Dr. Marina Levina is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar of critical/cultural studies, media studies, and critical rhetoric. Dr. Levina’s research is focused 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 National Communication Association Robert J. Kibler Memorial Award.

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Dr. Levina is a professor of communication in the department of Communication and Film at the University of Memphis. She is the editor of Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies journal; the chair of Critical Cultural Studies Division of the National Communication Association; a co-chair for the Rhetoric Society of America 2026 Conference. She serves on multiple editorial boards, including an advisory board for Surveillance & Society journal.

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