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Fellows and Research Topics 2002-2003

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A

Name: Saadat Aksartova, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: Princeton University, Department of Sociology
Country(ies): Russia: Moscow; Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Civil Society from Abroad: Western Donors in the Former Soviet Union

Abstract: The proposed research examines the donor discourse of civil society by conducting case studies of three major US-based funders -- a private philanthropic foundation (the Soros Foundation), a bilateral donor (US Agency for International Development), and a multilateral financial institution (The World Bank) -- operating in two post-Soviet countries (Russia and Kyrgyzstan.) The project adopts a cultural sociological approach to analyze how each donor's distinct cultural repertoire, institutional legacy, and social environment shape its idea of civil society and institutional practices. By comparing two host countries the study investigates the indigenization of the donor discourse in different post-Soviet contexts, and, more generally, conceptual ramifications of the donors' encounter with the post-Soviet terrain.

D

Name: Piotr Dworak, Master's Student
Institution: Boston University, College of Communication
Country(ies): Poland: Warsaw, Lublin, Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan, Gdansk
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Social Construction of Reality in the Context of Intercultural Communication and its Implications for Practice of Public Diplomacy - Investigation of Beliefs about Americans and their Government among Polish High School Students Who View Movies and TV Programs
Abstract: Drawing on experiences in intercultural communication research, the proposed study investigates the cognitive mechanism responsible for belief and attitude formation toward Americans and their government among Polish high school students. A communication research approach is used to investigate beliefs and attitudes of the new generation Polish adolescents raised after 1989. The research methodology used to assess the impact of cross-border television on the domestic audience's beliefs and attitudes will be refined and applied as a conceptual tool assisting practice of public diplomacy.

F

Name: Benjamin Frommer, Assistant Professor
Institution: Northwestern University, Department of History
Country(ies): Czech Republic: Prague
Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities
Title: Prague People's Court 1947: Two Women and a Nation's Past
Abstract: Through an intensive examination of the 1947 trial of two Czech women accused of denouncing their husbands to the Gestapo, this project explores the nature of allegiance, justice, and gender under foreign occupation and in its wake. It offers a new approach to the problems of collaboration and retribution in twentieth-century Europe and, in doing so, helps us to understand the transition of the Eastern half of the continent from Nazism to Stalinism. As a micro-history of everyday life and ordinary people, it will challenge the historical literature's traditional preoccupation with resistance movements and elite figures.

G

Name: Mahnaz Ganji, Master’s Student
Institution: University of Illinois at Springfield, Individual Option Program, Refugee Studies
Months: 3
Country(ies): Azerbaijan: Baku, Ganja, Sheki, Barda
Title: The United States Foreign Policy in Azerbaijan and Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act
Abstract: The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan (1988 to 1994) has taken about 35,000 lives on both sides and the displacement of more than half a million people in Azerbaijan alone. Azerbaijan, as a country among the 15 newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, is the only country being banned by the US Congress under Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, which prohibits Azerbaijan from receiving financial assistance from the US on a government to government basis. Also, due to corruption in the government of Azerbaijan, refugees and internally displaced people are living in the same condition as day one of their displacement. The projects addresses the questions of whether the ban should be lifted or not and what the outcomes would be if it were repealed.

Name: Madina Goldberg, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: University of Michigan, Department of History
Country(ies): Russia: Kazan, St. Petersburg
Funder: Scholar Support Fund
Title: Tatar Theatre - Russian Empire: The Politics of Memory Making in Imperial Kazan
Abstract: This project will examine Tatar theater in pre-revolutionary Kazan as a cultural space where Tatar social and historical memory was structured. It will examine the processes that informed the structuring of Tatar historical heritage on site and their intertwining with Tatar intellectuals' definition of Tatar society's place within the Russian Empire. Moreover, the project will look at the intersection of Tatar and Russian theaterl audiences, examining the politics of culture in imperial Kazan and its relationship to the process of Tatar memory making.

Name: Jessica Greenberg, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology
Country(ies): Serbia: Novi Sad, Belgrade, Nis, Kragujevac
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Citizen Youth: University Reform and the Making of Serbia's Political Future
Abstract: Students organizing and protesting in Serbia's recent political history have significantly expanded the possibilities for local and national political action and have in part reformulated how people understand and engage in the process of democratic transition. This project will analyze the relationship of agendas of university reform articulated by student organizations at the University of Novi Sad and the remaking of modes of social affiliation, identity, and civic participation in the new Serbian political context. Emphasis will be placed on the relationship between student organizing and institutional change, the intersection of generational categories with other modes of social differentiation (class, ethnicity, gender), and the intersection of visions and procedures for reforming tertiary education with current efforts to reform social, economic, and political institutions in Serbia more generally.

