Midwest Slavic Conference Panel Schedule

2018 Midwest Slavic Conference Panels

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

All panels will take place in Mendenhall Laboratory. See each panel for specific the specific room number. 

Saturday, March 24

8:30-10:30 - Plenary Panel

"Borders, Barriers, and Belonging: A Spotlight on Global Migration," Moderator: Dr. Tara Zahra (University of Chicago), Mendenhall Lab, room 100 

• Dr. Jeffrey Cohen (The Ohio State University)
• Dr. Steven Lee (University of California, Berkeley) 
• Ms. Eleanor Paynter (The Ohio State University) 
• Dr. Sunnie Rucker-Chang (University of Cincinnati)
• Dr. Johanna Sellman (The Ohio State University)

10:30-10:45 - Coffee Break 

10:45-12:15 - Session I

I.a Political Cultures and Perceptions in the U.S. and Russia, Chair: Dr. Mikhail Beznosov (University of West Georgia), Mendenhall Lab, room 125

• "How the Internet and Social Media Pierce the Economic Misperceptions Underlying Public Support for Authoritarian Governance," Dr. Erik Nisbet and Dr. Olga Kamenchuk (The Ohio State University)
• "United States vs. Russia: Political Cultures and Political Preferences," Seraphine Mendez (University of South Florida) 

I.b Linguistics, Chair: Dr. Daniel Bunčić (University of Cologne/Kent State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 131

• "Greetings and Politeness in Albanian," Carly Dickerson and Rexhina Ndoci (The Ohio State University) 
• "Text Analysis with ForestNTrees," Gary Hlusko (Independent Scholar) 

I.c Movement and Migration : People, Identities, and Ideas, Chair: Dr. Steven Lee (University of California, Berkeley), Mendenhall Lab, room 115

• "Galitzianer vs Litvaks: Regional Identities and the Jewish Migration Experience in the United States," Oskar Czendze (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) 
• "Social Reform on the Move: Penitentiary Agricultural Colonies in the Nineteenth Century, from the Loire to the Neva," Christine Grant  (Carnegie Mellon University) 
• "Closed Imaginations: Space and Place of Communities in Greater Manchuria in Tsarist Vladivostok Media Discourse," Austin Wilson (Indiana University) 

I.d Eastern Europe in the United States, Chair: Dr. Tim Pogacar (Bowling Green State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 175

• “'Where the Gusle Still Reverberates'- Montenegrin Migrants Living a Life Between the New and the Old Home," Dr. Ljiljana Duraskovic (University of Pittsburgh) 
• "The Self-identification of the Soviet Jewish Émigrés to the US as Seen by Efraim Sevela and Sergei Dovlatov," Daria Semenova (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• "The Immigration to the US from Eastern Europe in the Late 20th Century in the Works by Gary Steyngart," Sergii Gurbych (University of Heidelberg) 

I.e Forbidden Books and Doktor Zhivago, Chair: Dr. Helena Goscilo (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 173 

• "Doktor Zhivago: A Modern Take on a Russian Fairy Tale," Dasha Hardisky (The Ohio State University)
• "Freedom in Art: Receptive Self-Determination in Doktor Zhivago," Andrew Thompson (The Ohio State University) 
• "The Theme of Betrayal in Dissident Literature: The Image of Judas in the Works of Mikhail Bulgakov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn," Ekaterina Tikhonyuk (The Ohio State University)

12:15-1:45 - Lunch Lecture

"Canons Continually Recast: Claiming Space for the Genius of Europe's Borderlands", Dr. Michael Biggins (University of Washington), Mendenhall Lab, room 100 

1:45-3:15 - Session II 

II. a Crime and Disinformation in and from Russia and Eastern Europe, Chair: Dr. Olga Kamenchuk (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 125 

• "Experience and Space in the Russian Penal System: Expectation versus Reality," Brenden Wood (The Ohio State University) 
• "The Impact of Russian Disinformation Campaigns on the United States and its Allies in the Putin Era," Jason Port (East Carolina University) 
• "From Wise Guys to Key Punchers: East European Organized Crime in the Cyber World," Jimmy Morgan (Kent State University) 

II. b Migration and Its Effects in East and West Europe, Chair: Dr. Colin Johnson (University of Pittsburgh), Mendenhall Lab, room 115

• "Post-Soviet Migrants in Portugal, 1991-2017," Dr. Antonio Eduardo Mendonca and Dr. Elena Bulakh (University of Lisbon)
• "The Transnational Ties Between Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay Behind: Polish Refugees and the Solidarity Movement," Dr. Mary Erdmans (Case Western University)  
• "Violence and Exclusion: How European Union Border Externalization Impacts Transit Migrants in the Western Balkans," Kathryn Metz (The Ohio State University) 
• "Spatial Conflict Progression and Mediation Onset During the Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991-1999," Barbara Roth (The Ohio State University) 

