2025).
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship (GSRM): Funds research on trauma, care, and narrative repair (2025).
CERS Research Fellowship: Supports fieldwork in transnational contexts (2025).
ASEEES Convention Travel Grant: Awarded by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (2025).
Fellowships and Awards
Media Studies & Narrative Politics: Propaganda, Hate Speech, and Violence Prevention.

Visual Anthropology & Documentary Film: Sensory Ethnography, Archival and Experimental Cinema, Public History, and cross-modal practices.

Environmental Humanities: Toxicity, Relationality, Care Ethics, and Multispecies Storytelling.

Slavic, Post-Soviet & Transcultural Studies: Holocaust histories, Russian Imperialism, Ukrainian Nationalism, and the post-Soviet condition.
Research Interests
Toxic Lexicon: How Language Makes—and Unmakes—Violence
An interdisciplinary investigation into how language enacts and sustains violence by shaping perception, eroding empathy, and normalizing hate. Drawing on multilingual discourse analysis, linguistic anthropology, and environmental humanities, the project examines toxic lexicons in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Its aim is both diagnostic and reparative: to identify discursive flashpoints and to design scalable tools for prevention, accountability, and collective repair.

Supervised by Professor Igor Pilshchikov (UCLA).
Work-in-Progress
2025 — Researcher, UCLA Initiative to Study Hate with the California State Commission on Hate and Civil Rights Department. Analyzed offender typologies, motivations, and systemic patterns of hate; developed policy recommendations and a structured hate crime coding system for law enforcement and state agencies. Supervised by Professor David N. Myers and David A. Kalkstein. 2024 — Researcher (GSR), UCLA Department of History. Conducted archival research on Soviet-era media, Holocaust records, and the Volhynia massacre; built and led a regional research network, supporting digitization efforts under wartime constraints. Supervised by Professor Jared McBride. 2024 — Researcher (GSR), UCLA Slavic Department. Investigated labor and gender dynamics in early Russian and Soviet cinema; developed a cross-temporal archival database and annotated bibliographic tools. Supervised by Professor Lilya Kaganovsky.
Research Experience
2021–22 — Head of Media, Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, Kyiv . Directed international initiatives on hate, trauma, and memory politics; created public-facing, multilingual content and documentaries; developed media strategies to foster dialogue around contested pasts.
2022–24 — Producer, Dose of Society, Los Angeles . Conducted field interviews and produced video narratives designed to overcome social polarization, foster inclusion, and build caring communities for a platform with over 2M followers.
2022–24 — Media Analyst, Productive Playhouse, Los Angeles . Co-led a 365-person team analyzing antisemitism, hate speech, and extremist content; applied critical discourse analysis and cross-linguistic strategies to detect covert propaganda and platform manipulation.
2000–Present — DADAKINDER, Looo.ch, SHO, PROZA, X3M. Filmed award-winning documentaries on marginalized communities and cultural resistance; developed storytelling strategies reaching 50K+ followers; founded and edited major cultural media platforms in Ukraine.
Critical Media Practice
A complete archive is available at dadakinder.com
2020-2025
Biophilia (ecofilm, 6 min.) . Archival short on multispecies entanglement.

We Kill Them Out Of Love (media assemblage, 4 min.). Documents genocidal rhetoric in Russian state media.

Other (archival remix, 2 min .). Reframes Soviet propaganda through a postcolonial lens.