H

Name: Mary Hegland, Associate Professor
Institution: Santa Clara University, Department of Anthropology/Sociology
Country(ies): Iran: Tehran, Shiraz, Aliabad; Turkey: Istanbul, Ankara; Tajikistan:
Dushanbe
Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities
Title: Iranian Elderly: Finding Meaning in a Transforming World
Abstract: Conceptions and practices regarding the place of the elderly in the Middle East and NIS have been undergoing radical changes because of recent social-cultural transformations. Now, the phenomenon of Middle Eastern and NIS elderly living separately from their children and being cared for by hired personnel or in facilities is becoming more common; social circles, activities, discussion, and resources for the elderly are sometimes passing from family, private, informal spheres to public spheres. The research project will investigate how the elderly are coping with more separation and independence. In the face of disappointment caused by cultural expectations for respect and central position in the family and community, how do Middle Eastern and NIS elderly try to build meaningful lives?

Name: Leontina Hormel, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: University of Oregon, Department of Sociology
Country(ies): Ukraine: Komsomolsk
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Women and Work: How the Growth of Informal Employment Changed Economic Life in the Ukrainian City of Komsomolsk

Abstract: Studies of women's employment indicate that women in the post-socialist world have exited the formal economy in greater proportion than men; however, Ukraine appears to be an exception to this trend. By conducting formal and in-depth interviews in Komsomolsk, this project seeks to explain this puzzling pattern and to answer the central question: what is the relationship between large increases in employment and the gendered division of labor in both the formal and informal economies? This research promises to be useful to international organizations (such as the International Labor Organization), to the Komsomolsk city government, and toward broadening our theoretical understanding of employment in Ukraine and post-socialist societies.

I

Name: Armine Ishkanian, Postdoctoral Researcher
Institution: University of California - Berkeley, Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Country(ies): Armenia: Yerevan, Gumiri
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: From Post-Soviet Poverty to Sustainable Development: The Role of Local NGOs in Promoting Development and Alleviating Poverty in Armenia
Abstract: The project will examine the role of local NGOs in promoting development and poverty alleviation in Armenia. The primary questions to be addressed by the project are: a) what role do local NGOs play (and have played) in defining and addressing urban poverty in Armenia and b) how are their actions, strategies and discourses shaped by foreign donors? The purpose of this program is to identify more culturally aware, locally specific participatory development approaches and models.

L

Name: Miriam Lanskoy, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: Boston University, Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy
Country(ies): Russia
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: The Origins of the Russian-Chechen Conflict: Russia, Dagestan, Chechnya 1996-1999
Abstract: The present Russian-Chechen conflict originated in factional battles for power in Russian, Daghestani and Chechen politics. The previous peace settlement, the Khasavyurt treaty, failed to resolve political questions, leaving the regional governments vulnerable to destabilization. The project considers in detail the most serious problems of the 1996-1999 period: the incoherent policy-making process in Moscow; social dislocation and religious and political mobilization in Dagestan and Chechnya; and the rivalries and leadership failures within Chechen society.

Name: Jovana Lazic, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: Yale University, Department of History
Country(ies): Serbia: Belgrade
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Corruption in Interwar Yugoslavia, 1918-1941
Abstract: Interwar Yugoslavia was marked by instability, in which the combination of an oligarchic regime, the widespread presence of foreign capital, and an oversized bureaucracy created fertile ground for corruption. During this period, a number of large corruption affairs surfaced, in which some of Yugoslavia's most powerful and prominent politicians were implicated. While many historians have identified corruption as a dominant factor in interwar Yugoslavia, scholarly work on the topic is entirely lacking. The project aims to establish how large corruption cases determined political life in interwar Yugoslavia, by considering to what extent they entrenched those who held power, and kept political life and society captive by thwarting attempts at reform and precluding other, more constructive political activity from taking place.

Name: Catherine LeGouis, Associate Professor
Institution: Mount Holyoke College
Country(ies): Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg
Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities
Title: Reflections in a Broken Mirror: the Person and Persona of Nina
Petrovskaya
Abstract: The goals of this project are to read the correspondence of Nina Petrovskaya, gather other materials, and hold conversations with specialists in order to write her literary biography. Best known as the model for Renata in Briusov's Ognennyi angel (1907) and for her tragic destiny as she tried to conform her personality to that character, Petrovskaya has been underestimated as a creative figure in her own right. The book resulting from this and earlier research will closely examine her published and unpublished writings and their biographical and literary context.

