CREEES Chronicle 2020-21

2020-21 

CREEES 

CHRONICLE 

An Annual Newsletter for 

the Center for Russian, East 

European and Eurasian 

Studies at Stanford University

IN THIS ISSUE 

4 Letter from the Director 

5 In the Spotlight: Capstone Research 

6 My Impactful Stanford Experience 

8 Faculty Publications 

10 45th Annual Stanford-Berkeley Conference 

12 SGS Internship Program 

15 Summer Research and Language Study Grants 

16 A Year in Events 

18 CREEES M.A. Class of 2021-22 

20 Community College Outreach 

22 Alumni Spotlight 

CREEES STAFF 

Amir Weiner 

Director 

Jovana Lazić Knežević 

Associate Director 

Nelia Lanets 

Student Services Officer 

Michael Breger 

Event and Communications Coordinator 

Noura Khaled 

Program Coordinator 

CREEES is part of the Stanford 

Global Studies Division (SGS). 

Photos from top to bottom: Stars on Tverskaya 

Street, Feast, Gloomy Petersburg Winter Palace. All 

photos taken in 2020 in Russia by Faith Harron ‘21. 

This issue of the CREEES Chronicle was designed by 

Michael Breger. 

CREEES Chronicle | 2020-2021 3

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR 

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CREEES, 

2020-2021 has been a year like no other all over the 

world, and CREEES was no exception. The COVID-19 

pandemic overshadowed the academic year and forced 

us to move entirely into a virtual mode of operation. And 

while the unavoidable price tag was the loss of in-person 

activities--the lifeline of the center’s teaching, lectures 

and conferences--we are proud of the way CREEES rose to 

the challenge. 

I will begin with thrilling news about two generous gifts 

that help the center establish long-term activities in core 

areas. The Helena Brandt Visiting Scholar Program will 

bring to Stanford an eminent scholar of East Europe who 

will deliver an annual public lecture and engage with 

affiliated students and faculty in seminars and workshops. 

A gift from Stanford alumnus Armen Panossian, ’99, will 

launch a new Armenian Studies Program that will anchor 

the center in the rich history, culture and politics of the 

country and its surrounding region. 

The transition to online events allowed for a significant 

increase of the number of events and expanded 

audiences from countries around the world. The 23rd 

Annual Alexander Dallin Lecture was delivered by 

Professor Eliot Borenstein, the recent recipient of the 

Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize, who talked about his 

new work, Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy 

after Socialism, and attracted huge online attendance. 

The center also continued the successful speaker 

series, “Modern Surveillance Regimes.” Erica Marat (The 

National Defense University) and Yevgenia Albats (Editorin-Chief 

of The New Times, Moscow) delivered superb 

lectures on electronic surveillance regimes in Eurasia 

and the enduring dominance of the political police from 

the late Soviet era to present-day Russia, respectively. 

The Annual Stanford-Berkeley conference returned 

and spanned two days, featuring graduate students’ 

presentations from both institutions. 

Several CREEES and Stanford alumni participated in 

events over the course of the year as well, running 

professional workshops for our M.A. cohort (Paul 

Stronski, B.S., Georgetown University, M.A., Ph.D. 

Stanford University; Ian McGinnity, B.A., Claremont 

McKenna College, M.A., Standord University), presenting 

recently published books (Kathryn Ciancia, B.A., 

University of Oxford, M.A., University College London, 

Ph.D., Stanford University; Sarah Cameron, M.A., 

Stanford University, Ph.D., Yale; and Pey-yi Chu, B.A., 

Stanford University, Ph.D., Princeton University), and on 

panels concerning current events in the region (see Paul 

Stronski on the massively attended forum on Nagorno- 

Karabakh, featured on p. 22 of this newsletter). 

Additionally, the center sponsored virtual internships 

for six students in Moscow, Lviv, Kyiv and Sarajevo (pp. 

10-11 of the current newsletter) and continued to actively 

participate in K-14 outreach as part of Stanford Global 

Studies (pp. 20-21). 

