2025 Midwest Slavic Conference Panel Schedule

2025 Midwest Slavic Conference Panels

Panels subject to change; CSEEES will notify panelists in case of changes.

All panels will take place in the Blackwell Inn and Conference Center.

Saturday, April 5

8:00-8:30AM - Registration and Coffee

2nd Floor Foyer, Pfahl Hall

8:30-10:15AM - Plenary Panel
Pfahl Hall, Room 202

Chair: Dr. Timothy Pogačar (Bowling Green State U., Midwest Slavic Association President)
Participants:

Dr. Molly T. Blasing (U. of Kentucky)
Dr. Ludmila Isurin (Ohio State U.)
Dr. Malkhaz Toria (Ilia State U., Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center at Harvard U.)

10:15-10:30AM - Coffee Break

2nd Floor Foyer, Pfahl Hall

10:30AM-12:00PM - Session 1

1.A: Threats to Social Solidarity
Pfahl Hall, Room 102

Panel Chair: Dr. Assel Bitabar (Maqsut Narikbayev U.)
Participants:

"Anti-gender Actors and the Building of the Hostile State: A Comparative Analysis of Slovakia and Czechia" by Dr. Alexandria Wilson-McDonald (Otterbein U.)
“The National Question following 1917: the case of the Udmurt people” by Andrey Ridling (Ohio State U.)
"Ethnic Homophily as a Measure of Acculturation: Online and Offline Friendships of Russians in Kazakhstan" by Yerkebulan Azimkhan (Michigan State U.)

1.B: REEE Think Tank Showcase I
Pfahl Hall, Room 202

Panel Chair: Dr. Sunnie Rucker-Chang (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"Threads of Folklore: Nastenka and Vasilisa the Beautiful in Dostoevsky's 'White Nights'" by Ricardo Montiel (San Diego State U.)
“The Wonder and Curse of Friendship: Choice and Loyalty in Post-Revolutionary Russia” by Anwyn Cook (James Madison U.)
"Duty, Privilege, and the Regime: Driving Factors in the Life of Anna Akhmatova" by Lennon Jean Taylor (U. of Georgia)

1.C: Language, Identity, and Cultural Contact in the Balkans: Lessons from Montenegro, Bosnia, and ex-Yugoslavia
Pfahl Hall, Room 230

Panel Chair: Dr. Ljiljana Duraskovic (U. of Pittsburgh)
Participants:

"Montenegro: A Nation and Language Under Siege" by Joseph Horger (U. of Pittsburgh)
"Sevdah, Bosnian Identity, and the Present-Day Spirit of the Ottoman Empire" by Cody McSherry (U. of Pittsburgh)
"Nothing Should Surprise Us: Yugoslavia's Answer to the Cold War" by Sava Snyder (U. of Pittsburgh)

1.D: Shaping Polish Identity
Pfahl Hall, Room 240

Panel Chair: Dr. Diana Sacilowski (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"'Authenticity and Magic': Hearing Poland in L.U.C.’s 39/89 Zrozumieć Polskę" by Dr. Alena Aniskiewicz (Michigan State U.)
"Populism and Culture: Museum Policy Under the Law and Justice Government in Poland" by Luke Bendick (Ohio State U.)
"Cold War Studies and the Mystery of the Missing Second World: The Case of Czesław Miłosz" by Dr. Clare Cavanagh (Northwestern U.)

1.E: Utopia and Dystopia in Russian Literature and Beyond
Pfahl Hall, Room 330

Panel Chair: Dr. Alexander Burry (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"What are you, Кысь? The Genre of and the Idea in Tatyana Tolstaya’s The Slynx" by Irina Baskova (Ohio State U.)
"The Forgotten Sex: An Analysis of Julia’s Role in 1984" by Sarah Hohman (Ohio State U.)
“'Even Lucretius Could Make a Friend of Me': Classical Reception in Gladkov’s Cement (1925)" by Margaret Stafford (Ohio State U.)

