Slavic Bazaar 2023

Many thanks to the faculty and staff of the University of Pennsylvania’s Russian & East European Studies Department, the University of Pennsylvania University Research Foundation, the School of Arts and Sciences, and Van Pelt Library for their partnership on this event.

Friday, April 14, 2023 - 10:30am to Saturday, April 15, 2023 - 8:00pm

Van Pelt and the Museum

This year, Upenn REES is collaborating with REESNe on making our annual Slavic Bazaar a truly intercollegiate event.

If you are interested in learning about Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, this is an event for you. If you have research on or experience in the region that you can share and would like to talk with peers and alumni who have already successfully navigated REEES-related studies and professional paths, you are welcome at this event.  

What is REEESNe? REEESNe stands for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies Northeast. Launched in December 2020, the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Northeast Network (REEESNe) comprises institutions and individuals along the Northeast corridor and neighboring areas. REEESNe facilitates information sharing and collaboration in order to advance teaching and learning about the REEES area, with a primary focus on the undergraduate and master’s levels.

 

PROGRAM:

 

REEESNe 2023 Student Conference and Slavic Bazaar

 
 

Friday, April 14th



 

10:30 | Conference Registration opens on the 6th floor of the Van Pelt Library

 

10:45 and 11:15 | Presentations by Kirsten Painter and John Pollack of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts in the Henry Charles Lea Library (Room 605), focusing on: Special Collections holdings pertaining to Soviet Ukrainian and Russian literature and education, including rare Soviet illustrated children’s books from the 1920s; and the history and current practice of collecting materials from Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Sign up for one of these two identical presentation and guided viewing sessions here.

 

12:00-12:45 | Lunch in the Goldstein Lobby Space 

 

12:45-1:15  | Welcome and Opening Remarks in the Pavilion

 

Kristen R. Ghodsee, Professor and Chair of Russian and East European Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Asia Neupane, Program Director, Councils on Latin American & Iberian Studies and European Studies at the MacMillan Center, Yale University 

Ian MacMillen, Program Manager, REEESNe, Yale University

Arista Siebrits, student Working Group member, Rutgers University

Nicole Gonik, student Working Group member, Hunter College

 

Studying Russia as a Ukrainian-American: My Experience with the REEESNe Working Group 

Nicole Gonik, Hunter College

 
 

1:25-3:00  | Friday Session | Panel 1 of 3 in the Pavilion 

 

Lightning Round: Short Presentations on Experience and Research

Chair: Samantha Bodamer, Hunter College

 

Podcasting in REEES

Daniel Blokh, Yale University

 
 

English in the Land of the Eternal Blue Sky: Completing a Fulbright ETA Grant in Mongolia 

Maggie Lindrooth, Yale University

 
 

I was in both Russia and Ukraine During Wartime: Here is what I Noticed

Teresa Esquivel, College of the Holy Cross

 
 

The 21st Century Augmented Reality Battlefield

Jack Martorano, Fairfield University

 
 

2008 Russo-Georgian War: Russian Irredentism and The Future of Europe

Korben Whitt-Leitner, University of New Haven

 
 

Mobilizing Émigré Writers in Support of Refugee Students through Tamizdat Project

Diana Gor, Hunter College

 
 

Personalizing the Conflict: Stories From the Mouths of Ukrainian People 

Presley Forrest, University of Massachusetts Amherst

 
 

1:25-3:00  | Friday Session | Panel 2 of 3 in Kislak 626

 

Political Dynamics and Developments in Post-Socialist Regions

Chair: Gillian van der Have, Binghamton University

 

Neo-Titoism in the Age of the Hybrid War? 

Ian Mijael Zang, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

Central Asia: A Road or a Roadblock to Russia’s “Pivot Eastward?” 