II.c Language Ecology, Chair: Dr. Andrea Sims (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 131 

• "Positive LGBTQ Language and Gender-Neutral Pronoun Possibilities in Russian Language," Danielle Martin-Jensen (Kent State University) 
• "Biscriptality in Migrant and Minority Situations," Dr. Daniel Bunčić (Cologne University/Kent State University)

II.d Information, Bureaucracy, and State Institutions, Chair: Mr. Pietro Shakarian (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 129

• "A Microprocess of Stalinization, 1928-1930: The Transformation of Puti sel’skogo khoziaistva and the 'Army of Soviet Agronomists,'" Sam Fajerstein (Indiana University) 
• "The Georgian Legal System on the Eve of Russian Annexation," Tyson Sadleir (University of Cincinnati) 

II.e Rhetoric of Political Relations, Chair: Dr. Angela Brintlinger (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 173

• "Vesthomania, New Year Fantasies, and Funky Freedom: Georgi Markov on State Socialism," Dr. Nikolay Karkov (Michigan State) 
• "Gibberish in the Russian Public Sphere: Fun and Strategy," Dr. Irina Dzero (Kent State) 
• "Vampilov, Alfred, and Horovitz: Foreign Languages in Dramatic Power Play," Erin Tupman (College of Wooster) 

3:15-3:30 - Coffee Break

3:30-5:00 - Session III

III.a  Emigration, Migration, Exile Part I, Chair: Dr. Nikolay Karkov (Michigan State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 115 

• "Mobility and Effects in the Lives of LGBTQ Russian Migrants," Randall Rowe (The Ohio State University)  
• "Imagined Itineraries of Immigration in Cristian Mungiu’s Occident," Dr. Adela Lechintan-Seifer (The Ohio State University) 
• "Cuban Encounter," Dr. Amarilis Lugo de Fabritz (Howard University) 

III.b The State, Religion, and Minority Groups: Questions about Power and Access, Chair: Dr. Jill Bystydzienski (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 125

• "Confronting the Dilemma 'National Security vs. Christian Duty': the Russian Orthodox Church's Take on Migrants and Refugees," Dr. Alicja Curanovic (University of Warsaw)
• "Catholicism and Domestic Violence in Eastern Europe: The Nationalism Backlash," Martha Pack (Marty Pack Productions)
• "Post-Soviet Ethnic Politics and Public Goods Provision: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan," Kyle Estes (University of Illinois) 

III.c Roundtable on Translation, Mendenhall Lab, room 131 

• Dr. Brian Baer (Kent State University)
• Dr. Angela Brintlinger (The Ohio State University)
• Mr. Thomas Feerick (Northwestern University)
• Dr. Anastasia Lakhtikova (Independent Scholar) 

III.d Purpose, Production, and Realities of Propaganda, Chair: Mr. Alexandru Groza (University of California Berkeley), Mendenhall Lab, room 129

• “Peoples’ Friendship University: Racialization under the Rhetoric of Soviet Internationalism,” Liana Kirillova (Southern Illinois University)
• "Cold War Refugee Camps in Hungarian Communist Propaganda (1970s-80s)," Szabolcs Laszlo (Indiana University) 
• "Stalin's Empire: Soviet Propaganda in Kazakhstan," Jonathon Dreeze (The Ohio State University) 

III.e Self and Other, Chair: Dr. Irina Stakhanova (Bowling Green State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 173 

• "The Diaries of Waslaw Nijinsky and the Absence of Work," Dr. Peter Orte (University of Oregon) 
• "Gogol's Logic: The Metonymic Nose of Philosophical Anthropology," Dr. Alexandre Gontchar (Harvard University)
• "Body, Space, and Becoming: Baba Vanga and the Enchantment of Rupite," Sarah Craycraft (The Ohio State University) 
• "Dubois and Stalin," Sophia Williams (Howard University) 

Sunday, March 25

8:30-10:00 - Session IV 

IV.a Resolving East European Ties with the European Union and the United States, Chair: Dr. Adela Lechintan-Siefer (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 125  ​ 

• "The Role of Romania and Bulgaria in the Eastern Neighborhood: Between Followers and Influencers in the European Foreign Policy Agenda," Ionela Maria Ciolan (University of California, Berkeley) 
• "Nicolae Ceausescu and the Two-Faced Policy, 1965-1981," Alexandru Groza (University of California, Berkeley) 

IV.b Second Language Acquisition, Chair: Ms. Izolda Wolski-Moskoff (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 131 

• "Phoenetic and Gramatical Difficulties at the Introductory Level Study of Russian as a Foreign Language for Puerto Ricans and Spanish Speakers," Marco-Andres Camilo Pietri (University of Puerto Rico)
• "'Her Russian Broke my Brain': The Linguistic Influence of English on the Vocabulary of a Russian Heritage Speaker," Janet Stewart (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities)

IV.c Autonomy, Diplomacy, and Identity, Chair: Dr. Peter Milich (Webster University), Mendenhall Lab, room 129 

