Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO)

Fellows and Research Topics 2005-2006

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

B

Name: Babiracki, Mr. Patryk
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, Johns Hopkins University
Field: History
Country(ies): Moscow, Russia
Topic: Visions of Empire: Soviet Union, Poland and the Refashioning of a Soviet Identity

Abstract: I will examine the transnational formation of new Soviet identities in the changing context of post-WW II “informal empire” between 1944-1949. During the proposed nine-month project I will examine documents in Russian and Polish archives in order to learn how the Soviet Union’s new role vis-à-vis Poland was articulated on three different levels: among the officials, in the Soviet and Polish propaganda, and among soldiers. This is important because the potential contradictions involved in different understandings of the Soviet Empire’s project may have contributed to its collapse.

C

Name: Can, Ms. Lale
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
Field: History
Country(ies): Istanbul, Turkey
Topic: Subjects of the Tsar, Brothers of the Sultan: The Ferghana Valley Between Russian Colonialism and Pan-Islamism

Abstract: This dissertation will use newly available archival materials in Istanbul, Turkey to reconstruct Ottoman relations with Central Asia in the late 19th century, and to examine the Ottoman role in supporting and/or fomenting resistance to Russian colonialism. Taking a major 1898 rebellion in Andijan (now in Uzbekistan) lead by a Naqshbandi sheikh claiming to have Ottoman support as my focal point, I will investigate how this uprising can be understood vis-à-vis Sultan Abdulhamid II's promotion of pan-Islamist politics and rhetoric. My research in Turkey will focus on uncovering the details of Hamidian policy vis-à-vis Asia and the role of Naqshbandi networks in maintaining relations between the Sublime Porte and the Ferghana Valley, a densely populated region in the heart of Central Asia. This research will complement research I am currently undertaking in Uzbekistan and which uses court records to reconstruct the local socio-economic context of this uprising. By studying the Ferghana Valley within the framework of geopolitical and regional trends in the greater Islamic world, I seek to challenge ideologically-driven Russian/Soviet scholarship and historiographical works emphasizing the region's alleged isolation. At the same time, I am interested in investigating the role that Ottoman relations with Asia played in the politics of Hamidian legitimation.

D

Name: Derrick, Mr. Matthew
Title: Master's Student
Affiliation: Dept. of Georgraphy, University of Oregon
Field: Geography
Country(ies): Kazan and Moscow, Russia
Topic: Jadidism: Russia's "Euro-Islam" Between Multi-Scalular Threats

Abstract: I propose to travel to Kazan, Tatarstan (Russia) this summer to ascertain the extent that Jadidism, the Tatars' putatively modernizing form of Islam, is simultaneously being encroached upon by two potentially threatening forces occurring at differing scales. The first potential threat is a newly charged ethnic Russian nationalism, radiating from Moscow, that may be hostile to any form of Islam within the Russian Federation; and the second is a globalizing Islam, often associated with the Middle East, that may be resistant to modernizing forces within its realm. Having determined the extent of these multi-scalular threats, I will investigate the implications of this struggle to preserve Jadidism as a primary component of ethno-national identity.

E

Name: Esmer, Mr. Tolga
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, University of Chicago
Field: History
Country(ies): Istanbul and Edirne, Turkey; Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Topic: Religion and Rebellion: The Cultural Practices of Christian and Muslim Notables in Ottoman Bulgaris, 1750-1839

Abstract: In my dissertation research, I study the ways in which a select group of Christian and Muslim notables and their networks negotiated power, local prestige, religious charisma, and economic resources in the Ottoman city of Filibe during the period 1750 to 1839. As social and cultural intermediaries between localities and the Ottoman government, notables and their cultural and social practices represent a fascinating case study for understanding how the agency of individual Christians and Muslims and their ties with diverse, disgruntled groups, socio-religious changes, local communal politics, and military reforms initiated by the Ottoman government all converged to alter Balkan society permanently. These phenomena are particularly well articulated in Plovdiv. Plovdiv and its surrounding region was not only the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the Ottoman Balkans during the late 18th and 19th centuries, but during this period the area was a center of violent contestation between Christian and Muslim notables..