1.F: Gendering the History of Modern Eurasia
Pfahl Hall, Room 340

Panel Chair: Dr. Stephen Norris (Miami U.)
Participants:

"Feminist Zones of Interaction: Women's Liberation in Estonia, 1887-1918" by Tara Godwin (Ohio State U.)
"Wreathing the Revolution: Gendering Socialist Identities in Soviet Latvian Cinema, 1958-1970" by Christopher Leger (Ohio State U.)
"Modern Martyr: Memorialization of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in the Russian Federation" by Victoria Paige (Ohio State U.)
"The Kolkhoz Rais: Masculinity and Authority in Rural Tajikistan" by Nicholas Seay (Ohio State U.)

12:00-1:30PM - Lunch Break (on your own)

1:30-3:00PM - Session 2

2.A: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging- Best Practices in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Pfahl Hall, Room 202

Panel Chair: Dr. Sunnie Rucker-Chang (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

“Cultivating Empathy and Inclusion in the SEEES Classroom: A Positive Psychology Approach” by Dr. Kelly Knickmeier Cummings (Howard U.)
"The Value of Mentoring Research in Areas Outside of English" by Dr. B. Amarilis Lugo de Fabritz (Howard U.)
"A Critical Romani Studies Perspective to Slavic and East European Studies" by Dr. Sunnie Rucker-Chang (Ohio State U.)
"Teaching Russian as an Act of Resistance" by Dr. Rachel Stauffer (Virginia Tech U.)

2.B: Exploring REEE Careers Beyond Academia (Roundtable)
Pfahl Hall, Room 230

Panel Chair: Dr. Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

Michelle McKenzie (Riverside Research, Ohio State U.)
Elliott Nowacky (Indiana U., Bloomington, U. of Texas, Austin)
Elise Stephens (Internews, Middlebury College)

2.C: An Authentic Personal Past
Pfahl Hall, Room 240

Panel Chair: Dr. Ludmila Isurin (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

“Alcoholic Authenticity? Jews, Burghers, and Competing Privileges in Sixteenth–Century Poland” by Mikol Bailey (U. of Maryland, College Park)
"Inscriptions on Bosnia's Medieval Stećci and Mikhail Bakhtin's Notion of Heteroglossia" by Dr. Keith Doubt (Wittenberg U.)
"A 'Real' Pain: Exploring Questions of 'Authentic' Engagement with Poland’s Jewish Past" by Dr. Diana Sacilowski (Ohio State U.)

2.D: Ukrainian Identity through Art and Politics
Pfahl Hall, Room 330

Panel Chair: Dr. Marianna Klochko (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"Ukraine’s 'Invisible Battalion': Gender and Body Politics in the Veteranka Movement" by Dr. Anastassiya Andrianova (North Dakota State U.)
"Anti-Colonial Justice and Ukraine’s Postapocalyptic Survival in Olha Matsiupa’s The Fish Road" by Dr. Heather Fielding (U. of Wisconsin-Eau Claire)
"Christian and Theatrical Authenticity in Ukrainian Vertep" by Dr. Alisa Ballard Lin (Ohio State U.)
"Towards a Multidirectional Memory: How Ukrainian Literature Reflected on the Holocaust in the 1940s–1960s" by Hanna Protasova (Western U.)

2.E: Reexamining Russian Writers: Dostoevsky and Zamyatin
Pfahl Hall, Room 340

Panel Chair: Dr. James McGavran (Kenyon College, Midwest Slavic Association Vice President)
Participants:

"Dostoevsky’s 'Dream of a Ridiculous Man' as Proto-Science Fiction" by Dr. Alexander Burry (Ohio State U.)
"Perverse Confessions in Poe’s Tales and Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground" by Kelly Gallagher (Ohio State U.)
"Religious Temptation in the Guise of “The Green Fairy”: The Garden of Eden and Absinthe in Zamyatin’s We" by Eleanor Grazier (Ohio State U.)

