CREES NEWSLETTER the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
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SPRING 2020 THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS CREES NEWSLETTER The Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS _____________________________ From the Director CREES in Action Director’s Letter Hosting Civic Educators and Leaders from Georgia U.S. Russia Foundation Grant First Annual World Languages Fair Pages 2-3 Welcome to New REES M.A. Student Meet our Rising Stars and New Faculty Affiliate Fulbright Scholar Alexander Zhidchenko Pages 10-13 Laura Searcy, Fulbright ETA in Uzbekistan Pages 4-7 Our Community Faculty News and Updates In Memoriam Student and Alumni News BG John Reppert Become a CREES Donor Kenneth L. Smock Pages 14-16 Pages 8-9 CREES Team From the Director... It is my pleasure to wel- Director Vitaly Chernetsky come you back to a new Spring semester! We begin Assistant Director this new year with excit- Justyna Beinek ing news to share! CREES has won a prestigious grant Outreach Coordinator (nearly $100,000) for 2020 Lisa Giullian from the U.S. Russia Foun- dation, which will fund Office Manager many beneficial initiatives, Amanda Hill strengthen Russian Stud- ies at KU, and enhance and Applications Committee broaden our K-12 outreach and programming. (University of Northern Col- Peter Bobkowski Journalism and Mass Communications As part of the grant, CREES orado) based on his recent will offer four paid FMSO/ book, Map Men: Transnation- Mehrangiz Najafizadeh CREES Security Analyst in- al Lives and Deaths of Geog- Sociology ternships to students. We’ll raphers in the Making of East work collaboratively with oth- Central Europe. As part of the Executive Committee er Area Studies Centers to of- Palij lecture series, the New 2019-2020 fer an interdisciplinary series York-based award-winning of events connected by the Ukrainian writer Vasyl Makh- Chair theme of legacies of the Cold no presented his works of po- Vitaly Chernetsky War, including a scholarly etry and prose. Prof. Michael symposium. REES curricu- Gorham (University of Flori- Slavic lum will be enhanced through da) lectured on a timely topic, Ani Kokobobo new and redesigned Russia-fo- “Trolling, Power, and Politi- Renee Perelmutter cused interdisciplinary and cal Communication in Putin’s History team-taught courses. We aim Russia.” Prof. Kathleen Col- Nathan Wood to highlight the relevance of lins (University of Minnesota) Russian Studies in other disci- gave our final brownbag pre- Political Science plines and fields, develop new sentation on the rise of Islamist Robert Rohrschneider partnerships with Russian col- movements in Central Asia to leagues, and produce open-ac- a large audience. CREES also Library cess research publications and organized or co-sponsored Jon Giullian educational materials, sparking several key events with other renewed interest in Russian partners, including a reading Professional Schools Studies among students. by the widely acclaimed poet Marie-Alice L’Heureux Architecture, Design & Planning In terms of accomplishments, Ilya Kaminsky at the Law- we have much to celebrate. rence Public Library. At Large Our fall lecture series finished We wish to congratulate Alexander Diener strong, with good attendance Prof. Marc Greenberg on being Geography & Atmospheric Science for many events. We had our named Ambassador of Science first ever combined Backus/ by the Republic of Slovenia on Cienciała and Palij lecture, de- November 20, 2019. The U.S. livered by Prof. Steven Seegel embassy in Ljubljana also cited 2 CREES Wins Prestigious Grant from the U.S. Russia Foundation We begin this new year with exciting news! CREES has won a prestigious grant through the U.S. Russia Foundation ($100,000) for 2020, which will fund many beneficial initiatives, strengthen Russian Studies at KU, and en- hance and broaden our K-12 outreach and programming! Prof. Greenberg and the program and teaching interests span mod- Alexander Zhidchenko (Altai at KU for being one of the very ern and contemporary art in State University), a Fulbright few in the U.S. to teach Slovene. Africa and the Arab world, she scholar in the KU Department of We are grateful to Marc Green- also has a strong interest in the History, will give a brownbag lec- berg and Marta Pirnat-Green- Balkans. We also welcome Dr. ture titled, “Everyday Life of the berg for their dedication to build Bolesław Racięski (Jagiello- New Cities of the USSR and the Slovene studies at KU. nian University), a postdoctoral USA in the 1950s-60s.” On March We were thrilled to partic- scholar at KU’s Department of 24, Dr. Markian Dobczansky (Co- ipate in the World Languages Film and Media Studies in spring lumbia University) will deliver Fair on Oct. 19, hosted by the 2020. He will deliver a CREES a lecture titled “Sibling Rivalry: Open Language Resource Cen- brownbag lecture titled “Con- Ukraine and Russia in the Twen- ter, in collaboration with KU temporary Polish Cinema and Its tieth Century.” Area Studies Centers and KU Unexpected Rise to Prominence” CREES will also continue its International Affairs. During the on April 21. tradition of offerings highlight- event, 300 high school students We are truly honored to hear from ing film and other media from the explored world languages and Jarosław “Jarek” Piekałkiewicz, region we study. This semester cultures and discovered how in- professor emeritus of political we’ll screen an award-winning tercultural competence can en- science at KU and a member recent Ukrainian film,Volcano hance different fields of study. of the KU CREES community (2018). As part of our Palij Lec- CREES was honored to host since 1963, on the publication of ture series, on March 4 Stanislav an Open World Delegation of his long-awaited book about his Menzelevsky, head of the research civic educators and leaders from experience fighting the Nazis in Georgia on Sept. 6-14. During World War II Polish resistance their stay, the Georgian profes- fighter. The book presentation sionals collaborated with civic will take place on April 7. educators and leaders and ex- On January 28, please join us to changed ideas for improving celebrate the 2018 Nobel Prize civic education in schools and in Literature for the Polish prose promoting democracy and trans- writer, Olga Tokarczuk, an- parent government. nounced in fall 2019. During the We are pleased to welcome celebration, KU faculty and stu- a new graduate student, Timothy dents will read from Tokarczuk’s Skinner, a Foreign Area Officer, prose in English translation and and a new faculty affiliate of our watch clips from Tokarczuk’s center, Prof. Jessica Gerschultz, Nobel Prize award ceremony and an Islamic art specialist. While lecture from December 10, 2019 Prof. Gerschultz’s main research in Stockholm. On Feb. 4, Dr. continued on page 13... 3 Introducing Fulbright Scholar Alexander Zhidchenko Alexander Zhidchenko visits an exhibition of everyday life in the 1950s at the Johnson County Museum in Overland Park. In October, the KU Department of History wel- Nikita Khrushchev came to power in 1953. During comed Alexander Zhidchenko, a visiting Fulbright the Khrushchev “thaw,” after 1956, Khrushchev scholar from Russia. A native of Siberia, Zhid- had more opportunities to implement his hous- chenko holds degrees from Omsk State University ing policies. He said that every family needs an and Altai State University. For the last few years, apartment. Therefore, we need mass housing. In he has been employed by the Russian Associa- the 1930s and 1940s many people lived in com- tion of Women’s History Researchers in Moscow, munal apartments, which made daily life very a professional organization of several thousand difficult. During the 1950s and 1960s, new mass scholars in the fields of history, sociology, philol- housing was built in new spaces. They also built ogy and others. Zhidchenko’s research concerns new hospitals, new shops, and laundering ser- popular culture and daily life in new planned cit- vices in these new spaces. People who worked ies in the 1950s and 1960s, comparing Soviet and at the factories, schools, or shops nearby, were American communities. He will conduct research given an apartment for free. In Omsk, where I at KU through the first half of the spring semester. was born, there was an oil refinery built in the CREES visits with him to learn more about his re- 1950s. If we look at this era, we see two styles search. of architecture. During the late Stalin era, neo- CREES: Thank you so much for meeting today. classicism influenced the architecture or building Could you please tell me about your research? styles. The new blocks of housing that were built Zhidchenko: My research project consists of in the late 1950s and later were in a constructiv- three parts. The first focuses on the everyday life ism style, which was very economical. in the 1950s in the new planned cities in the Soviet CREES: How did the economic conditions and Union. housing needs change in the 1990s? 4 Zhidchenko: Beginning around 1994-1995, Arvada, Colorado; Garden City, Ohio, which was many factories closed – actually, almost all. In built in the 1950s; Artesia, California; and Levit- smaller cities where there’s only one main fac- town, New York. For example, in Levittown homes tory, the closing of a factory meant no jobs. were mass-produced to meet the demand for af- This was very difficult if you lived near a fac- fordable family housing for veterans, who returned tory that closed. In bigger cities, when a factory home from World War II. closed, many people could find other sources of For my third question, I will compare everyday income. I studied in Novosibirsk. Near this city, life in new urban areas in the United States and there was an area set aside for scientists, inside in the U.S.S.R.