Name: Alaina Lemon, Assistant Professor
Institution: University of Michigan, Department of Anthropology
Country(ies): Russia: Moscow
Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities
Title: Modeling Dialogue, Modeling Selves: "Psychological Realism" in Post-Soviet Theater and Social Life
Abstract: In a number of post-Soviet contexts, "psychological realism" technologies of interpretation link details of interaction to personal motives and political identities in familiar, Soviet ways. These links are taken as natural, but in fact must be constantly recreated and authorized within changing social institutions. To describe this creation as a social and political process, this project will center fieldwork at the Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts (RATI/GITIS).

Name: Ekaterina Levintova, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: Western Michigan University, Political Science Department
Country(ies): Poland: Warsaw
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Elite Intellectuals, Political Discourse and Public Opinion in Post-Communist Societies
Abstract: This project examines the mutually reinforcing nature of the relationship between elite intellectuals and the public as sources of official discourse in post-Communist societies by comparing Russian and Polish case studies. The proposed Polish phase of research will answer a three-fold question: 1) what explains the continuity of Polish post-Communist official discourse; 2) what is its effect on actual policies; and 3) what factors are present in Poland but not in Russia? By looking at Polish public opinion and official discourse and by comparing them to the previous Russian findings, the project will investigate whether the content of post-Communist discourse reflects the interests of the political elite and their ideologues (elite intellectuals) or the nature of public opinion.

M

Name: Lawrence Markowitz, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: University of Wisconsin at Madison, Political Science Department
Country(ies): Uzbekistan: Tashkent, Marghilan, Turtkul, DInov; Tajikistan: Dushanbe, Qurghonteppa, Khujand
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Sources of State Weakness and Collapse: Mahalla-State Relations In Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
Abstract: The project examines how state building and state breakdown can occur simultaneously within a single state at the local level, and how their interplay produces the strength, weakness, or collapse of states at the national level. This interplay exists in all states, but it is critical for Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which remain suspended between threats of imminent collapse and prospects of establishing permanent and effective authority structures. The project is a comparative case study of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that focuses on the mahalla- a traditional social institution of neighborhood and village communities whose elders exercise authority over residents within these localities. As the linchpins of social order, malhalla elders determine the degree to which the Tajik and Uzbek states can pursue three imperatives at the local level: hegemony (establishment of unrivaled domination of society); extraction (appropriation of revenue from society); and redistribution (allocation of resources from society).

Name: Kathleen McLaughlin, Postdoctoral Researcher
Institution: Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Photography and Film
Country(ies): Romania: Cluj Napoca
Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities
Title: Chronicling an Endangered Way of Life: A Comparative Photographic Study of European Peasant Folk Traditions
Abstract: This project is a comparative photographic study of peasants from three regions within Romania: Transylvania, Oltenia and Moldavia. It will document the transition of their traditions from forms preserved through geographical isolation to customs maintained as deliberate statements of identity. Concurrent with this fieldwork, the researcher has been invited to teach two courses designed for the Ioan Andreescu Academy of Visual Arts in Cluj Napoca.

Name: Louise McReynolds, Professor of History
Institution: University of Hawaii, College of Arts and Humanities, Department of History
Country(ies): Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg
Funder: Scholar Support Fund
Title: Murder Most Russian: Premeditated Death and Modernity in Tsarist Russia
Abstract: Borrowing from Richard Cobb's observation that "murder trials give a more precise sense of period than the reigns of monarchs or the terms of presidents," this project will contextualize a selection of sensational murders within the specific social, political, and cultural circumstances of tsarist Russia. Using sources that range from victims' biographies to the subsequent trials of the accused, the project will explore reactions to social change through the prism of not just murder, but also of the public attitudes toward killers and their motives. What made these murders "most Russian" was the kinds of culturally specific questions that were raised by both the prosecution and the commission of these crimes.

P

Name: Vjeran Pavlakovic, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: University of Washington - Seattle, Department of History
Country(ies): Croatia: Zagreb, Pula, Rijeka, Osijek
Funder: Scholar Support Fund
Title: Nasi Spanci - Croatian Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
Abstract: The goal of the project is to examine the role of volunteers from Croatia in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent Liberation War in Yugoslavia, as well as to analyze how this role was depicted in Communist historiography, rituals, and the media. The history of Nasi Spanci ("Our Spaniards") was written by communist historians seeking to create legitimacy for the new regime by mythologizing them rather than providing a balanced account of their actions. Consequently, rigorous scholarly analysis in Croatian is lacking (and is completely non-existent in English) on the subject of the veterans from the Spanish conflict, who were a vital component of the victory of the Partisans.

