Short-Term Research for Long-Term Impact

IREX is pleased to announce the 2013-2014 Short-Term Travel Grants (STG) recipients. The Short-Term Travel Grant is designed to allow U.S. scholars and professionals to conduct short, targeted open-source research on current regional issues of importance to the U.S. policy-making community. 

This year's fellows will be traveling to 16 countries across Eastern Europe and Eurasia to perform policy relevant field research, covering topics such as  labor migration, national identity, health care, and democratization. Meet our new  scholars below and make sure to visit IREX's online library to read their research findings.

The Short-Term Travel Grants Program is funded by the Title VIII Program through the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) at the U.S. Department of State.

Victor Agadjanian

Arizona State University

Research Topic: "International Labor Migration and its Consequences for Socioeconomic Development and Political Stability in Uzbekistan"

Research Country: Uzbekistan

 

 

 

 

Lori Amy

Georgia Southern University

Research Topic: "Mobilizing Memories: Ex-Political Prisoners as Palimpsests of Citizen and Nation in Albania’s 2012 Hunger Strikes"

Research Country: Albania

 

 

 

 

John Ashbrook

Sweet Briar College

Research Topic: "On Being European: How European Union Accession Shapes Croatian Identities"

Research Countries: Croatia, Slovenia

 

 

 

 

 

Quintin Beazer

Florida State University

Research Topic: "The Dangers of Discretion: Bureaucratic Leeway & Regulatory Uncertainty in Russia's Regions"

Research Country: Russia

 

Max Bergholz

Concordia University

Research Topic: "None of Us Dared Say Anything: Mass Killing in a Bosnian Community During World War II and the Postwar Culture of Silence"

Research Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia

 

 

 

 

Michele Commercio

University of Vermont

Research Topic: "Retraditionalization from Below: Women’s Attitudes in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan"

Research Country: Kyrgyzstan

 

 

 

 

Linda Cook

Brown University

Research Topic: "'Tajik Labor Migrants to Russia: Their Access to Health and Welfare Services"

Research Country: Tajikistan

 

 

 

 

Julie Fairbanks

Coe College

Research Topic: "Space and Place-Making in Greater Sochi, Russia"

Research Country: Russia

 

 

 

 

 

Benjamin Gatling

Duke University

Research Topic: "Adaptation, Revivalism, and Religious Politics: Sufi Life in Tajikistan"

Research Country: Tajikistan

 

 

 

 

Kathryn Hendley

University of Wisconsin

Research Topic: "Explaining Antipathy Towards Mediation in Russia"

Research Country: Russia

 

 

 

 

 

Idil Izmirli

George Mason University

Research Topic: "Ukraine’s Locus of Instability: Escalating Inter-Ethnic and Inter-Religious Conflict in Crimea"

Research Country: Ukraine

 

 

 

 

 

Erica Johnson

University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill

Research Topic: "Tensions in Health: Building Primary Health Care Systems in Central Asia"

Research Countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan

 

 

 

 

Paul Josephson

Colby College

Research Topic: "Russian Rivers in Russian History: A Political, Environmental, and Cultural History"

Research Country: Russia

 

 

 

 

Slavko Komarnytsky

North Carolina State University

Research Topic: "Water Safety Across Borders in Central Asia"

Research Countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Konitzer

University of Pittsburgh

Research Topic: "The Forensics of Patronage: Identifying the Linkage between Parties and Public Sector Employment in Serbia"

Research Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia

 

 

 

Larisa Kurtovic

DePaul University

Research Topic: "The Nationalist Order and Party Patronage in Post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina"

Research Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

Jody LaPorte

Wittenberg University

Research Topic: "The Politics of Wealth in Post-Soviet Georgia"

Research Country: Georgia

 

 

 

 

 

Joanna Mishtal

University of Central Florida

Research Topic: "Understanding Advocacy Work in the Struggle for “In Vitro” Regulation in Poland"

Research Country: Poland

 

 

 

 

Ausra Park

Siena College

Research Topic: "Politics of Human Trafficking: Governments’ Political Games and NGOs"

Research Country: Lithuania

 

 

 

 

Michele Rivkin-Fish

University of North Carolina

Research Topic: "The Unmaking of Russia’s Abortion Culture: Historical Roots of Contemporary Reproductive Politics"

Research Country: Russia

 

 

 

 

Elton Skendaj

Florida International University

Research Topic: "Building Democracy and State Institutions in Post-War Kosovo"

Research Country: Kosovo

 

 

 

 

 

Curt Woolhiser

Brandeis University

Research Topic: "A Gift to the Nation: The Social Identities and Linguistic Practices of Student-Age 'New Speakers' of Ukrainian and Belarusian"

Research Country: Belarus, Ukraine