3:00-3:15PM - Coffee Break

2nd Floor Foyer, Pfahl Hall

3:15-4:45PM - Session 3

2025 Midwest Russian, East European and Eurasian (REEE) Undergraduate Digital Poster Forum
Pfahl Hall, 2nd Floor Foyer

Judges: Drs. Molly T. Blasing (U. of Kentucky) and Malkhaz Toria (Ilia State U., Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center at Harvard U.)

Poster Presentations:

"Do Not be Deceived: The Danger of Bad Faith in 'The Meek One'" by Isabella Marie Folio (Bowling Green State U.)
"Expert Designs or Fragile Understanding? The Competence of American Diplomacy and Influence in the Creation of the First Yugoslav State" by Matthew Ployhart (Clemson U.)
"Chernobyl Crisis" by Cristina Sirbu (Gustavus Adolphus College)
"‘El Menen Jer Kindiktesh’: Mining Nationalism in the Kyrgyz Republic" by Isaac Steinmeyer (The College of Wooster)

3.A: REEE Think Tank Showcase II
Pfahl Hall, Room 202

Panel Chair: Dr. Kelly Knickmeier-Cummings (Howard U.)
Participants:

"Remedy for The West: Russia's Plan in Africa" by William Ince (U. of Kansas)
"Transnational Solidarity Between Latin American Countries: How the Comintern Fostered Interactions Between Leftists in Mexico and Cuba" by Christian Milford Oritz (U. of Miami)
"Red Soil: The Environmental and Economic Costs of Soviet Agricultural Policies" by Leah Peterson (Howard U.)

3.B: Authentic Voices in Music and Movement
Pfahl Hall, Room 230

Panel Chair: Dr. Matthew Boyd (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

“Monetochka’s Voice and How It Displays Her Authentic Antiwar Stance” by Dr. Sasha Drozzina (Ohio State U.)
"Indie Rock in Exile: the Search for Russian Identity in the Music Videos of Arseny Morozov" by Jay Hadfield (Ohio State U.)
"American Dance Festival Brings Modern Dance to Russia through Exchanges of the 1990s" by Dr. Elena Yushkova (U. of Kentucky)

3.C: Innovations and Challenges in Slavic Language Pedagogy (Roundtable)
Pfahl Hall, Room 240

Panel Chair: Dr. Ljiljana Duraskovic (U. of Pittsburgh)
Participants:

Dr. Ljiljana Duraskovic (U. of Pittsburgh)
Dr. Renatáta Kamenárová (U. of Pittsburgh)
Dr. Frane Karabatic (U. of Texas, Austin)
Dr. Anna Karpusheva (U. of Pittsburgh)
Dr. Kathleen Manukyan (U. of Pittsburgh)

3.D: Identity and Educational Practices in Central and Eastern Europe
Pfahl Hall, Room 330

Panel Chair: Michelle Verbitskaya (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"Alternative Education in the Holocaust: Informal Schooling and Self-Education among Jewish Students in Nazi-Occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Lithuania" by Meg Brosneck (Ohio State U.)
"Serfs as Intellectuals and Social Critics: Freedom, Education, and Status in Pre-Emancipation Serf Narratives" by Mariana Kellis (U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
“Echoes of the Past: Han’s Insights into Polish Authenticity, Identity, and Education” by Aneta Sobieraj-Skorski (Pomeranian School)

3.E: Propaganda in Art, Prose, and Film
Pfahl Hall, Room 340

Panel Chair: Dr. Yana Hashamova (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"'In French, Left-Handed, no Address:' Unspeakable Desire in Seventeen Moments of Spring" by Sophonisba Franecki (Bryn Mawr College)
“'What’s the Point of Hauling Stuff Around?': Serhiy Zhadan’s The Orphanage and the 'Post-Soviet Loser'” by Michael Hansen (U. of Wisconsin - Eau Claire)
"Grandfathers and Grandsons: Ancestor Motifs in Posters of The Great Patriotic War" by Enes Tastan (Ohio State U.)
"Unveiling Zenithism: The Russian Notebook" by Lejla Vesković (Ohio State U.)