Despite challenges of COVID, our M.A. cohort was as 

robust and engaged as ever, focusing on a wide range 

of topics for their capstone projects. Their sense of 

community and connection clearly came through 

at the graduation celebration, where in addition to 

the students, faculty advisors and family members 

reflected on each student’s enriching and transformative 

experience of the program. 

With the resumption of in-person teaching this fall, we 

look forward to welcoming a robust and diverse cohort 

of 12 M.A. students into the program in 2021-2022. The 

commitment and fantastic performance of our faculty, 

staff, and alumni during these trying times reassure us 

that we can look forward with optimism and pride. 

Sincerely, 

Amir Weiner 

Director of CREEES 

4

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CAPSTONE RESEARCH 

The capstone thesis is a central component of the CREEES M.A. program, which allows students, under the close 

supervision of affiliated faculty members, to produce a work of original scholarship during their year in the program. 

Carly Seedall (M.A. ‘21) 

Divided in Exile: Cooperation among Tajikistani 

Opposition Members in the EU 

As part of the capstone project for the M.A. in Russian, 

East European, and Eurasian Studies, I hoped to 

explore the politics of Tajikistan, a country where 

I spent time as an undergraduate student, while 

contributing to the field of migration studies. I pieced 

together my project throughout my academic year at 

CREEES and developed my understanding of relevant 

theories and methodology through Stanford courses 

on the Sociology of Immigration and Qualitative 

Interviewing. 

who have sought asylum for political purposes, since 

they are members of several opposition groups that 

were outlawed by Tajikistan’s president starting in 

2015. After reading about a 2018 coalition formed 

between four EU-based Tajikistani opposition groups, I 

wanted to understand whether members of the EUbased 

opposition with different political visions may be 

cooperating due to their shared position as Tajikistanis 

in exile. 

After conducting ten remote semi-structured interviews 

with Tajikistani exiles in Germany, Austria, Poland, 

and the Netherlands, I learned that the transnational 

repression tactics employed by Tajikistan’s government 

have greatly hindered cooperation among this group of 

migrants, trumping the mechanisms that may promote 

cooperative behavior. I am thankful for the openness 

and bravery of my interviewees, who shared their 

experiences of fleeing from their homeland, adjusting 

to life abroad, and hopes for political freedom in their 

country, and was honored to be able to elevate their 

voices. 

With the support of the Stanford Global Perspectives 

Award, I was able to work on a personally meaningful 

project and was able to hire an interpreter to help with 

the interviews (as an intermediate student of Russian, 

my interpreter’s help was crucial in minimizing the 

language gap between me and the interviewees) and 

use a better-quality automated transcription service to 

organize and clean up my data. Having an opportunity 

to work with refugees and in research also inspired me 

to search for jobs in this field. 

Though most migrants from Tajikistan live and work 

in the Russian Federation, there is a small but growing 

group of Tajikistani migrants in the European Union 

Upon completing her degree, Carly Seedall secured 

a position as a research assistant on Migration and 

Displacement Pillar at Samuel Hall, supporting 

development projects in Afghanistan, South and 

Central Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. 


MY IMPACTFUL 

STANFORD 

EXPERIENCE 

Despite the challenges of distance learning, studying at CREEES has been an 

enriching experience. From realist literature to Soviet economics to Russian 

politics, each quarter brought new insights. It has been an honor to work 

alongside such an incredible cohort of students and faculty. It was fun getting 

to know you, learning about your research, and being challenged by your 

perspectives. My sincere thanks to all of you. 

CREEESniki are a tight-knit group within an already homely field. I am confident 

that we will cross one another’s paths again someday. For that reason, 

this reflection ends not with “do svidaniya,” but “poka!” 