R

Name: Maple Rasza, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: Harvard University, Department of Anthropology
Country(ies): Croatia: Zagreb
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Globalization from Below: Croatian Social Movements in Transition
Abstract: The project will focus on grassroots environmental, labor, and social justice activists in Zagreb, Croatia. It will explore how activists in Zagreb, who are part of what is popularly called the "anti-globalization movement" seek to influence Croatian society's understandings of two key concerns in post-socialist Europe: national belonging and market reform. The project will pay special attention to the ways in which new technologies, especially electronic communication and digital video, enable the imagination and articulation of new oppositional political identities.

Name: Jude Rost, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: University of Wisconsin at Madison, Department of Geography
Country(ies): Croatia: Zagreb, Kumrovec
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Remembering the Marshal: Landscape, Memory and National Identity in the Republic of Croatia
Abstract: This study explores the complex relationship among commemorative landscapes, collective memory and national identity through an investigation of the Old Village Museum in the Republic of Croatia. Originally designed to commemorate Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia from 1945-1980, the museum has now expanded to include an ethno-village that depicts the folkways and lifestyles of the nineteenth-century Croatian peasantry. By combining a history of the museum with contemporary visitor interpretations of it, this study demonstrates the malleability of collective memory and national identity, the significant challenges post-socialist states face in (re)constructing a usable national past, and the centrality of commemorative landscapes to this process.

S

Name: Andreas Schonle, Associate Professor
Institution: University of Michigan, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Country(ies): Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg
Funder: Scholar Support Fund
Title: Picturesque Textuality: Literature and Landscape Design in Russia, 1762-1914
Abstract: This project aims to investigate the cross-fertilization between literature and landscape design, in the years 1762-1914 in Russia, describing important affinities in the ways in which these two forms of art modeled behavior. The project explores attempts to arrange the environment spatially which affect everyday life. It thus analyzes a test case of the cultural, social, and political significance of form.

Name: Anita Seth, Predoctoral Candidate
Institution: Yale University, Department of History
Country(ies): Russia: Moscow, Novosibirsk
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: "Spending the Hopes of Our Children": The Military-Industrial Complex in Comparative Local Perspective, 1945-1962
Abstract: From the close of the Second World War through the arms build-up of the 1950s, Novosibirsk and Los Angeles saw the rapid growth of new high-tech military industries, including aviation, radar, and rocketry. This project seeks to understand how a largely parallel process of weapons build-up functioned within two economic and political systems that saw themselves as diametrically opposed. Through a comparative examination of living and working conditions, local decision-making, and changes in educations, it will explore the social costs and economic consequences of the early Cold War arms race.

Name: Katherine Sredl, Master's Student
Institution: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, Advertising Department
Country(ies): Croatia: Zagreb
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Advertising and Identity Development in Croatia
Abstract: The battle for the hearts and minds of Croatia is not exclusively political in its most narrow sense, but exists as well in the realms of commerce and the social construction of a consumer reality that figures prominently in personal and national identity and market transition; it is extremely clear that advertising plays a critical role in advancing this reality. Yet we know very little about this phenomenon; thus, this ethnographic research of global advertising agencies in Croatia will reveal how advertisers may alternately tip the identity seesaw between Croatia and Western Europe and the social identities of its citizens. The social accommodation and negotiation of these images in ads will reveal much about how national identity is molded by social and commercial forces in a global context; understanding this situation in Croatia unlocks the socio-cultural process of market globalization more generally.

Z

Name: Charles Ziegler, Professor
Institution: University of Louisville, Department of Political Science
Country(ies): Russia: Moscow, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok; Kazakhstan: Astana, Almaty
Funder: Department of State (Title VIII)
Title: Russia, China and Energy in Central and East Asia

Abstract: This project examines how Russia's energy-centered export regime affects ties to China and Central Asia and the Caucasus and how China's growing energy needs affect its relations with the energy-rich countries to its north and west. It examines China’s changing energy demand and its participation in Russian and Central Asian energy projects, reviewing major recent developments in the oil and gas trade between China and Russia, and between China and Central Asia. The study also addresses Russia’s energy resources and discusses major projects linked to the Caspian region. Finally, the strategic implications of these developments for Central Asia and the Caucasus are evaluated in light of the growing US military presence in connection with the war on terrorism.