Midwest Slavic Conference Panel Schedule

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2020 Midwest Slavic Conference Panels

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

All panels will take place in the Blackwell Inn and Conference Center. Panel room numbers TBD.

Saturday, April 4

8:00-8:30 - Registration and Breakfast

3rd Floor Foyer, Pfahl hall

8:30-10:15 - Plenary Panel

Pfahl Hall, Room 140

Moderator: Dr. Anindita Banerjee, Cornell U.
Participants:

  • Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle, Ohio State U., "Explaining Earthquakes: The 1861-62 Lake Baikal Disaster and the Meaning of Nature in Imperial Russia"
  • Dr. Andrei Cretu, Ohio State U., "Russia Back to the Final Frontier: Reviving the Space Age in a Complex Globalized World"
  • Dr. Alisa Ballard Lin, Ohio State U.

10:15-10:30 - Coffee Break 

3rd Floor Foyer, Pfahl hall

10:30-12:00 - Session 1

1.A: Science Fiction I

Participants:

  • "The Moscow Metro in Post-Soviet Science Fiction: From Omon Ra to Metro 2033" by Philip Decker, Oxford U.
  • "Neuroscience Fiction. Andreï Makine’s Rhetorical Usage of Fictional Neuroscientific Devices" by Dr. Diana Mistreanu, Luxembourg School of Religion and Society
  • "Death is Better. Imagining the Perfect Future: Wislawa Szymborska and Grzegorz Ciechowski and the Tradition of Dystopian Visions" by Dr. Piotr Westwalewicz, U. of Michigan
1.B: Poland's Wars and Rebellions

Participants:

  • The Polish Military During the Interwar Year: Myths, Misinformation, Reality by Dr. Jacek Czarnecki, City University of New York
  • "'People Were Dying Before My Eyes'": How the Violence in 1970 Gave Rise to the Solidarity Movement in 1980" by Dr. Mary Erdmans, Case Western Reserve U.
1.C: Early 20th Century Culture

Participants:

  • "Engineering a Soviet Life: Gustav Trinkler’s Written and Material Practices Before and After 1917" by Zinaida Osipova, Miami U.
  • "Fiction in the Thick of the Nonfictional: The Dantean ‘Visionary Voyage’ in Pasternak’s Safe Conduct" by Dr. Ona Renner-Fahey, U. of Montana
  • "The Art of Diagnosis in Valerii Briusov’s Fiery Angel" by Dr. Kelly Cummings, Howard U.
1.D: Diplomacy and Identity I

Participants:

  • "On the Surrealism of the Dayton Peace Accords" by Dr. Keith Doubt, Wittenberg U.
  • "Whose Tesla?: The Symbolic Politics of Nikola Tesla from 1918-1943" by Ethan Larson, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • "The Demilitarization of Kaliningrad" by Helen McHenry, Ohio State U.
1.E: Music, Art, and Painting

Participants:

  • "Swingin’ with the Stalinists: Collaboration and Authenticity in Postwar Soviet Jazz" by Shawn Conroy, Ohio State U.
  • "Memoirs of Art and War: Maintaining Sociocultural Continuity in Sarajevo, 1992-1996" by Dr. Lauren Zwicky, Metropolitan State U.

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

12:00-1:00 - Inaugural Ohio Undergraduate Russian, East European, and Eurasian Research Forum

  • Kenneth Asbell, Wittenberg University, “A Letter to Tuzla”
  • Joseph Ferraro, College of Wooster, “Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate”
  • Gwenyth Landes, Wittenberg University, “Miss Sarajevo and the Subaltern”
  • Daphne Letherer, College of Wooster, “Make Some Noise: Rap as a Form of Political Protest in Russia”

1:30-3:00 - Session 2

2.A: Science Fiction II

Participants:

  • "Two Aelitas: Nostalgia and Trauma in Early Science Fiction in the USSR" by Zhanna Budenkova, U. of Pittsburgh
  • "Anabiosis and Deep Time in Early Soviet Science Fiction" by Dr. Elena Fratto, Princeton U.
  • "The Forgotten City of Light" by Aneta Soberaj-Skorski, U. of Vienna
2.B: Land, Nature, Science, and Environment

Participants:

  • "Forest and Pasture: Competing Environs in Interwar Romania" by George Andrei, Indiana U.
  • "Variations on the Russian Imperial Idea: Land and People in Hunting Publications" by Dr. Mollie Cavender, Ohio State U.
  • "The Fate of the Ugly Chicken in the Russian Empire: Bureaucratic, Scientific and Artistic Discourse" by Dr. Olga Solodyankina, Cherepovets State U.
2.C: Slavic and East European Linguistics

Participants:

  • "A Diachronic Evaluation of Ukrainian Language Purism and Standardization" by Chandini White, Ohio State U.
  • "Perceptions and Social Implications of Non-Native Accents in Russian" by Ke Lin, Ohio State U.
  • "From Fiction to Reality: Sociolinguistic Situation of Montenegro and Montenegrin Language as Linguistic Reality" by Dr. Ljiljana Duraskovic, U. of Pittsburgh
2.D: Depictions of Minority Groups In Russia and the Soviet Union

Participants:

  • "Let’s Talk About Sex: The Emergence of a Public Language of Sex and Sexuality in Post-Soviet Russia" by Dr. Brian James Baer, Kent State U.
  • "Race and Soviet Representation: Comparative Representations of Foreign Activists" by Dr. B Amarilis Lugo de Fabritz, Howard U.
  • "The Chuvash in Russia’s Quilt of Peoples" by Nick Rackers, independent scholar
2.E: Diplomacy and Identity II

Participants:

  • The Fracturing of an Empire: U.S. Policy Towards the Non-Russian Soviet Republics 1977-1992 by Christopher Campbell, U. of Glasgow
  • Untitled by Moah Pollas, Howard U.

3:00-3:15 - Coffee Break

3rd Floor Foyer, Pfahl hall

3:15-4:45 - Session 3

3.A: 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia

Panel Chair: Dr. Richard Arnold, Muskingum U.
Participants:

  • Larry Haywood, Muskingum U.
  • Jaiden Martin, Muskingum U.
  • Donta Radcliffe, Muskingum U.
  • Emily Regan, Muskingum U.
  • Mikhala West, Muskingum U.
  • Benjamin Wiles, Muskingum U.
3.b: Soviet and Post-Soviet Film and TV

Participants:

  • "Alisa Selezneva, A Lonely Child in Open Space" by Aleksandra Shubina, Ohio State U.
  • "Putin at the Movies: Recent Russian Films Speak in Riddles and Parables" by Dr. Irina Dzero, Kent State U.
3.c: Contemporary Issues in Poland

Panel Chair: Ekaterina Tikhonyuk, Ohio State U.

Participants:

  • "Environmental Issues in Poland" by Lillyann Kimberly, Ohio State U.
  • "Not Everyone Is a Stork: Inequities in the Preservation of Minority Cultures in Poland" by Andrew “Jude” Snowden, Ohio State U.
  • "Reproduction Rights" in Poland by Zhihe "Liz" Zeng, Ohio State U.

3.D: FOOD, HERITAGE, AND DACHA LIFE

Participants:

  • "The Ukrainian Gastronomic Heritage in the Diaspora - A Cornerstone of National Self Identity" by Marianna Dushar, independent scholar
  • "'Dacha Feeds Us.' Fresh Produce Procurement and Preservation in Eastern Ukraine – A Geo-spatial Study of a Soviet City Dacha, Its Semiotic and Physical (sustenance-related) Significance in Everyday Life, and Techniques for Dacha-grown Produce Preservation" by Dr. Anastasia Lakhtikova
  • "The Palimpsest of the Dacha Landscape: Landscape, Culture and Memory in Petrushevskaia and Tolstaia" by Elizabeth McBean, Ohio State U.

