New Views on Sovereignty in Eurasia
Summer Research Laboratory
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
June 19 - 20, 2023
Workshop Program
Monday, June 19 - Day One
(Main Library Building, Room 106. Armory and Wright Street Entrance)
Zoom Access Details:
Day One: https://illinois.zoom.us/j/83772218167?pwd=bWRhVDR0ckc2S0F1OWJ6MzdlMDFrUT09
Meeting ID: 837 7221 8167
Password: 487530
9:00 am - 9:30 am Welcome and Introductions
Dr. Leone Musgrave (US Naval War College) and UI Personnel
9:30 am - 10:30 am Introductory Discussion/Round-Table: “Sovereignty 101”
Break 10:30 am - 10:45 am
10:45 - 11:45 Session I: Environment, Nationality, and the State Individual Paper Presentation (10–12 minutes):
Dr. Elizabeth Bishop (Texas State University) - “Armenian Contributions to Soviet Production Culture: The Aswan High Dam”
Lightning Round Presenters (5 minutes each):
Dr. Catherine Clay (Shippensburg University) - “The Honeybee and Beekeeping in Russian History”
Alina Amvrosova (Boston University) - “‘Dizzy with Success’: Traces of Humanitarian Catastrophe in the Satirical Journals Krokodil and Perets’ (1931–1933)”
Alex Bezahler (University of Iowa) - “Natural Resources as a Source for National and Subnational Identity Development in Post-Soviet Russia”
Mehraj Aliyev (University of Milan) - “Southern Gas Corridor: Implications for the EU Energy Demand and EU-Azerbaijani Relations”
Break 11:45 - 12:00
Keynote - Dr. Gerard Toal (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)
Lunch Break 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Library session 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Break 3:15 - 3:30
3:30–4:30 Session II: Partners, Competitors, and Decisions for War and Peace: Sovereignty and the Russian-Ukrainian War in Broader Geographical and Theoretical Perspectives Individual Presentations (10-12 minutes each):
Dr. Ben DeDominicis (Catholic University of Korea) - “The US, China, and the Russo-Ukraine War: The Conditions for Generating a Mutually Perceived Hurting Stalemate and Consequent Ceasefire in Moscow and Kyiv”
Myla Burton (Southern Illinois University) - “The Dangerous Next-Door Neighbor: An Analysis of Russia’s Impact on Polish and Ukrainian Military Expenditures”
Discussants/Lightning Round Presenters (~5-10 minutes each):
Paulina Szeląg (Pedagogical University in Krakow) - “Approach of the United States of America to Former Yugoslavia Since Presidency of James Carter. The Case Study of Problem of Autonomy of Kosovo”
Dr. Magda Giurcanu (National Louis University) - “Russia and the Council of Europe relations: A View from within the European Institution”
Tuesday, June 20 - Day Two
(Main Library Building, Scholarly Commons, Room 220 - Armory and Wright Street Entrance)
Zoom Access Details:
Day Two: https://illinois.zoom.us/j/83943071887?pwd=VUJNMURucXNGckRyMVRjTktSK0Rzdz09
Meeting ID: 839 4307 1887
Password: 860997
9:00 - 10:00 Session III: Identity, Time, and Neighbors in the Caucasus
Lighting Round Presenters (~5 minutes each):
Roiala Mamedova (University of Pardubice) - “The Historical Transformation of Turco-Muslim Identity in the South Caucasus”
Dr. Elitza Kotzeva (American University of Armenia) - “Stuck Between Traditional, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Rhetoric: Armenian Left-behind Rural Women Negotiating Gender”
Dr. Medea Badashvili (Tbilisi State University) - “The War in Ukraine: The Social, Political and Economic Changes and their Impact on Georgian Society”
Dr. Naira Sahakyan (The American University of Armenia and the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute) - “The Azerbaijan-Türkiye-Armenia Triangle: Transformations of War Narratives through the Speeches of State Leaders”
Discussant (10 minutes)
Dr. Elizabeth Bishop (Texas State University) - “Armenian Contributions to Soviet Production Culture: The Aswan High Dam”
Break 10-10:15
10:15 - 11:15 Session IV: Gender and Sexuality, Science, and State Power Individual presentation (10–12 minutes):
Liana Kupreishvili (Ilia State University)- “Sexual Health in the Russian Empire: Between Science and Myth (XIX–XXcc)”
Lightning round presenters (~5 minutes each):
Dr. Andrey Ivanov (University of Wisconsin - Platteville) - “The Godfather of the Enlightenment: Science, Empire and Feofan Prokopovych at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy”
Alexander Wood Balsom (University of Western Ontario) - “Building the Health of State: Constructing Public Healthcare Systems in the Soviet Union and Canada”
Discussant/Lightning Round Presenter (~5-10 minutes):
Aleksandra Shubina - “Multiple Voices of Animation in the Socialist Bloc: a Dialogue between the ‘Center’ and the ‘Periphery’ on the Issues of Family, Gender, and Nationality in Late-Socialist Era.”