Sunday, April 6

8:00-8:30AM - Registration and Breakfast

2nd Floor Foyer, Pfahl Hall

8:30-10:00AM - Session 4

4.A: Layered Narratives in Eastern Europe: Identity, Art, and Religion
Pfahl Hall, Room 202

Panel Chair: Dr. Gardner Bovingdon (Indiana U., Bloomington)
Participants:

"Authenticity in Satire, Humor, and Hungarian Civil Discourse" by Brittany Jánosi (Indiana U., Bloomington)
"Estonia’s Push for Baltic Identity in the Post-Soviet Future" by Ryan McCrea (Indiana U., Bloomington)
"Authenticity in Bosnian Jewish Identity at the End of the Twentieth Century" by Sydney Verel (Indiana U., Bloomington)
"Finding Authenticity in Ukraine’s Evolving Orthodoxy" by Tabor Walls (Indiana U., Bloomington)

4.B: Undergraduate Research in East European and Eurasian History
Pfahl Hall, Room 230

Panel Chair: Andrey Ridling (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"Between Slavery and Corvée: Labor Regime in Qing-ruled Xinjiang" by Houye Lyu (U. of Wisconsin – Madison)
"The Authentic Lie: Concealment, Survival, and Betrayal in the Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Landscape" by Anastasija Mladenovska (Miami U.)
“Islamic Nationalism vs. Soviet Imperialism in the Basmachi Movement” by William Slabodkin (Ohio State U.)

4.C: (In)Authentic Soviet Experiences
Pfahl Hall, Room 240

Panel Chair: Dr. Dima Arzyutov (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"Epic Indigenization: Literature and Nation on the Soviet-Finnish Borders under Stalinism" by Dr. Diego Benning Wang (Kean U.)
"The Questions of Madness: Expertise, Psychiatric Power, and (In)Authentic Narratives of Punitive Psychiatry in the Soviet Union" by Dr. Garret McDonald (Kenyon College)

4.D: Gender in Film and Memoir
Pfahl Hall, Room 330

Panel Chair: Dr. Jennifer Suchland (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"Unfinished and Insufficient: A Co/Autoethnographic Exploration of Gender Education through Societal 'Norms', and Post-Colonial Impact" by Gunel Alasgarova (Ohio State U.) and Turana Abdullayeva (U. of Sheffield)
“Make Azerbaijan Gender Confused Again! Homosociality and Gender Expression in Late Soviet Caucasus and Central Asian Childhood Memoirs” by Dr. Kristen Fort (U. of Michigan)
“Representations of Beekeeping, Gender, and Agency in Blerta Basholli’s Hive and Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s Honeyland” by Devon Rancourt (Ohio State U.)
“Within Tradition and Beyond Tradition: Self-Sufficient, Strong, and Dangerous Women in Animated Films from the Urals (late Soviet Period)” by Aleksandra Shubina (Ohio State U.)

4.E: Slavic-American Cultural Relations
Pfahl Hall, Room 340

Panel Chair: Dr. Angela Brintlinger (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"American Robots in the Age of Renewed Authenticity. 1980s America in Borislav Pekić’s Novel Atlantida" by Enrico Davanzo (U. degli Studi "G. D'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara)
"America for Russian Constructivists: A Study of the Journal SA (1926-30)" by Ga-young Kim (Indiana U., Bloomington)
“’I don’t speak Russian, but I know Russian’: Culture, Identity, and Anora” by Sophie Papp (Ohio State U.)
"Anthropomorphizing Wealth and Class in Disney’s The Aristocats and V. Bordzilovski and Y. Prytkov’s The Millionaire" by Siobhán Seigne (Ohio State U.)

