Davis Center names 2005-06 award winners

Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies has announced the recipients of its 2005-06 fellowships, prizes, research travel grants, and internships.

A total of eight postdoctoral 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, including their affiliations and research projects, are listed below:

Postdoctoral fellowships have been awarded to Jessica Allina-Pisano (political science, Yale) for a study on land privatization in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine; Julia Bekman Chadaga (Slavic languages and literature, Harvard) for research on the role of glass in the history of modern Russia; Elise Giuliano (political science, University of Chicago) for work on ethnic minority nationalism in Russia; Anna Krylova (history, Johns Hopkins University) for research on women in combat in Russia, 1930s-1980s; and Niccolo Pianciola (history, Scuola Europea Di Studi Avanzati, Italy) for an investigation into colonization and genocide in Central Asia, 1906-1941.

Inna Naroditskaya (musicology, University of Michigan), assistant professor at Northwestern University, was awarded a senior fellowship for research on gender and class in Russian theater under the 18th century female monarchs; Alena Ledeneva (political science, University of Cambridge), reader at University College London, received a senior fellowship to work on informal practices in Russian society, economics, and politics in the 1990s; and Marek Nekula (Czech studies, University of Regensburg), professor and chair of Czech studies at the University Regensburg, Germany, was awarded a senior fellowship to conduct research on Prague monuments and national discourse.

Dissertation completion fellowships have been awarded to Kelly O’Neill (history) for her study of the incorporation of the Crimean khanate into the Russian empire, 1783-1853; and to Benjamin Tromly (history) for his dissertation on the formation of younger generations of the postwar Soviet intelligentsia.

Recipients of the Fainsod Prize, awarded to top incoming graduate students in the field of Russian, Soviet, or post-Soviet studies, include Maya Peterson (history), who plans to pursue research on Russian and Central Asian social history; Maxim Pozdorovkin (Slavic languages and literatures), whose interests center on the “Silver Age” of Russian literature; Sabrina Ana Peric (social anthropology), who intends to study the connection between reconstructed space and notions of community in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ana Olenina (comparative literature), whose research will explore interrelated nuances of the post-Soviet and postcolonial experience; and Benjamin Sharma (regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia), who plans to study post-Soviet political transformations.

A total of 25 graduate students received research travel grants from the Davis Center. Their names, departments or schools, research topics, and destinations appear below:

Abby & George O’Neill Graduate Research Travel Grants were awarded to Ladan Akbarnia (history of art and architecture), “Chinoiserie and Chinese Influence on the Portable Art of Iran and Central Asia from the 13th to 15th Centuries,” Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, St. Petersburg; Marcus Alexander (government), “Fairness, Cooperation and Punishment after Ethnic War: A Field Experiment in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Bosnia and Herzegovina; Erdin Beshimov (Russian, East Europe and Central Asian studies [REECA]), “The Dynamics of Democratization in Post-Soviet Georgia: Structure vs. Agency,” Tbilisi, Georgia; Yelena Biberman (REECA), “The Rising Generation of Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian Policy-makers: Political and Economic Ideological Trends,” Lviv, Kiev, Minsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow; Fotini Christia (public policy), “How and Why Interethnic Alliances Were Formed During the Bosnian War, 1992-1995: Views of Military Personnel and Politicians from All Three Ethnic Groups,” Herzegovina and Central Bosnia; Jacob Emery (Slavic), “Soviet Kinship and Connections to Bely and Olesha,” Moscow; Magnus Feldmann (political economy and government), “Labor Politics, Unemployment, and Post-Socialist Transition,” Estonia and Slovenia; Simone Ispa-Landa (sociology), “Trends and Causes of the Recent Decline in Traditional Nuclear Family Formation Patterns in the Russian Federation,” Moscow and Tomsk; Hakyung Jung (Slavic), “Historical Development of Historical Short Forms of the Past Active (-vshi) and Past Passive Participles (-no/-to) in Northwest Russian Dialects,” Moscow and Novgorod; Diana Kudayarova (history), “Labor Market Choices of Soviet White-Collar Workers, 1947-1964,” Moscow, Ufa, and Ekaterinburg; Nataliya Kun (Slavic), “Educational Practices of Soviet and Post-Soviet Epoch Curricula in Russian Literature,” Moscow; Kyongjoon Kwon (Slavic), “The Historical Development of Animacy in Early Novgorodian,” Novgorod; Stanislav Markus (government), “Institutional Convergence and Property Rights: The Westernization of Corporate Governance in Transition Politics,” Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, and Tyumen; Clara Masnatta (comparative literature), Serbian language study, Serbia; Inna Mattei (Slavic), “Literary Canon and Post-Soviet Identity in Russia,” Moscow; Stephanie Miller (REECA), “Eldercare in Ukraine and Alternatives to State-Sponsored Systems of Care,” Dnipropetrovsk, L’viv, Kiev (honorary award); Lauren Rivera (sociology), “Case Study of National Identity in Croatia: How It Presents Its Culture and History to Foreigners in Response to the Stigmatizing Effects of War,” Croatia; Eren Tasar (history), “Muslim Life in Soviet Central Asia,” Tashkent and Ashgabat; Benjamin Tromly (history), “Formation of the Younger Generation of Soviet Intelligentsia in the Period after World War II,” Moscow, Kiev, and Saratov; Emily Van Buskirk (Slavic), “Lydia Ginzburg’s Later Years (1950-1990): Historicism and the Problem of Self-Realization,” St. Petersburg and Moscow; Cristina Vatulescu (comparative literature), “Historic Relocation of Romanian Securitate Files to the Council for the Study of Securitate Archives,” Romania; Olga Voronina (Slavic), “The Post-War Ideological Shift in Russia and the Origin of Stalin’s Cultural Policy in the Cold War,” Moscow and St. Petersburg; Leslie Wittmann (REECA), “Comparative Study of Business Strategies of BP, Royal Dutch/Shell, and Exxon/Mobil in Russia,” Moscow; and Gergana Yankova (government), “The Relative Importance of Political Scandals, Compared to Economic Factors, in Public Support for the Government in Bulgaria and Russia,” Bulgaria and Russia.

One graduate student was awarded a REECA Alumni Research Travel Grant: Sue Sypko (REECA), “Identity Conceptualizations of Kazakhs Outside of Kazakhstan and their Influence on the Decision to Move,” Russia, China, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

Two Harvard College students received Goldman Undergraduate Research Travel Grants for thesis research during summer 2005. They are James Honan-Hallock (history), “The Russian Academy of Sciences Expedition to the Caucasus, 1770-1773, led by J.A. Gueldenstaedt,” St. Petersburg and Moscow; and Ian McConnell (social studies), “The Experiences and Perceptions of Bosnian Serb Refugees who Reside in Serbia,” Serbia. One Goldman grant was awarded to Wellesley College student Dorottya Mozes (philosophy and English), “A Comparative Study of Dostoevsky’s and Nabokov’s Appropriation of St. Petersburg, and the Impact of the City on Their Art and Thought,” St. Petersburg.

Finally, the Andrei Sakharov Program on Human Rights has awarded two summer internships to Harvard College students to work in Russian human rights organizations. The recipients are Clay Kaminsky (linguistics), who will work at the Center of Journalism in Extreme Situations in Moscow, and Christine Zuzek (government and economics), who will work at the Civic Assistance Committee in Moscow.