Davis Center awards student grants for study, research travel, internships

The Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, dedicated to fostering comprehensive understanding and multidisciplinary study of Russia and the countries of Eurasia, has awarded grants to 37 undergraduate and graduate students to pursue research travel, language study, and overseas internships during the summer of 2009.

The recipients, affiliations, and research projects are listed below:

GOLDMAN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH TRAVEL GRANTS

Molly Moses (folklore and mythology), “Ethnographic Study and Folklore Collection in North Baikal and Trans-Baikal Villages,” Moscow and Nizhneangarsk, Russia.

Emily Saras (anthropology and music, Wellesley College), “Identity through Dainos: The Use of Music in the Constitution and Preservation of Lithuanian Ethnicity,” Vilnius, Lithuania.

Anna Shabalov (history), “A Study of Historical Memory in Soviet and Post-Soviet Latvia,” Riga, Latvia.

GOLDMAN UNDERGRADUATE INTERNSHIP GRANTS

Eugenia Paramonov (economics), summer internship program, Academy of the National Economy, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Marianna Tishchenko (economics, psychology), “The Role and Limitations of the Press in Medvedev’s Russia,” editorial internship at the Moscow bureau of The New York Times, Moscow, Russia.

Kirby Tyrrell (history), internship with the U.S. Department of State in the political sector of the embassy in Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania.

SAKHAROV HUMAN RIGHTS INTERNSHIP GRANT

Elizabeth Ryznar (chemistry, physics), internship at Kraków Children’s Hospice, Kraków, Warsaw, and other cities, Poland.

ABBY AND GEORGE O’NEILL GRADUATE RESEARCH TRAVEL GRANTS

Charles Bergen (regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia), “Atoms for Profit? Russia’s International Civilian Nuclear Policy,” Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Devon Dear (Inner Asian and Altaic studies), “The Kiakhta Customs House Records for Russo-Qing Trade, 1743-1920,” Ulan-Ude, Russia.

Melih Egemen (Inner Asian and Altaic studies), intensive Russian language study, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Danielle Longe (regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia), “The Role of Antimonopoly Legislation in the Relationship Between Business and the Russian State,” Moscow, Russia.

Peter McMurray (music, ethnomusicology), “Multicultural Sustain and Decay: The Persistence of Traditional Musics and Performance Poetry in Macedonia and Kosovo,” Kopje, Macedonia.

Oksana Mykhed (history), “The Role of the Dnieper Frontier in the Fall of Poland-Lithuania and the Rise of the Russian Empire (1700-1795),” Kyiv and L’viv, Ukraine; Warsaw and Kraków, Poland.

Ana Olenina (literature, comparative literature), “Gesture, Affect, Expression: Shklovskii’s and Kuleshov’s Theories of Expressive Movement and Early 20th-Century Psychology,” Moscow, Russia.

Diana Pilipenko (regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia), “Soviet Conceptualization of L’viv’s Cultural Valuables,” L’viv and Kyiv, Ukraine; Moscow, Russia.

Maxim Pozdorovkin (Slavic, visual and environmental studies), “AK-47: A Documentary Film and Archival Research on the History of the World’s Most Popular Gun,” Moscow and Izhevsk, Russia.

Andras Tilcsik (organizational behavior, sociology track), “Social Networks in Labor Markets: Is Eastern Europe Different?” Budapest, Hungary.

Elizabeth Van Buren (regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia), “Explanatory Factors of Independent Media in Russia,” Moscow, Ekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, and Kazan, Russia.

Stephen Walsh (history, modern Eastern Europe), “Uncertain Peripheries: The Austrian Army in Galicia,” Warsaw and Kraków, Poland.

REGIONAL STUDIES ALUMNI PRIZES

Eric Ciaramella (regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia), “Language in the Public Sphere in Three Post-Soviet Capital Cities,” Tbilisi, Georgia; Yerevan, Armenia; Baku, Azerbaijan.

James Marsh (regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia), intensive Ukrainian language study, Ternopil, Ukraine.

MAURICE LAZARUS GRADUATE RESEARCH TRAVEL AWARDS

Johanna Conterio (history), “Soviet Paradise: Sochi, Sanatoria, and Environmental Health in the Soviet Union, 1919-1991,” Moscow, Krasnodar, and Sochi, Russia.

Evgeny Firsov (sociology), “Subethnic Networks of the Russian Armenians,” Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Ina Ganguli (Harvard Kennedy School), “Migration and Science After the End of the Soviet Union,” Kyiv, Ukraine; Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk, Russia.

Sofiya Grachova (history), “The Political Life of Jewish Communities in Western Ukraine, 1914-1925,” Moscow, Russia; Kyiv, Lutsk, Rivne, and Zhytomyr, Ukraine.

Alexander Groce (Slavic languages and literatures), “Tsar Autocrat, Tsar Protector … Tsar Author? How Did the Imperial Court Write Itself?” St. Petersburg and other cities, Russia.

Mihaly Kalman (Near Eastern languages and civilizations), “Heroic Shtetls: Pogroms and Self-Defense in Ukraine, 1917-1921,” Moscow, Russia; Kyiv, Ukraine.

Brendan Karch (history), “Nationalism on the Margins: Upper Silesians between Germany and Poland, 1866-1960,” Opole and Wroclaw, Poland; Berlin, Germany.

Maria Khotimsky (Slavic languages and literatures), “Literary Translation in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Development of the Soviet School of Poetic Translation,” Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

MAURICE LAZARUS GRADUATE RESEARCH TRAVEL AWARDS

Oleh Kotsyuba (Slavic languages and literatures), “Ukrainian and Russian Literature in the Post-Soviet Period: Overtaking and Surpassing America?” Kyiv, Ukraine; Munich, Germany.

Danilo Mandic (sociology), “The Legacy of Nationalism: The Aftermath of Kosovo’s Independence,” Belgrade, Serbia; Subotica, Kosovo.

Mihaela Pacurar (Slavic languages and literatures), intensive Czech language study, Brno, Czech Republic.

Philipp Penka (Slavic languages and literatures), intensive Czech language study, Brno, Czech Republic.

Jessica Peyton (regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia), “Russia’s Hawaiian Islands Empire, 1804-1922,” Hawaii.

Keith Plaster (linguistics), “Noun Classification in the Northeast Caucasus,” Lyon, France.

George Soroka (government, comparative politics), “Transitional Memory: Structuring Political Discourse in the Postcommunist Era,” Warsaw, Poland; Kyiv, Ukraine.

Michael Tworek (history), “Study Abroad: The Intellectual Foundations of the Polish Nation, 1409-1795,” Louvain, Belgium.