Davis Center names 2003-04 award winners:

The Davis Center for Russian Studies has announced the recipients of its fellowships, prizes, dissertation completion grants, and research travel grants for 2003-04.

Postdoctoral, regional, and senior 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 Steven Barnes (Ph.D. in history, Stanford University) for “Soviet Society Confined: The Gulag and Modern Detention”; Martin Dimitrov (Ph.D. in political science, Stanford University) for “Selling the State: The Privatization of the Government Bureaucracies and the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Post-Socialist Economies”; William Pridemore (Ph.D. in criminology, State University of New York, Albany) for “The Changing Nature of Violence During the Russian Transition”; and Aida Vidan (Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures, Harvard University) for “Thematic Database of Traditional Ballads and Lyric Songs Held in the Millman Parry Collection of Oral Literature,” and “Mythological Elements in Oral Traditional Songs from the Balkans.”

A regional fellowship has been awarded to Yakov Gordin (editor in chief of the Russian literary journal Zvezda) for “The Caucasus Phenomenon in the Cultural and Social Consciousness of Russian Society.”

A senior fellowship has been awarded to Linda Cook (professor of political science, Brown University) for “Post-Communist Welfare States: The Politics of Shrinking Public Social Provision in Russia, Poland, and Belarus.”

Recipients of the Fainsod Prize, awarded to top incoming graduate students in the field of Russian, Soviet, or post-Soviet studies, include Diana Kudayarova (history), who will examine the interaction between Soviet politics and its society and culture; Maya Peterson (Russian, East European, and Central Asian [REECA] studies), whose interests include the history and cultures of Central Asia, as well as nationality and identity issues; Dana Ponte (REECA), whose research will address Soviet and post-Soviet Muslim experience as it relates to religious and social identity in the region; Svetlana Rukhelman (comparative literature), who plans to investigate the phenomenon of “epiphany” in the modern literature of authors such as Joyce, Proust, Babel, and Kawabata; Aleksandr Senderovich (Slavic languages and literatures), who will do research on issues of Jewish memory in the Russian and East European context; and George Soroka (government), who will study comparative politics of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as it relates to federalism, center-periphery relations, and regionalism.

Dissertation completion grants have been awarded to Giovanna Siedina (Slavic languages and literatures) for “The Reception of Horace in the Courses of Poetics at the Kiev Mohyla Academy: 17th and First Half of 18th Century,” and to Cristina Vatulescu (comparative literature) for “Police Aesthetics: Culture and Repression in 20th Century Eastern Europe.” An honorary award was given to Yuson Jung (anthropology) for “Consumer Lament: Consumption, Grumbles, and Normality of Everyday Life in Post-Socialist Bulgaria.”

Abby and George O’Neill Graduate Research Travel Grants have been awarded to 22 students. The recipients, their departments or schools, research topics, and destinations are as follows:

Gulnora Aminova (IAAS): “Sufi Women in Central Asian Religious, Socio-Economic and Political Affairs,” Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Andreea Balan (economics): “The Impact of Educational Reform on Equity and Corruption: Ethnic Divisions and Public Goods,” Timisoara, Drobeta, Cluj, and Sibiu, Romania.

Jacob Emery (Slavic): “Coinage and Heredity in Medieval Russia,” Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Daniel Epstein (government): “Political Parties and Clientelism in Russia,” Amur, Astrakhan, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Karelia, and Novosibirsk, Russia.

George Solomon Fitzherbert (IAAS): “New Economies and Changing Cultures in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan,” Tien Shan region, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan and Ferghana Valley, Uzbekistan.

Anna Gessen (Slavic): “The Late Russian Medieval Period Through Memoirs,” Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Hakyung Jung (Slavic): “The Morphological Change of the Russian Gerund,” Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Eleni Lampadarios (REECA): “Russian Citizenship and Its Application Toward Meskhetian Turks,” Moscow and Krasnodar Krai, Russia.

Marcy McCullaugh (REECA): “Women and HIV/AIDS in Russia,” St. Petersburg and Samara Oblast, Russia.

John Ondrovcik (history): “The Evolution of Violence in Rural Russia, 1918-21,” Moscow.

Catherine Osgood (REECA): “The Current Situation in Chechnya and U.S. Policy Toward the Conflict,” Moscow and Nazran, Russia; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Tbilisi, Georgia.

Bartosz Ostrowski (REECA): “The E.U.-Russian ‘Strategic Partnership’ in Light of Current E.U. Enlargement in the East,” Moscow.

Benjamin Paloff (Slavic): “Mandelshtam, Platonov, et al., and Attitudes Toward Time in Narrative,” Moscow and Krakow, Poland.

Rebecca Reich (Slavic): “Recontextualizing the Abuses of Soviet Psychiatry in the Literary Tradition,” Moscow.

Giovanna Siedina (Slavic): “The Reception of Horace in the Courses of Poetics at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy,” Kiev and Lviv, Ukraine.

Lenka Siroky (REECA): “Czech and Polish Dissidents after 1989,” Prague and Brno, Czech Republic; and Warsaw and Kraków, Poland.

Alex Spektor (Slavic): “Polish Prose Writers of the 20th Century,” Kraków, Poland.

Benjamin Tromley (history): “The Formation of Elites in Moscow Institutes of Higher Learning, 1947-65,” Moscow.

Gleb Tsipursky (REECA): “Whistle-Blowing: Soviet Citizens Sending Letters About Local Corruption to the Central Authorities,” Moscow.

Emily Van Buskirk (Slavic): “Lydia Ginzburg’s Life and Fictions, Through Interviews and Archival Research,” St. Petersburg, Russia.

Lisa Vining (REECA): “Role of the Latvian Volunteer SS Legion in WWII,” Riga, Latvia.

Gergana Yankova (government): “Corruption in the Legislature in Russia,” Moscow.

Nine Harvard students were awarded Goldman Undergraduate Summer Travel Grants to carry out thesis research during the summer. The recipients, their departments or schools, research topics, and destinations, are as follows:

Gena Ciccone (Slavic): “Public Opinion on Autocracy in Russia in 1913,” Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Richard Freeman (Slavic): “Research on Leo Tolstoy,” Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Natalie Ignacio (biological anthropology): “Social Cognitive Skills of Russian Silver Foxes and the Evolution of Human Cognition,” Novosibirsk, Russia.

Colin Jost (history and literature): “The Literary Work of Viktor Pelevin,” St. Petersburg.

Ann Kofol (history and literature): “The Youth Group ‘Walking Together,’” Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Darya Nachinkina (government): “The Influence of Non-Elected Elites and Interest Groups on Policy-Making in Post-2000 Russia,” Moscow and Cambridge, England.

Joshua Stenberg (East Asian studies): “Chinese Migrant Assimilation in Khabarovsk,” Khabarovsk, Russia.

Stephen Stromberg (Slavic): “Late Soviet and Early Post-Soviet Political Posters and Advertisements,” Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Natalia Truszkowska (literature and women’s studies): “Women and Ethnic Identity in East-Central Europe,” Warsaw and Kraków, Poland; Bukovina and Lviv, Ukraine; Bratislava and Presov, Slovakia.