• "Nationality before Nationalism: Ethnic Politics, Geopolitics, and the Sustainability of the Magyar Kingdom in the East," George Andrei (The Ohio State University) 
• "State-building in Russia’s Northern Periphery: The Case of Karelia," William O'Brien (The Ohio State University) 
• "Haze over Ararat: The Role of Environmentalism in the Rise of National and Civic Movements in Soviet and Post-Soviet Armenia, 1975-Present," Pietro Shakarian (The Ohio State University)
• "The Implications of Marshal Józef Piłsudski’s Coup on -German Foreign Policy, 1926-1927," Martin Kozon  (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

IV.d Emigration, Migration, and Exile Part II, Chair: Dr. Alexandre Gontchar (Harvard University), Mendenhall Lab, room 112

• "The Faces (and Spaces) of Exile: Parallel Case Study of the Late Poetry of Joseph Brodsky and Anna Akhmatova," Miroslava Nikolova (Brown University)
• "The Romanian Children of Migration in Florin Șerban's If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle," Maria Cantemir (Ohio State) 

IV.e Gender and Soviet Identity, Chair: Dr. Epp Annus (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 173 

• "'We have communism': How the Individual Defines the Soviet Idea in Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl as Heterotopic Documentary," Teresa Kuruc (University of California, San Diego) 
• "'Magic of the Forbidden Fruit': Soviet Sexual Anxieties in the Glasnost Popular Press," Svetlana Ter-Grigoryan (The Ohio State University) 

10:00-10:15 - Coffee Break

10:15-11:45 - Session V

V.a Migration and Minorities in Post-Communist Countries, Chair: Dr. Mary Erdmans (Case Western University), Mendenhall Lab, room 115 

• "Defying the Unitary State: Variation in Regional Migration Policies in Russia," Dr. Colin Johnson (University of Pittsburgh)
• "The Integration of Russian Minorities in Estonia and Kyrgyzstan," Cian Stryker (University of Pittsburgh) 
• "Alternative for (Russian) Germany: Explaining Russian-German Voters' Gravitation to Right Wing Populism," Philip Decker (Swarthmore College) 

V.b A Language in Flux: Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian, the Struggle for Dialectical Standardization, the Introduction of Neologisms, and the Living Language of Migrant Speakers, Chair: Dr. Ljiljana Duraskovic (University of Pittsburgh), Mendenhall Lab, room 131

• "Neologisms and Nationalism in Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian," Anton Boras (University of Pittsburgh)
• "Dialectal Standardiszation of Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian: A Comparative Approach," Pablo Lindsay (University of Pittsburgh)
• "Retaining Identity While Gaining Opportunity: Effects of Bosnian-Serbian-Montenegrin-Croatian Migration," Emma Mamula (University of Pittsburgh) 

V.c Experiences and Memories from the Second World War, Chair: Ms. Brenna Miller (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 129

• "Jasenovac as a Space of Exception," Danielle Frazier (Independent Scholar) 
• "From, 'War Dogs' to Mourned Men: Commemoration of German Prisoners in the Soviet Union and Russia," Susan Grunewald (Carnegie Mellon University) 
• "Internal Displacement and Downward Integration of Displaced Orphans in Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic during the Great Patriotic War," Zukhra Kasimova (University of Illinois, Chicago) 

V.d Controls and Chaos in the Novel, Chair: Dr. Brian Baer (Kent State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 173 

• "Dostoevsky's Women as Agents of Chaos in The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov: The Destruction of the Literary Worlds of Nastasya Filippovna, Aglaya Epanchin, Katerina Ivanovna and Agrafena Alexandrovna," Mary MacDonald (The Ohio State University)  
• "On the Threshold of Being: Political and Ontological Borders in Platonov's Dzhan," Tomi Haxhi (Columbia University)

V.e New Media and Cross-Cultural Transfer, Chair: Dr. Daniel Pratt (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 175

• “'If Mickiewicz was alive today; he’d be a good rhymer': Performing Genre and National Credibility in Polish Hip-Hop," Alena Aniskiewicz (University of Michigan) 
• "Translation of the Byzantine Culture Along the Preslav-Kiev Route," Ozlem Eren (University of Wisconsin - Madison) 

V.f Building the Russian National Idea, Chair: Dr. Jennifer Suchland (The Ohio State University), Mendenhall Lab, room 125 

• "Russia's Syria Gambit: Toward a Neo-Hesychast Foreign Policy?" Dr. Peter Milich (Webster University) 
• Conceptualization and Formulation of National Interest and National Idea in the Former Soviet Union Countries: Cultural, Historical, Political, and Geopolitical Aspects," Dr. Mikhail Beznosov (University of West Georgia)
• "Sporting Diplomacy? Ordinary Russians' Perceptions of the 2018 World Cup," Dr. Richard Arnold and Mikhala West (Muskingum University)