Graduate Student Associates 2009–10

Gregory Afinogenov, Ph.D. Candidate in History: 18th-Century Russia; intellectual and cultural history; the Enlightenment in Russia; intellectual links between Russia and Europe; Mikhail Lomonosov.

Joshua Woongki Ahn, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Soviet Korean artists; Korean life in Central Asia; presence of Russia, the US and China in Central Asia; minority policies of the FSU nations; foreign policies of the FSU nations.

Anna Aizman, Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature: Modern Russian and Czech literatures; post-structuralist theories; poetry and theater.

Mikhail Akulov, Ph.D. Candidate in History: The peasant commune in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; peasant resistance during the Civil War; State-formation during the Civil War; atamanshchina and organs of peasant self-rule.

Daniel J. Babinski, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Ethnic and religious unrest and mobilization in Russia, especially the North Caucasus.

Charles W. Bergen, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Nuclear proliferation and security; Russia's foreign policy in the former Soviet bloc and client states; contemporary Russian literature.

Oliver Bevan, Ph.D. Candidate in Government: Different inequalities in transition states and in relation to the political and economic environment.

Debra Caplan, Ph.D. Candidate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations: Jewish literature and culture in Eastern Europe, performance and identity, Yiddish art theater.

James C. Cheney, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: International security policy in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian regions; strategic military and economic cooperation between Russia and other actors.

Eric A. Ciaramella, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Government policy toward minority language groups; immigration and asylum policy; history of Soviet policy toward communist parties of Western Europe.

Johanna Conterio, Ph.D. Candidate in History: Constructing Soviet Paradise: Health Resorts, Environmental Medicine, and the Mobilization of Nature in the Proletarian State.

Devon Dear, Ph.D. Candidate in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies: Early modern Central Asian history, particularly Qing Xinjiang; Central Asian intellectual history; metropole-periphery relations.

Ujala Dhaka, Ph.D. Candidate in Social Anthropology: The Russian Orthodox Church, religious sovereignty, civil society, and democracy.

Melih Egemen, Ph.D. Candidate in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies: Comparative history of the 19th-century Russian and Ottoman empires.

Kerry Eickholt, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Russia's foreign policy relationship with Central Asia and beyond; peasant death in Russian realist literature.

Anders Engberg-Pederson, Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature: Epistemology and narrative in 19th-century Russian literature.

Ina Ganguli, Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy: Labor market issues in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, including wage inequality, gender differentials, and immigration.

Tatyana Gershkovich, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: 20th-century literature; Nabokov; Bely; late-Soviet-era literature and its influence on society; publishing practices in Russia and the Soviet Union; absurdist and dissident literature and writing.

Alexandre Gontchar, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: The shift from the visual to the conceptual mode in the plastic arts in the early 20th century; the Cubist revolution in the plastic arts as a factor in the evolution of the English and American poetic traditions; developmental and clinical psychology.

Sofiya Grachova, Ph.D. Candidate in History: Medicine, Politics, and Russian Jews (1860–1930).

Alexander M. Groce, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: Contemporary Society in Russia; 19th Century Literature; Czech Literature; The Borders of Russian Hegemony, Specifically in the Caucasus Region; The Development of 'European' Discourses in 18th- and 19th-Century Russia.

Sylvana Habdank-Kolaczkowska, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: The history of minority groups in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia and how it manifests in contemporary political dialogue.

Masha Hedberg, Ph.D. Candidate in Government: The institution-building process in Russia and the surrounding states, particularly Central Asia; the impact of corruption on socio-political and economic development in the region; the role of religion in the formation of national identities and civil society.

Philippa Hetherington, Ph.D. Candidate in History: Late 19th- and early 20th-century Russian and East European history; gender history and history of sexuality; history of Russian imperial borderlands in the 19th century; Russian and broader European intellectual history.

Seth Hindin, Ph.D. Candidate in History of Art and Architecture: East-Central Europe in the Middle Ages especially the Czech Republic, and Poland, ethnicity, historiography.

Thomas Hooker, Ph.D. Candidate in History: 20th-century Russia and the Soviet Union; friendship, everyday life, and the role of emotions in history; first person narratives; Central Asia.

Jennifer Howk, Ph.D. Candidate in Government: Comparative politics of communist and post-communist countries (particularly Cuba), including constructivist political economy, state development and institutional change, informal institutions and identity politics, party development and political competition, and paradoxical regime legitimacy and resilience.

Irina Ikonsky, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: The rise of the literary canon in 19th-century Russian and American literature; narrative theory; humor.

Simone Ispa-Landa, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology: Gender and family sociology.

Jakub Kabala, Ph.D. Candidate in History: Christianization, state formation, and trade in early medieval Slavdom, including Great Moravia, Kievan Rus, Poland and Bohemia; medieval Slavic traditions of hagiography and chronicle writing, as well as the region's relationships with the Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Papacy.

Mihaly Kalman, Ph.D. Candidate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations: Russian and Middle Eastern Jewish history.

Oleh Kotsyuba, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: Post-Soviet Russian and Ukrainian Literature; Ukrainian sotsrealism and modernism; feminist and gender studies.

Christina Krushen, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Trends in Jewish women's education in Pale of Settlement.

Victoria Levin, Ph.D. Candidate in Kennedy School Public Policy: Social policy, cash and in-kind transfers, health insurance.