Sunday, April 5

8:00-8:30 - Registration and Breakfast

3rd Floor Foyer, Pfahl hall

8:30-10:00 - Session 4

4.A: Russian Literature at Home and Abroad

Participants:

  • "Tolstoy, Fyodorov and the Russian Famine of 1891–92" by Sean Ray, Ohio State U.  
  • "Social Decay: A Balkan Subversion of Dostoevskian Figures" by Danielle Frazier, independent scholar
4.B: The Legacy of Science and Media

Participants:

  • "Digital Nomadism as a Manifestation of the Evolution of Genres in Travel Journalism (on the example of the texts of the magazine Around the World, LJ Ilya Varlamov and Sergei Sukhov’s travel blog)" by Elizaveta Cheprasova, Moscow State U.
  • "A Drama Stranger Than Fiction? A Retrospective Look at the Soviet Scientific Legacy in Geophysical Theory, and a Critical Assessment of its Implications for Today’s Energy Diplomacy" by Dr. Peter Milich, Washington U. in St. Louis
  • In the Fields and in the House: Technology, Modernity, and Tradition in the Visual Propaganda of Communist Albania, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany by Artan Hoxha, U. Pittsburgh
  • "Slovakia: Nationalist Propaganda and Disinformation Now and Then" by Jakub Šimkovič, Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information
4.C: Soviet Relations, Exchanges, and Propaganda

Participants:

  • Russian Pride: the 1917 Decriminalization of Homosexuality and its Causatum by Kamree Moore, Howard U.
  • "The Brezhnev Paradox: Revolution, Stagnation, and Historicity in Soviet Soft Power" by Avery Comar, Miami U.
  • Bleeding Nicaragua: the Case of the Soviet-Cuban Alliance by Sophia Williams, Howard U.
4.D: Polish poetry and scientific thought

Participants:

  • "Seen from Above: The Alien Vision of Wisława Szymborska" by Dr. Clare Cavanagh, Northwestern U.
  • "Tadeusz Rozewicz and the Question Concerning Heidegger" by Dr. Joanna Trzeciak-Huss, Kent State U. 

10:00-10:15 - Coffee Break

3rd Floor Foyer, Pfahl hall

10:15-11:45 - Session 5

5.A: Orthodoxy in Russia and the USSR

Panel Chair: Dr. Stephen Norris, Miami U.

Participants:

  • "The Russian Orthodox Church During the Civil War, 1918-1921" by Dr. Scott Kenworthy, Miami U.
  • "American Protestantism and Russian Orthodoxy in Early Soviet Russia" by August Hagemann, Miami U.
  • "'The Trial is Playing Havoc with the Nerves of People': Foreign Reactions to the Trials of Russian Orthodox Believers, 1922" by Dr. Francesca Silano, Miami U.
5.B: National and ethnic imaginaries

Participants:

  • "Wanders Through the West: An Analysis of Works by Alexei Savrasov in Relation to Nationalism and Realism in Russia" by Brooke Pandrea, Kent State U. at Stark
  • "Early Soviet Ethnography and the Racialization of Narod" by Dr. Marie Gasper-Hulvat, Kent State U. at Stark
  • "The Space of Revolution: Tajik Film, Soviet Thaw, and Imagined Geographies" by Nicholas Seay, Ohio State U.
5.C: (Science) Fictitious Worlds

Participants:

  • "Collectives of Titans and Lonely Demiurges: Forging Nature in Early Platonov’s Science Fiction Tales" by Monica Puglia, Sassari U.
  • "Apocalypse for Them: Sergei Lukyanenko and Climate Skepticism in Post-Soviet Science Fiction" by Walker Griggs, U. of Southern California
  • "A 21st Century Take on Tarkovsky’s Stalker and the Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic: Real World Anxiety and Desire Revealed in Science Fiction" by Alexandra Stott, Indiana U.