Jordan Center Undergraduate Research Symposium

The NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia is excited to announce the second annual master’s research symposium and undergraduate research symposium!

The Undergraduate Research Symposium will feature presentations on a broad array of topics on panels chaired by leading scholars in the field. See the program below.

The symposium will be held in the Jordan Center at 19 University Place on the Second Floor. Non-NYU affiliates must RSVP to attend. This event will not be recorded or streamed on Zoom.

PROGRAM

10:00 – 11:15 AM – Discourses of Dominion: Narrative, Power, and Ideology in the Shadow of Conflict

1. Nika Cooper (Kenyon College) – Culture & Propaganda: POWs from the Russian Empire in Austro-Hungarian WWI Camps

2. Constantine Deng (New York University) – The Theory of the Permanent Revolution on Test: Chinese Trotskyism and the ‘Third’ Chinese Revolution

3. Anastasiia Frizner (George Washington University) – Hard Power Employment by Religious Institutions in Wartime: the Shifting Strategies of the Russian Orthodox Church After Invasion of Ukraine

4. Emily Karreman (West Chester University) – State-Building Aspirations and Reality: Forging a Path to Soviet Power in Central Asia

5. Sascha Rohde (Carleton College) – In Mute Witness: Constructing History from a Soviet Soldier’s Diary in East Prussia, 1945

Chair: Brandon Schechter (independent scholar)

Break: 11:15 – 11:20 AM

11:20 AM – 12:40 PM – From Silk Roads to Oil Rigs and Beyond: Navigating Geopolitical Gridlocks and Linguistic Labyrinths

1. Alec Bresler (Colgate University) – Roads, Stocks and Space: The Geopolitical Landscape of the New Silk Road

2. Anna Burnett (Defense Language Institute) – Analysis of Adjectives “Moldavian “and “Romanian” in Russophone and Romanian Language Press

3. Catalina Cabral-Framinan (University of Miami) – Oil and the City: The Absheron Peninsula and the Mexican Gulf Coast

4. Katie Groome (New York University) – The war in Ukraine and the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election: Analyzing the relationship between Gen-Z voters and policy surrounding Ukraine

5. Sofia Targon and Ksenia Vasilyev (United States Air Force Academy) – Bilateral Security Cooperation between Moldova and the United States

6. Elena Tiedens (University of Chicago) – Nuclear Nodes & Oil Flows: Nuclear Icebreakers in the Russian Arctic

Chair: Ion Marandici (Independent Scholar)

Lunch & Experiences Panel: 12:40 – 1:40 PM

1. Hugh Kane (Williams College) - NSLI-Y in Tajikistan: Six weeks experience in Central Asia

2. Victoria Siek (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) - The Holocaust in Radomsko, Poland: The Story of Frank and Lily Price

3. DaiGianna Williams (University of Illinois at Chicago) - Mitigating Digital Russian Influence in Ghana

1:40 – 2:55 PM – Unpacking Diaspora Dynamics from Warsaw to NYC: Stories of Immigration from the Mid-20th Century to the Present 

1. Rita Hope Craft (Muskingum University) – Unforgiven: Unveiling the Ahiska Turks’ Journey from Meskheti to the United States

2. Aida Krzalic (University of Chicago) – Online Diaspora Portals and Economic Development: The Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina

3. Olivia Krivitsky (New York University) – NYC Immigrant Experience: Intergenerational Trauma Driven By Soviet Union Collapse

4. Filip Matic (Grinnell College) – The Influence of Country’s Position towards Russia on the Treatment of Russian and Ukrainian Refugees, Migrants, and Asylum Seekers: A Comparative Study of Serbia, Hungary, and Poland

5. Asija Qyteza (Wesleyan University) – Under the Watchful Eye: Authority and Resistance – The Albanian Communist Regime’s Attempted Control of the Albanian Diaspora in the United States (1944-1991)

Chair: Irina Levin (Arizona State University)

Keynote: 2:55-3:55

Terrell Germaine Starr is a Brooklyn based foreign affairs reporter with over sixteen years of experience. He has covered U.S. domestic politics, racism, Eastern European affairs, among other topics, all with an emphasis on making news relatable to his audience. Terrell is the host of “Black Diplomats,” a podcast aimed at amplifying underrepresented voices in foreign policy, with a focus on Black and non-white experts. He has held significant roles as a national political correspondent at FUSION during the 2016 presidential campaign and later at The Root from 2017 to 2021. Terrell’s journalistic journey also includes substantial on-the-ground reporting, particularly during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, for major television networks such as CNN, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera.

3:55-5:15 PM – Reels, Rhymes, and Rebels: Cultural Currents From Soviet Cinema to Digital Memes

1. Charlotte Benchoff (Arizona State University) – Revolution and the Avant Garde: Connecting Early Soviet Film and the French New Wave

2. Jennifer Daria Hadawi (Reed College) – газель/غзл: Russian Silver Age Persophilia

3. Nina Gopaldas (Reed College) – Poet, Scribe, Exile: Poetic Identity in Olga Skopichenko’s Tubabao Poetry

4. Lana Marshania (New York University) – Of Hearts and Swords

5. Hannah Shane (Carnegie Mellon University) – Big Floppa: Russian Cat Meme or Future of Dissent?

Chair: Tatiana Efremova (Columbia University)