F

Name: First, Mr. Joshua
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, University of Michigan
Field: History
Country(ies): Moscow, Russia; Kyiv and Odessa, Ukraine
Topic: Cinema, Nationality, and the Politics of Entertainment in Soviet Ukraine, 1962-1975

Abstract: My dissertation research will be on the cultural politics of cinema during the Brezhnev period in Soviet Ukraine. I propose to explore how filmmakers, government and party officials, and audiences understood the “national context” of Soviet Ukrainian cinema in the 1960s and 1970s. I want to show that the discourse of “nationality” in Soviet Ukrainian cinema articulated a particular form of entitlement that was meaningful to large sections of the Ukrainian film-going community.

G

Name: Galbraith, Dr. Marysia
Title: Assistant Professor
Affiliation: Dept. of Anthropology, University of Alabama
Field: Anthropology
Country(ies): Krakow and Bieszczady, Poland
Topic: Narratives of Affiliation: EU Enlargement and National Sovereignty in Life Stories of Urban and Rural Poles

Abstract: The study examines the impact of European Union membership on Poles’ sense of identity and affiliation with their nation, their local region, and the rest of Europe, as reflected in their life story narratives. The study will continue longitudinal interviews I began with high school students in the early 1990s, and expand the study to include more rural residents, in order to assess the influence of the EU on individuals’ life opportunities and choices. The study will help to identify the conditions that promote support for integration, or alternately lead to the rejection of EU involvement, and will contribute to theory of national identity that takes into account personal experience, local loyalties, and transnational affiliations.

Name: Grama, Ms. Emanuela
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Field: Anthropology
Country(ies): Sibiu, Romania
Topic: Europeanizing Labor, Rethinking Belonging: Romanian-German Relations in Postsocialist Romania

Abstract: This project will examine the alignment of labor patterns, practices and regulations in the former socialist countries with the standards of the European Union (EU) as a venue to understand the changing relationship between labor, people's senses of place, and the cultural and political construction of "Europe", in the transforming postsocialist region and beyond. I will investigate how the residents of a historically multiethnic region of Romania, Sibiu, understand the EU labor standards in the context of local histories of ethnic relations between Romanian and German groups through a combination of archival study of newspapers, economic and labor reports, and other documents dealing with the German emigration from Romania in the 1980s, and a systematic ethnographic comparison of two privatized clothing factories, one German-owned and one Romanian. Seeking to bring studies of postsocialism into dialogue with the anthropology of Europe, this study will explore how postsocialist actors living outside the institutional borders of the EU understand "Europe" as a symbolic space of belonging, as well as experience and challenge the cultural project of the EU, which aims at reshaping and standardizing a diversity of cultural models and practices.

H

Name: Hardy, Mr. Jeffrey
Title: Master's Student
Affiliation: Dept. of History, Brigham Young University
Field: History
Country(ies): Magadan, Russia
Topic: The Crumbling of Stalinism in the "Capital of the Gulag": Political and Economic Transition in Magadan, 1953-1956

Abstract: The purpose of this project is to ascertain how the fall of the Soviet gulag from 1953 to 1956 affected economic and political development in the Magadan oblast, a peripheral region located in the far northeast corner of Russia. The 1953-1956 transition period is vital to our understanding of both Stalinism and Siberian development; it envelops the fall of an advanced slave-labor system and the beginning of a new order in locales previously dominated by the gulag. Thus, knowledge gained from this project will not only increase our understanding of Stalinist repression and post-Stalin reforms, it will also elucidate the origins of present economic conditions in Siberia and the Russian Far East.