I Am Somebody (archival, 4 min.). Montage on dignity and resilience.
2015-2020
My First Memory of Color (documentary, 9 min.) . On racial identity formation through personal narratives.
Homeless Angels (documentary, 12 min.) . Portrait of unhoused lives in LA.
American Revolution: I Am Revolutionary (7 min.) , Women’s March (2 min.), George Floyd Rebellion (4 min.), American Democratic Regime (22 min.), Blacklight (2 min.), Women’s Strike (2 min.) . Political ethnography of U.S. protest movements.
Queerland: Church Of Fun (5 min.), Fickle Wish (10 min.), In the Womb of a Dragon (6 min.) . Verité portraits of DIY queer cultural spaces.
Because We Are Men Not Beasts (documentary, 9 min.) . Tribute to Thomas Sankara and the anti-colonial struggle.
Black Man In A Red Suit (documentary series, 113 min.) . On Black representation in Soviet cinema.
Pre-2015
Russian American: Wonderland (25 min.), Dima (8 min.), Dunsama (10 min.), Angel (7 min.) . Intimate portraits of post-Soviet diaspora life in NY and LA.
Elliot Rodger Here (documentary, 20 min.) . On masculinity, media, and violence through digital traces of the Isla Vista killings.
My New Orthodox Video (documentary, 19 min.) On nationalism, queerness, and self-mythology in post-Soviet digital space.
Documentary and Visual Projects
2025
Tentacular Vision: What Can We Learn from Fascists, Mushrooms, and Women Who Care? Panel Organizer, ASEEES Convention, Washington, D.C.

Narrative Power: Public Space as a Site of Dialogue. Public Talk and Panel, Wende Museum, Los Angeles, California.

Living Things: Identity Cages, Commodified Selves, and the Politics of Becoming-With . Panel, Human Rights Framework and Global Solidarities Conference, UC Davis
Biophilia (at Oxford) . Ecofilm Screening. Included in Vetri Nathan’s keynote, On the Epistemic Humility of Multispecies Kinship, Queer Kinship Network. International Conference, University of Oxford
Total Kiss: Romantic Biophilia, Relational Ontology, and the Ecological Imagination… CGS/GSC Colloquium, Stanford University
Biophilia (at UCLA) . Ecofilm Presentation, Multispecies Salon, UCLA.
New Materialisms . Presentation, Cybercene Lab, UCLA
2024
Critical Perspectives on Emerging Forms of Global Solidarities. Panel, Institute for Criminological and Sociological Research, Belgrade, Serbia
2023

New East Cinema Symposium . Roundtable, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Pittsburgh
War in Ukraine. Peace Advocacy . Panel, 16BEAVER, New York.
2022
Community Fundraiser on Conflict Resolution Panel , Los Angeles, CA
Beneath The Surface with Suzi Weissman . KRFL Radio, Los Angeles. Interview on marginalization in Eastern Ukraine.
2014
Against Censorship: Independent Media in Authoritarian Contexts . Public talk, Bowdoin College, Maine
Language and Violence: Nationalism and Identity in Post-Maidan Ukraine . Panel, Ukrainian Writers’ Forum, Donetsk
2009
Henry Miller vs the National Expert Commission on Public Morality . Intervention performance, Ukrainian Parliament, Kyiv
Conferences and Public Engagements
A full archive is available at dadakinder.com
2025: How a Channel Islands Expedition Brought Environmental Humanities Vividly To Life, UCLA News. On multispecies kinship, green pedagogy, and eco-research.
2024: To Blow (Up) the Mausoleum, Daraja Press. On post-Soviet political mythology and affective memory.
2022: The Superfluous People Of Eastern Ukraine, Die Überflüssigen Menschen Aus Der Ostukraine, LeftEast / Widerspruch. On marginalization, displacement, and identity in war-torn regions.
2020: Belarus Streikt – Brief An Die Arbeiter*Innen, Transitory White. Open letter in solidarity with striking Belarus workers.
Publications
2012 — Fuhrer of God (Looo.ch, New York): Explores political theology and patriarchal violence through experimental critical theory.
2012 — Queer Textbooks Series (Looo.ch, New York): Satirical visual texts critiquing queerphobia, censorship, and moral panic in post-Soviet and global contexts.
2007 — Slam! Theory and Practice of Poetic Revolution (Chili, Kyiv): Manifesto and cultural analysis of the spoken word movement in the post-Soviet literary scene.
Books and Multimedia Projects
Interviews and Media Features
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Populism Specialist Group, Political Studies Association (UK)
Memberships
Russian: Native proficiency

Ukrainian: Native proficiency

English: Full professional proficiency
Languages