Brandon Rickett, Bucknell University 

 
 

Mini Russia: Serbia’s Backslide from Democracy and the Implications on the Balkans

Amina Cecunjanin, Wesleyan University

 
 

Europe’s Last Dictatorship: Power and Protest in today’s Belarus

Natasha Gaither, Yale University

 
 

1:25-3:00  | Friday Session | Panel 3 of 3 in Weigle Teaching Seminar Room 

 

Soviet Legacies in Contemporary Post-Socialist Countries 

Chair: Roseline Gray, University of Pennsylvania

 

Finding the Words: Searching for ‘Truth’ in the Shadows of Soviet Past

Olive Coles, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

The Demise of Soviet Ballet in the Late 20th Century

Jacob Azzi, College of the Holy Cross

 
 

The Cosmopolitan “Land of Fire”: Symbolic Space, Soviet Legacy, and Post-Socialist Futurity in the Urban Architecture of Baku 

Sam Heimowitz, Yale University

 
 

Doctor or Vodka: The Best Cure 

Debby Armstrong, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

3:15-4:55 A special tour in the Penn Museum by REEESNe institution alums Lauren Ristvet (Associate Professor of Anthropology) and Sarah Linn (Associate Director of Academic Engagement) of the Museum's Cold War Spy Planes exhibit and of the Russian ethnographic and ancient (Scythian Maikop) collections.

 

5:15 | Dinner at the Biopond (Rain location is the 7th floor of Williams Hall)

 
 
 

Saturday, April 15th



 

8:30-9:00 | Breakfast in Golkin Room in Houston Hall

 

9:00-10:00  | Alumni Panel in Golkin Room in Houston Hall

 

Career Conversations: Graduates of REEESNe institutions speak about their REEES-related educational and professional paths

 

Elizaveta Mankovskaya, PhD, Princeton University; Associate Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Saint Joseph’s University

Spencer Willig, BA, University of Pennsylvania; Trial Attorney, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Aaron Schwartzbaum, BA, Haverford College; Columnist and Podcast Host, Foreign Policy Research Institute

 

10:30-11:45  | Saturday Session 1 | Panel 1 of 5 in the Pavilion

 

War in Ukraine 1

Chair: Jack Martorano, Fairfield University

 

Crushing Corruption of the Russian Legal System: How People Under an Autocracy Have Learned to Rebel

Presley Forrest, University of Massachusetts Amherst

 
 

Foreign Direct Investment & Russian Aggression: How the Kremlin Crashed the Economy 

Malachy Taplin, Clark University

 
 

Business Retreats and Sanctions Are Crippling the Russian Economy

Michal Wyrebkowski, University of Pennsylvania 

 
 

10:30-11:45 | Saturday Session 1 | Panel 2 of 5 in Kislak 626 

 

Insights into Agricultural Productivity and Land Grabbing: Exploring Historical and Contemporary Perspectives in Russia and Kazakhstan

Chair: Clare Walston, Franklin and Marshall College 

 

Modelling Institutional and Geographic Components of Russian Grain Productivity, 1856-1900

Elizaveta Brover, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

Kazakhstan's Land Rush: Dispossession from "Transition" to "Development" 

Mason Smith, Columbia University

 
 

10:30-11:45 | Saturday Session 1 | Panel 3 of 5 in Kislak 627

 

Identity, Culture, and Interpretation in Eastern European Literature

Chair: Grayson Hawthorn, Smith College

 

Victory Over the Sun: A Feminist Approach in Translating Eastern European Suprematist Texts

Victoria Avanesov, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

"A vision of ancient times": Interpreting Identity in the Shtetls of Babel's Red Cavalry Rosie Berman, Rutgers University

 
 

The Dragon Within: The Colluding Role of Culture in Evgeny Shvarts’ The Dragon 

Diana Gor, Hunter College

 
 

10:30-11:45  | Saturday Session 1 | Panel 4 of 5 in Kislak 628

 

Imperialist Aims and Totalitarian Tactics

Chair: Jason Seter, Columbia University

 

The Securitate: Social Workers of Totalitarian Romania

Max Annunziata, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

Holodomor and Asharshylyk (Aşarşylyq): Soviet man-made famines 

Nazerke Mukhlissova, Yale University

 
 

