Understanding Authoritarianism
Below you will find a collection of my academic publications which center around authoritarianism in the contemporary era.
Doing critical cultural studies in the age of totalitarian thought
By Marina Levina
Published in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1 (2025)
This editorial by Marina Levina, published in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies (2025), is a deeply personal and political reflection on the state of critical cultural studies amid a global rise in authoritarianism and totalitarian ideologies. As Levina takes on the role of editor, she situates her reflections within her own history as a Jewish/Soviet/Ukrainian refugee and scholar.
Cruel intentions: affect theory in the age of Trump
By Marina Levina and Kumarini Silva
Published in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2018)
This article is an introduction to a special commentary section on affect theory and the political role of cruelty during the Trump era. Levina and Silva argue that cruelty has become a central affective and political strategy in 21st-century America, particularly under Donald Trump's presidency. Rather than being limited to extreme acts like torture, cruelty now pervades the everyday through casual commentary, policies, and media discourse.
Whiteness and the joys of cruelty
By Marina Levina
Published in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2018)
Marina Levina’s essay is a deeply personal and theoretical meditation on cruelty as an affective mechanism intimately tied to whiteness and power. Drawing on her own experiences as a Jewish child in the Soviet Union and later as a white-identified immigrant in the U.S., Levina explores how cruelty operates not merely as violence but as a joyful assertion of dominance, especially through racialized and systemic structures.