Jasmine Alexander-Greene 

I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to study at CREEES. Engaging 

with topics ranging from Soviet history to Russian realism and the literary 

avant-garde to technological innovation in Russia was an enriching experience, 

and I was glad to do it in such a stimulating and diverse environment. I 

am thankful for the CREEES team’s support, encouragement, and willingness 

to help and for the faculty members who helped feed my intellectual curiosity 

and dedicated their time to making me a better scholar. My classmates were 

also crucial to my Stanford experience, and I appreciate the new perspectives 

they helped me come to see. 

Zachary Cowan 

I am deeply grateful for the myriad opportunities and experiences provided to 

me at CREEES. I was able to study a diverse array of topics in my courses, from 

Russian history and poetry to three different Slavic languages. The Friday 

seminars gave me amazing access to experts from across the world who 

presented about fascinating research and invigorating themes. 

I am also endlessly thankful to the wonderful people that made my journey 

possible: my many knowledgeable professors; Gabriella Safran and Yuliya 

Ilchuk, who made my Capstone Project possible; and Jovana Knežević, Nelia 

Rodriguez, Michael Breger, and Professor Amir Weiner, who worked tirelessly 

to keep the program running. 

Steven Newman 

6 6

Students, family, friends, faculty, and staff gathered to celebrate the CREEES M.A. Class of 2021 on Zoom. Graduates 

shared anecdotes about the challenges posed by remote learning and expressed gratitude for their mentors. 

In the process of writing my M.A. thesis, which considers 

the symbolic, synesthetic, and interactive potential of 

sacred architecture, I was fully reoriented in my approach 

to learning, exploring, and connecting in an academic 

context. I learned that a space achieves completion 

only once it is filled by human presence, and that the 

direction and nature of the motion, gaze, and desire of 

the visitor can fundamentally transform architectural 

reality. It is the same significance of human charisma, 

and of choosing the right perspective, that really marked 

my CREEES experience. Once I allowed myself to look 

around freely, and once I opened up to the invaluable 

input and support from my professors and colleagues, 

I found confidence and inspiration that I can take into 

my post-graduation future. I am immensely thankful 

to Jovana Knežević, Nelia Rodrigez and Amir Weiner, 

who mapped out our journey, to Zhenya, Rima and my 

amazing cohort, who turned our shared virtual space into 

a home, and, of course, to my mentor Bissera Pentcheva, 

who continues to orient my learning and fascination in 

the most constructive way. 

CREEES made me an enthusiastic and well-rounded 

student of Russian, East European, and Eurasian 

studies. With the help of my advisors, I explored my 

interests in Central Asia and migration by 

conducting interviews for my capstone project. I 

made leaps and bounds with my Russian with the 

help of the ever-positive Rima Greenhill and 

grasped Soviet history and realist literature with 

Amir Weiner and Gabriella Safran. I was also 

encouraged to take classes in sociology and history. 

My professors, cohort, and the entire Stanford 

community inspired me and pushed me to grow. I 

am amazed and grateful, especially considering the 

challenges of remote learning this year. 

Carly Seedall 

Sanja Savić 


FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 

Ewa Domańska 

“Unbinding from Humanity: Nandipha Mntambo’s 

Europa and the Limits of History and Identity.” 

Journal of the Philosophy of History, vol. 14, no. 3, 

2020: 310–336. 

“The Paradigm Shift in the Contemporary Humanities 

and Social Sciences,” in: Philosophy of History: Twenty- 

First-Century Perspectives, ed. Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen. 

Oxford, London, New York: Bloomsbury, 2020: 180- 

197. 

Katherine Jolluck 

“Introduction,” 

Journey into the 

Land of the Zeks 

and Back, Julius 

Margolin, trans. 

by Stephanie 

Hoffman (New 

York: Oxford 

University Press, 

2020), pp. xix-lix. 

Ewa Domańska, Jacek Małczyński, Mikołaj Smykowski 

& Agnieszka Kłos, “The Legacies of the Holocaust 

Beyond the Human and Across a Longer durée (In 

Response to Omer Bartov, Eric Katz and Jessica 

Rapson)”, Journal of Genocide Research, 2021. 