Debunking Russian translatio imperii - the Myth of “Moscow as the Third Rome” and the Role of Premodern Narratives in Russian Political Thought 

Roseline Gray, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

10:30-11:45  | Saturday Session 1 | Panel 5 of 5 in Weigle Teaching Seminar Room (4th floor)

 

Assessments and Analyses of Health and Education Data in Central Asia, Mongolia, and South Caucasus 

Chair: Adrien Mercat, Columbia University

 

Assessing Almaty Citizens' Attitudes and Behaviors through the Health Belief Model 

Alua Bekbossynova, Jessica McCurry, Kaliana Rae, Oyu-Erdene Ankhbayar, and Allen Wilson, Lehigh University

 
 

A Woman Must, First of All, Be Educated: A Comparative Analysis of the Reverse Gender Gap in Mongolian and Kyrgyz Higher Education 

Maggie Lindrooth, Yale University

 
 

Girls’ Literacy Rate in the South Caucasus Countries Before and After Independence. 

Gunel Alasgarova, The Pennsylvania State University

 
 

11:45-12:30 | Lunch in the Goldstein Lobby Space 

 

12:30-1:45 | Saturday Session 2 | Panel 1 of 5 in the Pavilion

 

Constructing Histories and Identities: Nationhood, Religion, and Minority Experiences in Post-Soviet Spaces

Chair: Teresa Esquivel, College of the Holy Cross

 

For Faith and For The Homeland: The Canonization of the Armenian Genocide Victims in the Armenian Apostolic Church 

Grayson Hawthorn, Smith College

 
 

Claims to Autochthony in Georgian Historical Discourses

Adrien Mercat, Columbia University

 
 

Looking Towards the Sun: Latvia’s Multicultural History and Future 

Julia Mohr, Bryn Mawr College 

 
 

12:30-1:45  | Saturday Session 2 | Panel 2 of 5 in Kislak 626 

 

Globalizing Communism: Soft Power, Artistic Exchange, and Migration in the Interwar and Cold War Eras

Chair: Mason Smith, Columbia University 

 

Negotiating ‘Soviet’ Mexico: How Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros Embodied and Debated Transnational Communism from the Soviet Union, 1925-1928

Mariluz Tejeda Leon, Yale University

 
 

Black October: the Migration of Black Americans to the Soviet Union During the Interwar Period  

Alice Volfson, Connecticut College

 
 

12:30-1:45  | Saturday Session 2 | Panel 3 of 5 in Kislak 627

 

Deconstructing Boundaries: Sentimentalism, Femininity, and Magic in Russian Literature

Chair: Catherine E. Fantuzzo, University of Pennsylvania

 

The Function of Sentimentalism in Nikolai Karamzin’s Prose 

Liam Phillips, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

Evolution of “the New Feminine” in Dostoevsky’s Major Novels 

Zora Vujovic, Williams College

 
 

Chekhov’s Sorceresses: An Evolution of Magic and Gender in Chekhov’s Work 

Nicole Gonik, Hunter College

 
 

12:30-1:45  | Saturday Session 2 | Panel 4 of 5 in Kislak 628

 

Cinematic Explorations of Existentialism and National Identity in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe

Chair: Madeline Muller, Bryn Mawr College 

 

Tracing Latvian National Identity in Early Films of the Riga School of Poetic Documentary

Samantha Bodamer, Hunter College

 
 

Necrorealism: Where Have Life, Death, and Resistance Met and Will it Meet Again? 