Name: Hodges, Mr. Benjamin
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin
Field: Anthropology
Country(ies): Sofia, Bulgaria
Topic: Balkan Futures: Producing Commercial and State Images of Bulgaria's Future

Abstract: This project is a study of television production in Bulgaria and how it creates and influences an image of Bulgaria's future. Through ethnographic and archival research of television production in Bulgaria, the project aims to learn from the very act of production, relevant desires, hopes, and aspirations of contemporary Bulgarians. Ultimately, this research stands as an opportunity to both study the interaction of state policy and commercial television and influence how international organizations participate in the production of Bulgaria's future.

I

Name: Izmirli, Ms. Idil
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
Field: Conflict Resolution
Country(ies): Simferopol, Evpatoria, Belogorsk, Starii Qirim, Djankoy, Feodosia, Alushta, and Krasnoperekops, Ukraine
Topic: Integration or Autonomy? The Dynamics of Crimean Tatar Repatriation to Ukraine and Its Impact on Regional Security in Central Eurasia

Abstract: The eruption of highly contagious violent conflicts throughout Eurasia makes monitoring events in the Black Sea/Crimea region crucial for the U.S. and international foreign policy makers in terms of conflict prevention and preventive diplomacy. Currently, the situation in Crimea, Ukraine is complex for there are simmering ethnic hostilities between the three central actors: [Crimean] Russians, Ukrainians, and the repatriating [Islamic] Crimean Tatars. To capture the complexity of the early warning signs of this escalating conflict in Crimea, this research examines the post-repatriation situational dynamics of Crimean Tatars under changing internal/external [political] circumstances, and paves the way for a proactive action project, instead of a post-crisis reaction in the region.

J

Name: Janco, Mr. Andrew
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, University of Chicago
Field: History
Country(ies): Moscow, Russia
Topic: Soviet Refugees in Postwar Europe and the Cold War, 1945-1961

Abstract: My dissertation will be a social and political history of refugees from the Soviet Union in Western Europe after W.W. II. In order to escape forced repatriation, Soviet refugees assumed new identities, purchased false papers and blended into groups that were not eligible for repatriation. My project will detail the experiences and actions of refugees, the political conflicts that occurred over the legal status of "non-returners" and the role of Soviet refugees in the subsequent history of the Cold War.

Name: Jones, Mr. Kevin
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM), University of Maryland at College Park
Field: Public Policy
Country(ies): Osh, Batkin, Jalabad, and Andijan, Kyrgyzstan
Topic: Mitigating Civil Conflict in the Ferghana Valley, Central Asia: The Effects of Local Level Social Constraints

Abstract: Civil conflict is not occurring in the ethnically fractious, economically depressed and historically violent Ferghana Valley region of Central Asia, a region where conflict should be rampant according to predictors that focus on aggregate macro-level indicators. The research question assesses the effects of local level social constraints that have mitigated civil conflict in the Ferghana Valley. The proposal uses case study and process tracing methods to obtain information from the micro level through data collection and detailed interviews with residents, local government officials, religious leaders and local conflict mitigation organizations.

K

Name: Kenney, Dr. Padraic
Title: Associate Professor
Affiliation: Department of History, University of Colorado
Field: History
Country(ies): Warsaw, Poland
Topic: The Political Prisoner in the Twentieth Century: Honor and Resistance Across Seven Regimes in Poland

Abstract: This project compares the experience of political prisoners across seven regimes in Poland in the 20th century, from 1905 through 1990. Using four major archives, newspapers, and interviews, I will explore accommodation and resistance in the prison cell, the problem of prisoner identity, and the public roles states intended prisoners to play. In this broad study of the place of the political prisoner in modern state-society relations, the first of its kind, I will use concepts of guilt, innocence, honor and faith to consider basic continuities across time and across the political spectrum.