10:00-10:15AM - Coffee Break

2nd Floor Foyer, Pfahl Hall

10:15-11:45AM - Session 5

5.A: Resisting Hegemony: Authenticity and the Other
Pfahl Hall, Room 202

Panel Chair: Dr. Alexander Burry (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"Nation and 'Non-Nation': Authenticity vs. Russian Propaganda Narrative About Ukraine and Russia in the Context of Russian Schizofascism" by Dr. Joanna Getka (U. of Warsaw)
"Playing Circassian: Imitation and Ambivalence in A Hero of Our Time" by Mack Noxon (U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
"Role Interchangeability and Moral Ambivalence in Sergei Dovlatov's 'The Zone: A Prison Camp Guard's Story'” by Semen Sinelnikov (U. of Latvia)
"Authenticity or Irony: Dostoevsky in Thomas Mann’s Reflections of a Non-Political Man" by Dr. Olga V. Solovieva (Nicolaus Copernicus U.)

5.B: Deportation During WWII
Pfahl Hall, Room 230

Panel Chair: Dr. David Hoffmann (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

"The Politics and Legacies of Deportation and Resettlement in the Soviet Caucasus: Klukhori District and the Fates of Svan, Kartachai, and Balkar Communities" by Dr. Ian Lanzillotti (Washington & Jefferson College)
"For Our Sake or Theirs? Ukrainian Child Abductees under Nazi and Russian Occupation" by Arthur Mengozzi (U. of Michigan)
“In Written Witness: Images of World War II’s Eastern Front History through Red Army Diarists’ Words” by Sascha Rohde (Ohio State U.)

5.C: Treacherous Waters: Politics and Diplomacy
Pfahl Hall, Room 240

Panel Chair: Dr. Marko Babić (U. of Warsaw, Ohio State's Spring 2025 Fulbright Slavic Scholar)
Participants:

“Multivectoral Diplomacy in Acton: Kazakhstan’s Foreign Policy Post-February 2022” by Dr. Assel Bitabar (Maqsut Narikbayev U.)
"Integration of Migrants from Ukraine into Polish Society: International Law, Opportunities, and Challenges. Authenticity at the Level of Global Phenomenon" by Dr. Pawel Maciag (U. of Warsaw)
"More than Mere Complicity: Russian Orthodoxy’s Partnership with Russian State Aggression" by Dr. Jerry Pankhurst (Wittenberg U.)
"Coming Undone? A Decade of Eurasian (dis)Integration" by Justin Tomczyk (Stanford U.)

5.D: Authenticity in Translation
Pfahl Hall, Room 330

Panel Chair: Dr. Kathleen Manukyan (U. of Pittsburgh)
Participants:

"Troublesome Translations: Subtitling the Subtilties of Formality in Russian Films" by Quinn Cline-Cook (Ohio State U.)
“Euripides on the Russian Stage: Silver age Translations and Performances of Hippolytus” by Olivia Kennison (Brown U.)
"Original Forms and Authenticity of Personal Names in Translation" by Dr. Timothy Pogačar (Bowling Green State U., Midwest Slavic Association President)
Untitled by Bita Takrimi (Northwestern U.)

5.E: Phonological, Lexical, and Cultural Transformations
Pfahl Hall, Room 340

Panel Chair: Dr. Ljiljana Duraskovic (U. of Pittsburgh)
Participants:

"The Dialectal Split of Gheg and Tosk Albanian: A Case of Contact-Induced Phonological Change" by Lindon Dedvukaj (Ohio State U.)
“On Authenticity in Historical Folk Linguistics: View of the South Slavic Dialect Landscape in Croatian Protestant Corpus” by Dr. Ivana Eterović (U. of Zagreb)
"Lexical Similarity and Cultural Authenticity: A Comparative Study of Ukrainian and Russian Noun-Pairs Using Contextualized Word Embeddings" by Dr. Inna Stupak (U. of Tuebingen)