Break 11:15–11:30
11:30–12:15 Session V: Political Culture and State Consolidation Lightning Round Presenters (~5 minutes each):
Dr. Dmitrii Biriukov (Northwestern University) - “The Vicissitudes of ‘Byzantium’: Historical and Current Perspectives”
Yasyn Abdullaev (University of California Berkeley) - “The Myth of Secret Societies’ Conspiracy and the Rise of Modern Politics in Russia, 1789–1849”
Dr. Susanne Sternthal (Texas State University) - “The Roots of Putinism and the Role of Ukraine”
Discussant/Lightning Round Presenter (~5-10 minutes)
Stan Molchanov (University of Minnesota Morris) - Carl Schmitt in the Kremlin: The German Origins of Russian Cultural Conservatism
Lunch 12:15 - 1:15
1:15 - 2:00 Session VI: Place, Space, and Major War in Empire, Republic, and Federation
Lightning Round Contributors (~5 minutes each)
Dr. Andrew Gentes - “Museum of Ruins: Siberian Exile and Late Imperial Russia, 1855–1917”
Meredith Stukey (Purdue University) - “The Romanovs on a World Stage: Autocracy, Democracy, and Crisis, 1896–1918”
Jamie Bryson (The University of Exeter) - “The Russian Empire and Internal Security in the First World War”
Holly Harris (Texas Christian University) - “Shot Down at War: Allied Prisoners of War on the Eastern Front”
Discussant/Lightning Round Presenter (~5–10 minutes)
Kathleen Gergely (Indiana University Bloomington) - Kto est Kto: Personnel Selection and Autocratic Survival in the Russian Federation
Break 2:00–2:15
2:15–3:00 Session VII: Narration, Diversity, and Unity: Stories about Self, Power, and Ethnicity
Lightning Round Presenters (~5 minutes each)
James Knight (Liberty University) - “A Break in the Narrative: The Post-Hunnic Lower and Middle Danube of the Late Fifth Century”
Dr. Irina Ivliyeva (Missouri University of Science and Technology)- “On the hierarchical structure of the terminological system in Russian word-formation synthesis and its practical application options”
Dr. Saera Yoon (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) - “Akunin’s Orientalism in the Fandorin Series”
Alla Savelieva (University of Colorado) - “Diverse Russia: Developing a Russian textbook that reflects Russia’s ethnic, religious and cultural diversity”
Khrystyna Nyshchei (University of Western Ontario) - “Training of priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in times of persecution and the activities of the UGCC before new persecutions”
Discussant/Lightning Round Presenter (~10 minutes)
Dr. Kelly Knickmeier-Cummings (Howard University) - “Exploring Russia and Otherness through Autoethnographic Texts”
3:15–4:00 Session VIII: Culture, Performance, and Nationhood
Lightning Round Presenters (~5 minutes each)
Dr. Paula Čatipović - “THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEDIA AUDIENCE’S EMOTIONAL RESPONSE: Comparative country analysis”
Devi Khajishvili (Texas Tech University) - “Forgotten Brews: Exploring the Role of Georgian Tea in Shaping the Soviet Union’s Cultural Identity and Everyday Life”
4:00–5:00 Closing Discussion/Think Tank Wrap Session