Davis Center announces awards

The Davis Center for Russian Studies has announced the recipients of fellowship, dissertation, and research travel awards for 2001-02.

Postdoctoral fellowships have been awarded for research at Harvard in the humanities and social sciences on Russia and the Soviet successor states. The recipients and their research topics include Michael Bezrodnyj, University of Tartu, Estonia (Literature and Culture), “Art, Occultism and Philosophy of Russian Modernism”; Stuart Finkel, Stanford University (History), “The Third Front: The Expulsion of Intellectuals and the Politics of Culture in Soviet Russia, 1919-1926”; Nikita Lomagin, St. Petersburg State University, Russia (History), “International Relations through the Eyes of the Soviet People, 1939-1945”; Alexei Postnikov, University of Geodesy and Cartography, Moscow, (History), “Russian Central Asian Frontier and Boundary with the Chinese Empire (Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries)”; Erika Weinthal, Columbia University (Social Studies), “Energizing the State: The Politics of Oil and Gas in the Caspian Basin and Beyond”; Ernest Zitser, Columbia University (History), “The Transfigured Kingdom: Sacred Parody and Charismatic Authority at the Court of Peter the Great.”

Recipients of the Fainsod Prize, awarded to top incoming graduate students in the field of Russian, Soviet, or post-Soviet studies, include John Ondrovik (History); Benjamin Paloff (Slavic); Rebecca Reich (Slavic); Matthew Stern (REECA); Elina Treyger (Government); Emily Van Buskirk (Slavic); Sarah Wagner (Anthropology).

Dissertation completion grants have been awarded to Oxana Shevel (Government) and Polina Rikoun (Comparative Literature).

Abby and George O’Neill Graduate Student Research Travel Grants have been awarded for 2001-02. The recipients, their departments, research topics, and destinations include the following:

Manduhai Buyandelgeriyn (Anthropology), “Revival of Shamanic practices among the Buriats of post-socialist Mongolia,” the Shamanic Center, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Ian Chesley (Slavic), “Contemporary currents in Russian poetry of St. Petersburg,” St. Petersburg.

Lynsey Fitzpatrick (REECA), “Local party development in Lithuania, 1953-56,” archives in Lithuania.

Anna Gessen (Slavic), “Research of excavation of Old Riazan,” Riazan, Russia.

Robert Krikorian (NELC), “The reappropriation of the past: history and politics in Soviet Armenia,” State Historical Archive and former Communist Party archive in Yerevan, Armenia.

Patrick McCrann (REECA), “The impact of the international community’s efforts to build a civil society via NGOs,” Baku, Azerbaijan.

Amy McGoldrick (REECA), “Environmental NGOs and the development of civil society in Crimea,” Crimea, Ukraine.

Ana Miljacki (Architecture), “Cinema infrastructure and the representation of urban environments in Eastern Europe,” film archives in Budapest and Belgrade.

Laura Perry (REECA), “Oil wealth and politics in Azerbaijan,” Baku, Azerbaijan.

Cristian Pop-Eleches (Economics), “The effects of abortion politics in Romania,” Bucharest, Cluj, Brasov, and Sibiu, Romania.

Maria Popova (Government), “Judicial reform and the rule of law in Russia,” Moscow.

Asmus Rotne (REECA), “Privatization and regulation of the energy sector: a comparative study of Russia and Georgia,” Tbilisi, Georgia.

Kemal Seitveliyev (REECA), “Energy politics in Ukraine,” Ukraine.

Giovanna Siedina (Slavic), “The legacy of Horace’s poetry on the Kiev Mohyla Academy, 17th-18th centuries,” Kiev, Ukraine.

Rachel Slayman Platonov (Slavic), “Avtorskaia pesnia in the post-War Soviet Union,” St. Petersburg, Samara, and Moscow.

Mark Somos (Government), “Analyzing new political associations before the 2002 Hungarian elections to examine civil society and democratic transition,” Budapest.

George Soroka (REECA), “The role of NGOs in developing the Russian environmental conservation movement,” Russia.

Cristina Vatulescu (Comparative Literature), “Confinement and political prisons in Russia and Romania,” St. Petersburg, Solovki Islands, and Bucharest.

Anna Wexler (History of Art), “Russian avant-garde art, 1905-1935,” archives and museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The following students have been awarded Goldman Undergraduate Travel Grants: Matthew Rojansky (History), “Trials of Russian and Ukrainian Nazi Collaborators During the 1960s”; Beata Zolovska (Biology), “Problems of Alcohol Abuse in Russia and Central Asia”; Julia Einbond (Social Studies), “Efforts in Russia to Decrease Social Orphanhood”; Andrew Eil (History and Literature), Intellectual and Literary Movements in Russia, 1855-1861″; Taryn Arthur (Government), “Russian Media Market Analysis”; Christine Dunbar (Wellesley), “The Role Absurdity Plays in the Arts During the Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Periods.”