Lazar Fleishman 

«Из пастернаковской переписки. События 

нобелевских дней глазами брата» in: 

Unacknowledged Legislators: Studies in Russian 

Literary history and poetics in Honor of Michael 

Wachtel. Ed. by Lazar Fleishman, David M. Bethea, 

and Ilya Vinitsky (Stanford Slavic Studies. Vol. 50) 

(Berlin: Peter Lang Verlag, 2020), pp. 713 – 856. 

Pavle Levi 

Minijature - o 

politici filmske slike 

(Zagreb, MAMA, 

2021) 

Gregory Freidin 

“Caught between epigram and ode: How 

Mandelstam’s balancing act under Stalin ended in the 

Gulag,” TLS, 11 Dec. 2020. 

8

Michael McFaul 

“How Biden Should Deal With Putin,” Foreign Affairs, 

June 14, 2021. 

“Cold War Lessons and Fallacies for US-China Relations 

Today,” The Washington Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Winter 

2020), pp. 7–39. 

Bissera 

Pentcheva 

Icons of Sound: 

Voice, Architecture 

and Imagination 

in Medieval Art, 

(Routledge, 2020) 

“Putin, Putinism, and the Domestic Determinants of 

Russian Foreign Policy,” International Security, Vol. 45, 

No. 2 (Fall 2020), pp. 95-139. 

“Trying to pry Russia away from China is a fool’s errand,” 

The Washington Post, July 21, 2021. 

“How we should measure the success of Biden’s summit 

with Putin,” The Washington Post, June 3, 2021. 

“The Joe Biden most Americans don’t get to see,” 

The Washington Post, October 24, 2020. 

Norman Naimark 

“Introduction,” 

485 Days at 

Majdanek: 

Memoirs of Jerzy 

Kwiatkowski, 

(Stanford, Hoover 

Institution Press, 

2020): 1-35. 

(With Jovana 

Knežević), 

“Serbia, Russia, 

and the New 

Great Game,” 

Hoover Digest, 

fall 2020: 88-98. 

“Norman M. Naimark on Learning the Scholar’s Craft,” 

H-Diplo, essay 284, October 30, 2020. 

“Yugoslavia in the Cold War: Afterword,” Breaking Down 

Bipolarity: Yugoslavia in the Cold War, ed. Martin Previsic 

(Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021): 269-278. 

Kathryn Stoner 

Russia 

Resurrected: Its 

Power and Purpose 

in a New Global 

Order (Oxford U 

Press, 2021) 

“The US 

Should Stop 

Underestimating 

Russian Power,” 

Wall Street 

Journal, December 

24, 2020. 

NBC News, 

“With Navalny in 

Danger, Do Biden’s 

Sanctions Really 

Mean Anything?” 

April 19, 2021. 


45TH ANNUAL 

STANFORD- 

BERKELEY 

CONFERENCE 

New Perspectives Across the 

Disciplines on Russia, Eastern 

Europe and Eurasia 

April 9 & April 16, 2021 

Every year for the past four 

decades, Stanford’s CREEES and 

Berkeley’s ISEEES have jointly 

organized a one-day conference 

focused on Slavic, East European 

and Eurasian studies, with 

presentations by faculty and 

visiting scholars and each campus 

alternating as host. 

While last year’s conference had 

to be cancelled, this year’s twoday 

online conference showcased 

the research being conducted 

by graduate students of both 

universities. 

CONFERENCE PROGRAM 

Welcome and Opening Remarks 

John Connelly, Director, Institute of Slavic, 

East European, and Eurasian Studies; 

Professor of History, University of California, 

Berkeley 

Panel One 

Chair: George Breslauer, Executive Vice 

Chancellor and Provost, Emeritus, UC 

Berkeley; Professor of the Graduate School, 

Political Science, UC Berkeley 

Policing the Political Police: Transforming 

Ordinary Men into Model Chekists After the 

Great Terror 

Alexandra Sukalo, History, Stanford 

University 

Yanukovych’s Forefathers: The Soviet Dachas 

of Mezhyhirya 

Sierra Nota, History, Stanford University 

Documenting Soviet Cities: Film, the Soviet 

Periphery, and Labor in Soviet Kulturfilm 

Filip Sestan, Slavic Languages & Literatures, 

UC Berkeley 

Panel Two 

Chair: Amir Weiner, Director of the Center for 

Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies; 