Name: King, Ms. Elizabeth
Title: Master's Student
Affiliation: Dept. of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University
Field: Public Health
Country(ies): Moscow, Voronezh, and St. Petersburg, Russia
Topic: Confronting Domestic Violence in Russian Communities: A Needs Assessment for the Health Care Sector

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to better understand the role of health care providers in combating domestic violence in the Russian Federation. In order to achieve this goal a needs assessment will be conducted through qualitative research based on a series of interviews of health care providers and crisis center staff in Moscow, Voronezh and St. Petersburg. Results will be analyzed and combined to create a public health framework for addressing gender-based violence in Russia, which can be of use to local communities, international NGOs and regional and global policy makers.

Name: Koesel, Ms. Karrie
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of Government, Cornell University
Field: Political Science
Country(ies): Volga, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, Russia
Topic: Religious Revivals and the Transition from State-Socialism

Abstract: In both Russia and China, the liberalization of religious policy during the transition from state-socialism has awakened a sundry of religious faiths – deep-rooted indigenous religious activities, such as shamanism, geomancy (fengshui), paganism, syncretic sects, and pilgrimages to holy places, have resurfaced alongside more traditional forms of religious expression. My dissertation project will assess how these regimes have attempted to regulate religion and ritual at both the national and local levels by identifying the factors that contribute to variations within and between Russia and China in local state support, tolerance, and at times repression of different religious and cultural communities. The first stage of field research for this project will be carried out over twelve months in the Volga Federal District, Russia.

L

Name: Light, Mr. Matthew
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Department of Political Science, Yale University
Field: Political Science
Country(ies): Moscow, Belgorod, Stavropol, Krasnodar, Arkhangelsk Russia
Topic: Regional Migration Policies, Freedom of Movement, and Citizenship in the Russian Federation

Abstract: I will spend 9 mon ths in Russia studying regional migration policies. The main research method will be interviews with ordinary migrants. The goal is to turn my dissertation into a book manuscript.

Name: Loring, Mr. Benjamin
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, Brandeis University
Field: History
Country(ies): Moscow, Russia; Bishkek and Osh Kyrgyzstan; Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Topic: State-Building, Rural Development, and Social Change in Soviet Kerghizia, 1921-1941

Abstract: The proposed study will explore Soviet attempts to transform Kyrgyz society by examining not only the political domain, but also changes in the economic infrastructure (especially agriculture), educational institutions, religious organizations, and social services like public health. The goal is to see how local authorities implemented and adapted policy, and how the populace perceived and responded to these changes unleashed from above. More broadly, such a study can explore the uneven, varied impact of Soviet reforms on rural society in Kirghizia and offer new insights into the processes and problems of state- and nation-building in the republic.

O

Name: O'Keeffe, Ms. Brigid
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, New York University
Field: History
Country(ies): St. Petersburg, Smolensk, Tver, Krasnodar, and Irkutsk, Russia
Topic: Making "Gypsies" Soviet: Nationality Policy, Social Practice, and the Roma of the Soviet Union, 1917-1939

Abstract: Aiming to integrate "Gypsies" into Soviet civilization, officials of the early Soviet empire designed a variety of nationality policies specific to Roma as a minority people, classified Roma as an "official nationality," and established an identity that all Soviet "Gypsies" - no matter how backward or deviant they may have seemed -- were expected to share. My dissertation explores how Roma in the Soviet Union assimilated and helped to mold the official categories available to them and maneuvered socially throughout two decades of shifting nationality policies. Emphasizing social practices, my project investigates how Roma's subjectivities were transformed by their everyday engagements with Sovietism between the years 1917 and 1939.

P

Name: Park, Ms. Alyssa
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, Columbia University
Field: History
Country(ies): Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, Russia
Topic: Creating the Boundary: The Russian Far East and Korea, 1860-1920's

Abstract: The boundary between Russia and North Korea today did not always represent a fixed territorial line between nations, but was constructed through political and economic processes, social interactions, and ascription in discourse. This dissertation traces the evolution of the Russian-Korean border from its establishment in 1860 to the early twentieth century as a means of contesting national historiographical and geographical divisions that have dominated the area. Using a multi-disciplinary approach and drawing from diverse sources, including government reports, visual representations, and memoirs, I study the creation of the boundary and borderland, which will ultimately yield a transnational history of a little studied region.

