Emilio Mari is Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at Sapienza – University of Rome, where he graduated with honors in 2012 and 2013. In 2017 he received his PhD in Literary, Linguistic and Comparative Studies from the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ and in 2019-2021 worked as a Research Fellow at the International University of Rome – UNINT. His areas of research include: the semiotics of space and the relationships between Russian literature, architecture and landscape; Russian popular culture, folklore and mass culture; microhistory of the USSR, politics and practices of everyday life (leisure studies, material culture and consumer studies); critical theory and cultural theory; Russian theatre and performing studies. He is a co-editor of "eSamizdat. Journal of Slavic Cultures" and the author of the books "Between the Rural and the Urban: Landscape and Popular Culture in Petersburg, 1830–1917" and “A Cruel Romance. Aesthetics and Politics of Folklore in 20th century Russia”.