Associate Professor of Soviet History, Stanford 

University 

Bringing Up Nation: Soviet ‘Ideo-Political 

Upbringing Work’ in the Baltics, 1940-41 

Kristo Nurmis, History, Stanford University 

‘Comrade Krushchev speaks that no religion 

is forbidden’: Religious Life of Deported 

Ethnic Minorities in Soviet Central Asia 

Agnieszka Smelkowska, History, UC Berkeley 

Mankurts and Moderns: Ethnicity as 

Authenticity for and against the State in 

South Africa and the Soviet Union 

Hilary Lynd, History, UC Berkeley 

Alexandra Sukalo 

Sierra Nota 

Kristo Nurmis 

10 10

Hans Lueders 

Alina Bykova 

Jiyoung Hong 

Chair: Kathryn Stoner, Deputy 

Director, Freeman Spogli 

Institute for International 

Studies; Senior Fellow, Freeman 

Spogli Institute for International 

Studies, Stanford University 

A Little Lift in the Iron Curtain: 

Emigration Restrictions and the 

Stability of Closed Regimes 

Hans Lueders, Political Science, 

Stanford University 

‘The Last Berlin Wall[s] in 

Europe’: Memory, Memorials, 

and Division in Mostar and 

Belfast 

Blaze Joel, History, UC Berkeley 

Subnational Consolidation 

in Single-Party Dominant 

Regimes: Evidence from 

Hungarian Mayoral Elections 

Matthew Stenberg, Political 

Science, UC Berkeley 

APRIL 16 

Panel Four 

Chair: Harsha Ram, 

Professor of Slavic 

Languages and Literatures 

and Comparative Literature, 

UC Berkeley 

Gothic Light in ‘The Island of 

Bornholm’ 

Jiyoung Hong, Slavic 

Languages & Literatures, 


Literary Ventriloquism: A 

Dialogue Between Framing 

and Framed Narrative 

in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s 

History of a Town 

Byungsam Jung, Slavic 



Transplants and Talking 

Heads: Montage and 

Monstrosity in Bulgakov’s 

Heart of a Dog and Belyaev’s 

Science Fiction 

Jillian Costello, Slavic 



Byungsam Jung 

Jillian Costello 

Panel Three 

Panel Five 

Chair: Alexei Yurchak, Professor 

of Anthropology, UC Berkeley 

White Melody, Red Lyrics: 

An Imperial-Soviet Musical 

Palimpsest 

Ryan Gourley, Music, UC 

Berkeley 

The Development of a Soviet 

Encyclopedic Language 

Michael Coates, History, UC 

Berkeley 

The Two Arctics: Soviet 

Environmental Subjectivities 

and Socialist Realism in the Far 

North 

Alina Bykova, History, Stanford 

University 

Panel Six 

Chair: Robert Crews, 

Professor of History, Stanford 

University 

Yemelyan Pugachev, 

Catherine II, and Two 

Conceptions of Sovereignty 

Thomas Lowish, History, UC 

Berkeley 

Solidarity and Survival in an 

Ottoman Borderland: The 

Jews of Edirne, 1912-1918 

Jacob Daniels, History, 


Jacob Daniels 


SGS INTERNSHIP PROGRAM 

Carlson Marquez (‘23, Human Biology) & Ian Ruohoniemi (‘22, Mathematics) 

Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) 

Moscow, Russia 

Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT as a private educational institute, Skoltech 

is cultivating a new generation of researchers and entrepreneurs, promoting advanced 

scientific knowledge and fostering innovative technology. Interns join an ongoing 

research project at one of the numerous Skoltech research centers or labs, which 

corresponds to their university major and academic interests, working together with 

local Masters’ and Ph.D. students under the guidance of the principal investigator. 