Name: Patterson, Dr. Patrick
Title: Instructor
Affiliation: Eleanor Roosevelt College, University of California at San Diego
Field: History
Country(ies): Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro; Budapest, Hungary
Topic: Socialist Societies Consumed: The Culture of the Market and Everyday Life in Eastern Europe and the Balkans

Abstract: This interdisciplinary, transnational project of contemporary historical research analyzes the role of market culture and consumerism in transforming the societies of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. It assesses the causes, nature, and consequences of consumer culture under socialism, addressing two robust cases essential to a broad comparative analysis: Titoist Yugoslavia's enthusiastic embrace of the styles, values, and practices of Western-style "consumer society," and Hungary's flirtations with a consumer-oriented variant of "refrigerator socialism" that was deployed to quiet popular discontent after the failed revolution of 1956. Challenging prevailing interpretations of the region's history in the socialist and post-socialist periods, the research will draw on primary sources held in numerous archives, libraries, museums, and businesses in Serbia and Montenegro and in Hungary in order to test the global reach-and limits-of capitalist economics and market culture.

Name: Platais, Ms. Ingrida
Title: Master's Student
Affiliation: Dept. of Social Work, Columbia University
Field: Social Work
Country(ies): Tbilisi, Georgia
Topic: Empowerment Through Civil and Social Action: Discrimination Against Sex Workers in Georgia

Abstract: Despite its efforts to curb human sex trafficking and provide its victims protection, services, and assistance in societal reintegration, Georgia's government continues to overlook another vulnerable group that is also susceptible to cycles of systemic violence and poverty. Due to the lack of economic and social opportunities, sex work has become a viable work option especially for women, yet as a result of their vocational choice, sex workers experience discrimination, loss of social status and violation of their human rights. The proposed project will help identify and shape key points of intervention and types of assistance needed by sex workers and will provide the Georgian government a better understanding and access to information about poverty and violence that women face.

Name: Pula, Mr. Besnik
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of Sociology, University of Michigan
Field: Sociology
Country(ies): Tirana, Albania
Topic: Empire of Cities: Fascist Urbanism and the Urban Transformation of Tirana, Albania

Abstract: While my research deals with an historical question, no policy of social and political transformation can be successful should it ignore the political history of a state and a society. My research does not deal with issues directly related to Albania's difficult transition to liberalism. Nor does it contend with any ongoing political or economic issues in Albania. However, it does hark back to an important period in Albania's history, a period largely occluded by Albania's most recent, pre-transition history of Stalinist dictatorship.

S

Name: Sabol, Dr. Steven
Title: Associate Professor
Affiliation: Department of History, The University of North Carolina - Charlotte
Field: History
Country(ies): Almaty, Kazakhstan
Topic: Identity Through History: The Kenesary Kasymov Revolt and the Shaping of Modern Kazak National Identity

Abstract: This research is a valuable case study of the Kenesary revolt (1837-1847) because it has been subjected to nationalist reinterpretations that tell us less about the actual historical processes involved and more about current social and political imperatives in Kazakstan. It is distinctive, linking an archive-based study of a particular historical episode to the ongoing political crucible of a newly independent state and will add to the growing body of scholarly literature that examines the power and appeal of national identity and memory in a post-Soviet space. The reemergence of nationalism and ethnic conflict in the 1990s has compelled scholars to understand the nature, causes, and consequences of national identity and memory as a collective phenomenon.

Name: Sanchez, Oscar
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, University of Chicago
Field: History
Country(ies): Moscow, Russia
Topic: Brotherly Friction: The Political, Economic, and Cultural Development of Soviet-Cuban Relations, 1959-1968.

Abstract: In examining the difficulties encountered by Soviets and Cubans during the first decade of the Cuban revolution, I propose a multidimensional study that will take into equal consideration the political, economic, technological and cultural aspects of their relationships. In the Soviet imagination, and indeed in the minds of Russians today, this relationship was primarily that of a patron-client one, while the Cubans imagined and pursued a partnership that would free them from the pattern of economic and political dependency Cuba had experienced throughout its history, first with respect to Spain and then to the United States.

