Current Title VIII Scholars

Gary Guadagnolo

Research Scholar Program

Ph.D. Student, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Research Project Title: “Creating a Tatar Capital: National, Cultural, and Linguistic Space in Kazan, 1920-1941”

Host Country: Russia

Anna Matthiesen

Combined Research and Language Training Program

Ph.D. Student, New School for Social Research

Research Project Title: “Commodifying Civil Society: Domestic NGOs and Social Movement Markets in Serbia”

Host Country: Serbia

Dr. Linda McReynolds

Research Scholar Program

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Research Project Title: “Excavating Empire: Archeology and the "All-Russian Idea", 1846-1914”

Host Country: Russia

Rebecca Mueller

Combined Research and Language Training Program

Graduate Student. Indiana University

Research Project Title: “De-institutionalization and Family Caregivers in Albania”

Host Country: Albania

Katherine Peisker

Research Scholar Program

Ph.D. Student, Yale University

Research Project Title: “Parish Diplomacy: Russian, Habsburg, and Vatican Foreign Policy and the Greek Catholic Church”

Host Country: Russia/Ukraine

Antje Postema

Research Scholar Program

Ph.D. Student, University of Chicago

Research Project Title: “Trauma Narratives and the Politicized Past: Literature, Film, and Civil Society in Bosnia-Herzegovina”

Host Country: Bosnia

Rebekah Ramsay

Combined Research and Language Training Program

Ph.D. Student, Emory University

Research Project Title: “Socialist Vision, Civilizing Mission: Cultural Revolution in Early Soviet Kazakhstan, 1922-1941”

Host Country: Kazakhstan

Stephen Riegg

Research Scholar Program

Ph.D. Student, UNC - Chapel Hill

Research Project Title: “Claiming the Caucasus: Armenia in the Russian Empire, 1801-1894”

Host Country: Russia/Armenia

Dr. Christopher Whitsel

Research Scholar Program

North Dakota State University

Research Project Title: “Mapping the Education Market”

Host Country: Tajikistan

David Wilson

Research Scholar Program

Ph.D. Student, University of California-Los Angeles

Research Project Title: “Contemporary Music-Making in the Republic of Macedonia: Performing and Sustaining Alternative Nationalist Ideologies”

Host Country: Macedonia

Jennifer Zale

Research Scholar Program

Ph.D. Student, Indiana University

Research Project Title: “The Ban of the Imperial Theatres: Dance & Film in Prerevolutionary Russia”

Host Country: Russia

Title VIII Scholars 2012 - 2013

Dr. Steven Barnes
Research Scholar Program
Associate Professor of History and Director of Center for Eurasian Studies, George Mason University
Research Project Title: “The Wives' Gulag: The Akmolinsk Camp for Wives of Traitor to the Motherland”
Host Country: Russia/Kazakhstan

Daniel Beben
Research Scholar Program
Ph.D. Student and Associate Instructor, Indiana University
Research Project Title: “Sacred Narratives and Communal Identity among the Ismailis of Tajikistan, 1700 - 1924”
Host Country: Tajikistan

Khashayar Beigi
Research Scholar Program
Ph.D. Candidate, University of California - Berkeley
Research Project Title: “Islam and Poverty in Tajikistan: A View from Medical Grounds”
Host Country: Tajikistan

Elizabeth Bospflug
Combined Research and Language Training Program
Graduate Student, Yale University
Research Project Title: “How Muslims became Tatar, Turks, and Pan-Turkists: The Politics of Turkism
in the Soviet Union, Europe, and Turkey, 1914 - 1939”
Host Country: Russia

Dr. Denis Crnkovich
Southeast European Language Training Program
Professor of Russian Language and Literature, Gustavus Adolphus College
Croatian Language Study
Host Country: Croatia 

Dr. Helen Faller
Research Scholar Program
Independent Scholar
Research Project Title: “Kitchen Talk: Central Asian Women on History and Social Change”
Host Country: Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan

Dr. Victor Friedman
Research Scholar Program
Andrew W. Mellon Professor, University of Chicago
Research Project Title: “Language Contact in the Republic of Macedonia: A Balkan Model of Mutual Multilingualism”
Host Country: Macedonia

Claire Kaiser
Combined Research and Language Training Program
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Pennsylvania
Research Project Title: “Socialist in Form, National in Content: The Politics on Nationality in Soviet Georgia, 1938-1978”
Host Country: Georgia

Dr. Kimberly Kalaja
Southeast European Language Training Program
Associate Professor, California State University Dominguez Hills
Albanian Language Study
Host Country: Albania 

Isabelle Kaplan
Combined Research and Language Training Program
Graduate Assistant, University of Maryland
Research Project Title: “Culture and Politics in Soviet Turkic Republics: Canon-Building and National-Building under Stalin”
Host Country: Russia/Azerbaijan

Leonard Leid
Southeast European Language Training Program
Graduate Student, Indiana University
Macedonian Language Study
Host Country: Macedonia 

Kyle Marquardt
Research Scholar Program
Ph.D. Student, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Research Project Title: “Language Matters: Linguistic Identity and Ethnic Mobilization in Eurasia”
Host Country: Moldova/Russia

Jessica Mason
Combined Research and Language Training Program
Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Project Title: “Family Values, Feminism, and the Putin Generation: Discourse and Demographic Change in Russia”
Host Country: Russia

Dr. Tanya Merchant
Southeast European Language Training Program
Assistant Professor, University of California Santa Cruz
Bosnian Language Study
Host Country: Bosnia 

Dr. Laura Osterman
Research Scholar Program
Associate Professor, University of Colorado
Research Project Title: “Islamic Revival and Folk Revival among Rural Bulgarian Muslims in the Post-Communist Period”
Host Country: Bulgaria

Maria Rives
Research Scholar Program
Graduate Student, Yale University
Research Project Title: “Social Media and Political Engagement in Postsocialist Russia”
Host Country: Russia

Meagan Todd
Combined Research and Language Training Program
Teaching Assistant, University of Colorado
Research Project Title: “Examining Spaces of Faith in Russia's Capital: The Politics of Mosque Construction in Moscow”
Host Country: Russia

Kaitlyn Tucker
Southeast European Language Training Program
Ph.D. Student, University of Chicago
Serbian Language Study
Host Country: Serbia 

Dr. Thomas Wier
Combined Research and Language Training Program
Research Project Title: “The Linguistic Effects of Transhumance in the Eastern Caucasus: the case of Kist”
Host Country: Georgia

Ksenia Zanon
Southeast European Language Training Program
Ph.D. Student, Indiana University
Croatian Language Study
Host Country: Croatia 

Elizabeth Zherka
Combined Research and Language Training Program
Teaching Assistant, University of Washington
Research Project Title: “Building Human Security: The work of local women's organizations in Kosovo”
Host Country: Kosovo