Joseph Livesey, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Comparative study of Ukraine and other post-Soviet republics.

Danielle O. Longe, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: The Soviet legacy in post-socialist Russia and Eastern Europe; relations between Russia and Western Europe in the modern period.

Samuel Ludwig, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: 19th- and 20th-century Russian prose, late-19th- and 20th-century Russian classical music and musicians, the politics of culture in the Soviet Union, and changing cultures, traditions, and nationalism in the former Soviet Union.

Jeffrey Lugowe, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Labor migration and sexual minorities in the cases of Russia and Poland.

Aleksandra O. Makarova, Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics: Russian Phonology; Second Language Acquisition; Mongolian.

James N. Marsh, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Russian history, politics, and culture as they relate to business development, economics, and finance in postcommunist Russia.

Hiroaki Matsuura, Ph.D. Candidate in Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health: Constitution and health care system, health care financing and delivery in post-Soviet countries.

Oksana Mykhed, Ph.D. Candidate in History: History of the Russian Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th and 18th centuries; confessional relationships; popular movements and administration in the Ukrainian borderland.

Plamen Nikolov, Ph.D. Candidate in Health Economics : Microfinance; behavior and experimental economics; private equity in emerging markets; time inconsistency in inter-temporal decision-making; cognitive development; HIV/AIDS.

Ana Olenina, Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature: Representation of human subjectivity in early cinema and photography; study of gesture in visual arts and literature.

Mihaela Pacurar, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: Hybrid literary forms; eclecticism; the reception of Russian literature and cinema in satellite countries; almanacs and calendar-books; memoirs; French and Romanian literature.

Philipp Penka, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages Literatures.

Sabrina Peric, Ph.D. Candidate in Social Anthropology: Postwar reconstruction in Bosnia and Herzegovina; interethnic relations; diaspora, mobility and informal economies; primary resource extraction; industrialization and intellectual production; political economy; labour.

Maya Peterson, Ph.D. Candidate in History: Technologies of Rule: Empire, Water and the Modernization of Central Asia, 1870s–1930s; Late imperial Russia; Soviet Union; Central Asia; environmental history.

Jessica A. Peyton, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Intellectual and cultural histories of 19th- and 20th-century colonial empires; formation of ethnic identity; nationalism and frontier, Russian and Eurasian communities abroad.

Diana Y. Pilipenko, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Nation construction, national identity and "the national question", especially in Eastern Europe in first half of the 20th century (e.g., in Ukraine from 1917 to 1945).

Stephanie Plant, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Media analysis; advocacy for freedom of the press.

Maxim Pozdorovkin, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: The Silver Age of Russian Literature.

Andrei C. Roman, Ph.D. Candidate in Government: Leftist ideology in Eastern Europe; the impact of EU integration on corruption and clientelism; democratic consolidation in Romania; Moldovan communism; frozen conflicts.

Svetlana Rukhelman, Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature: 19th- and 20th-century narrative. Narrative structure and techniques, narrative theory. Cinema. Irony, satire, and the absurd. Cognitive approaches to literature and art. New Economic Criticism.

Zeyneb Hale Eroglu Sager, Ph.D. Candidate in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies: History of Islam in China.

Sasha Senderovich, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: Jewish literature and culture, particularly in Russian, East and Central European contexts; film; problems of historical memory; Soviet and post-Soviet periods; emigration and exile; comparative literature; Yiddish literature and culture in the Soviet Union; monuments and public memory.

Aleksandar Sopov, Ph.D. Candidate in History and Middle Eastern Studies: Ottoman and Balkan history.

George Soroka, Ph.D. Candidate in Government: The liberal deficit among new democracies in the post-communist world.

Eren Tasar, Ph.D. Candidate in History: social history; Islamic studies; ethnographic approaches to history; oral history; and shrine pilgrimage examined comparatively across religious traditions .

Michael Tworek, Ph.D. Candidate in History: Cultural and intellectual exchanges between Italy and East-Central Europe in the Early Modern period; the Renaissance in Eastern Europe; Renaissance humanism and ideas of nationality in Poland-Lithuania, German States, Ruthenia, and Hungary; History of Education; History of the Book and Print in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania .

Elizabeth A. Van Buren, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: The confluence of language, history, and literature, especially the influence of linguistic forms—primarily Russian—on other literary traditions.

Michael van Landingham, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: Soviet history; Brezhnev-era interventions in Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan.

Anya Vodopyanov, Ph.D. Candidate in Government: Democratization; economic development; state capacity and civil violence in post-communist states.

Olga Yurievna Voronina, Ph.D. Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures: 20th-century Russian émigré literature, including Vladimir Nabokov and Joseph Brodsky, and the influence of Soviet ideology on Russian children's literature in the 1930s and 40s.

Anna Weisfeiler, A.L.M. Candidate in International Relations: Holding Moscow Hostage: Russian Federation Response to Four Terrorist Incidents.

Jonathan Whitmore, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies–REECA: National identity politics among Finno-Ugric minorities in RFSFR; Siberia and its ethnographers; contemporary and historical Russo-Finnish relations, especially cultural linkages, perceptions of borders, and Karelian issues.

Yuri M. Zhukov, Ph.D. Candidate in Government: Comparative foreign and defense policy and political methodology, particularly spatial methods and text analysis.