Arista Siebrits, Rutgers University

 
 

The Metaphysics of Abstraction in Ivan Maximov's 1990  Animation Sketchbooks 

Sophia Ampgkarian, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

12:30-1:45  | Saturday Session 2 | Panel 5 of 5 in Weigle Teaching Seminar Room (4th floor)

 

Unraveling Cultural Narratives: Art, Technology, and Humor in Changing Societies

Chair: Gunel Alasgarova, Pennsylvania State University

 

Out of Odesa: Yefim Ladyzhensky’s Life in Art 

Beatrice Voorhees, Connecticut College

 
 

Building Cybernetics: Andrei Ershov and the Siberian School

Danielle Wallner, Brandeis University

 
 

Laughter and Diversification: The Contemporary Role of Stand-Up Comedy in Croatia 

Jason Seter, Columbia University

 
 

2:00-3:15 | Saturday Session 3 | Panel 1 of 5 in the Pavilion

 

Tolstoy and Being Human: Reason, Expression, Identity

Chair: Liam Phillips, University of Pennsylvania

 

Use of Reason and Faith in Tolstoy’s Oeuvre 

Catherine E. Fantuzzo, University of Pennsylvania 

 
 

Coifs, Curls, and Chignons: Hairstyles as a Play on the Erotic in Anna Karenina

Madeline Muller, Bryn Mawr College

 
 

An Imperfect Art: Communication Within and Beyond the Verbal Realm in Tolstoy’s War and Peace 

Tova Tachau, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

2:00-3:15 | Saturday Session 3 | Panel 2 of 5 in Kislak 626 

 

Challenging Boundaries: Queerness, Identity, and Subversion in Post-Soviet Popular Culture

Chair: Maggie Lindrooth, Yale University

 

Decolonization in Post-Soviet Drag: Verka Serduchka in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest 

Ryan Hardy, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

Don’t Display the Gay: Reframing Queerness, Reclaiming Agency, and Resisting the Russian State in Children-404

Max Heimowitz, Yale University

 
 

Soviet Prison Tattoos: How has the Soviet Union affected Contemporary Russian Prison Tattoos? 

Clare Walston, Franklin and Marshall College

 
 

2:00-3:15 | Saturday Session 3 | Panel 3 of 5 in Kislak 627

 

Communist Theory, Ideology, and Practice

Rosie Berman, Rutgers University

 

New Women Grow Here: Nature as Future in Alexandra Kollontai and Yente Serdatzky's Post-Revolutionary Fiction

Grace Sewell, Swarthmore College

 
 

Flaws in a Historical Materialist Perspective Explored through Post-Socialism 

Jan Rossner, University of Pennsylvania

 
 

Communist Transcendence: A Dialectical Interpretation of Soviet Spiritual Cinema 

Daniel Blokh, Yale University

 
 

2:00-3:15 | Saturday Session 3 | Panel 4 of 5 in Kislak 628

 

Hidden Voices and Cultural Rebirth: Exploring Gender, Memory, and National Identity in Russian Imperial and Soviet Contexts

Chair: Beatrice Voorhees, Connecticut College

 

A Runaway Bride, a Great Escape, and a Scandal Erased From History 

Marlie Nist, College of the Holy Cross

 
 

Memories of Leningrad: The Erasure of Women's Experiences

Gillian van der Have, Binghamton University

 
 

Lightning-Sword and Blazing Steed under the Hammer and Sickle: The Rebirth of David of Sassoun in Soviet Armenia 

Diego Benning Wang, Princeton University

 
 

2:00-3:15 | Saturday Session 3 | Panel 5 of 5 in Weigle Teaching Seminar Room (4th floor)

 

War in Ukraine 2

Chair: Juila Mohr, Bryn Mawr College

 

The Evolution of Chechen Paramilitary Groups and their Involvement in the Ukraine-Russia war 

Lavinia Teodorescu, Harvard College

 
 

“My Bullets Are Words”: Language and Identity in Wartime Ukraine 

Thomasina Hare, Williams College 

 
 

Before and After Total War: The Evolution of Ukrainian National Identity

Viktor Lutsyshen, College of the Holy Cross

 
 

3:30-4:45 | Keynote Address in the Pavilion

 

Ethics and Biopolitics in Tolstoy

Justin Weir, Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Professor of Comparative Literature, Affiliate of the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Harvard University

 

4:45-5:30 | Dinner in the Goldstein Lobby Space