Name: Sargent, Ms. Leslie
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, University of California at Santa Barbara
Field: History
Country(ies): Baku, Azerbaijan
Topic: Armenian and ‘Tatar’ (Azerbaijani) Subjects of the Russian Empire: The ‘Hardening’ of Cultural and Political Boundaries in the South Caucasus, 1800-1905

Abstract: This project is a historical study of the social and cultural interactions between Azerbaijanis and other ethnic groups, particularly Armenians, from 1800 to 1920. I argue that a 'shared' culture existed in the South Caucasus, the boundaries of which were transformed during Russian imperial rule.

Name: Sarkissian, Ms. Ani
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of Political Science, University of California - Los Angeles
Field: Political Science
Country(ies): Yerevan, Armenia; Tbilisi, Georgia
Topic: Religion and Democratization in Comparative Perspective: Evidence from Armenia and Georgia

Abstract: Scholars, policymakers, and journalists assert a strong relationship between religion and democracy, but most focus on the type of religion prevalent in a country rather than the particular features of religion that can affect political outcomes, or on extremist religious movements rather than the everyday political actions of mainstream religious groups. I outline and test a theory that identifies religious organization-rather
than religious doctrine or ideology-as the main mechanism that connects religion to political action in support of democratic transition. While cross-national quantitative analysis helps me to identify correlations between religious organization and political outcomes, it is through analysis of interviews and observations obtained in the course of field work in the Eurasian Republics of Armenia and Georgia that I hope to confirm the paths through which relationships between religious organization and democratic transition function.

Name: Shlyakhter, Mr. Andrey
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of History, University of Chicago
Field: History
Country(ies): Moscow and Vyborg, Russia; Kiev, Ukraine
Topic: Smuggling Across the Soviet Borders: Contraband Trade and the Soviet Struggle against It, 1918-1933

Abstract: I propose to write a social, economic, political, and cultural history of smuggling in the Soviet Union as a significant component of the unofficial economy, as well as a window on the relationship between the Soviet state, society, and neighboring countries, during the period 1918-1933. The work will draw on previously unstudied archival materials held at the national and regional archives in Russia and Ukraine. In addition to reconstructing a significant social and economic phenomenon in its own right, a study of smuggling would shed light on major theoretical questions in Soviet history while contributing to several important subfields of the discipline.

Name: Sogindolska, Ms. Klara
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University
Field: Political Science
Country(ies): Tbilisi, Batumi-Adjara, and Pori, Georgia; Yerevan, Armenia; Kyiv, Ukraine
Topic: Regime Change and Survival in the Post-Communist "Gray Zone": The Rise of Electoral Revolutions

Abstract: This project seeks to examine the process of regime change and continuity in four competitive authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe. My goal is to provide an explanation as of why, how, and to what domestic and regional effect similarly hybrid political regimes survived or collapsed at the face of a critical opportunity for regime change. The four compared cases are Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003), Armenia (2003), and Ukraine (2004). Theoretically this project aims to contribute to and expand the "third generation on literatures on transition.

Y

Name: Young, Ms. Karen
Title: Predoctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Dept. of Political Science, The City University of New York
Field: Political Science
Country(ies): Sofia and Varna, Bulgaria
Topic: The State of Money: How the Erosion of Monetary Sovereignty Affects State-Society Relations in Bulgaria

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to describe and analyze the effects of restricted monetary policy (in the form of a currency board) on state-society relations in Bulgaria. By changes in state-society relations I refer to a currency board environment in which the state no longer has full control on the value or the supply of money. Society may respond to this change in a number of ways, including: price bubbles in real-estate values, increased home ownership that changes family political identities, increased ex-patriot political activism and financial remittances, increased emigration and exposure to alternative forms of political organization.