Carlson Marquez 

Carlson worked in the Bazykin Lab, conducting research on cancer mutagenesis: “It was 

a really interesting experience to see how science is so universal throughout different 

parts of the world. I was able to meet different scientists from Harvard, MIT, and different 

institutions in Russia during journal clubs that investigated mutagenesis projects. It has 

inspired me to become an oncologist one day and help patients from different cultural 

and socioeconomic backgrounds.” 

Ian worked on a paper on solar innovation, researching environmental issues in 

photovoltaic production and disposal: “Although I’m a senior majoring in mathematics, 

I’m also very interested in Russian language and culture as well…thus I was very 

thankful for an opportunity to bring my technical and linguistic interests together in a 

single project.” 

12 

Ian Ruohoniemi 

Sanja Savic 

Sanja Savic (REEES MA, ‘21) 

Lviv UNESCO City of Literature (UNESCO Creative Cities Network) 

Lviv, Ukraine 

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote 

cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for 

sustainable urban development. Established in 2016, the Lviv office runs a wide range 

of projects to support cultural development in the city and state, reflect the diversity 

and richness of the world’s languages and literatures, as well as promote the value of 

dialogue and freedom of speech. 

“My project was dedicated to celebrating the literary legacy of Lviv. As I prepared a 

presentation on Stanislaw Lem, a famous author of science fiction best known for his 

1961 novel Solaris, I came to reflect on the relativity of travel and immobility. Although 

Stanislaw Lem, native to 

Lviv, spent years behind the Iron Curtain, his word traveled to reach the welcoming 

embrace of more than forty languages. I believe that the cross-national reality of my 

work, which circulated between Lviv, Palo Alto, New York, and, in the last stretch, 

Belgrade (my home town) reflected quite beautifully the values that my project, and 

UNESCO at large, strive to celebrate.”

Helynna Lin (‘21, Slavic Languages and Literatures) 

The Centre for Civil Liberties (CCL) 

Kyiv, Ukraine 

The Centre for Civil Liberties was established 

in 2007 to promote the values of human rights, 

democracy and rule of law in Ukraine and 

Eurasia to reinforce the principle of human 

dignity. The organization is developing 

legislative changes, exercises public oversight 

over law enforcement agencies and judiciary, 

conducts educational activities for young 

people, monitors political persecution in 

occupied Crimea, documents war crimes in 

Donbas and implements international solidarity 

programs. 

Helynna Lin 

Interns prepare analytical documents on 

human rights issues, rule of law, and civil society in Ukraine. Interns participate in the 

organization and holding of public events of the organization (human rights clubs, 

film screenings about human rights, expert round tables, etc.). 

Makayta Alexia Cole (‘23, International Relations) & 

Forrest Alden Dollins (‘22, Psychology) 

Post-conflict Research Centre (PCRC) 

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina 

CREEES 

partners with 

the Stanford Global 

Studies Internship 

Program to provide 

opportunities for students 

to gain work experience in a 

variety of different fields with 

organizations throughout the 

region. 

Despite the uncertainty of 

the 2020-21 academic year, 

students continued to develop 

their professional skills 

through virtual internships. 

Navigating the challenges 

of time zones and building 

community online, the 

students had edifying 

academic and 

professional 

experiences. 

Forrest Alden Dollins 

Post-conflict Research Centre is an NGO whose mission is to cultivate an 

environment for sustainable peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the 

greater Balkans region using creative multimedia projects and scientific research 

that foster tolerance, moral courage, mutual understanding, and positive 

change. More broadly, PCRC is committed to fostering a society where diversity 

is a basis for prosperity rather than a source of conflict and where human rights 

are respected. Under the guidance of Professor Sabina Cehajic-Clancy, interns 

contribute to PCRC’s ongoing research initiatives aimed at bolstering knowledge 

of successes and failures in the field of peacebuilding and reconciliation. 

“Working at the PCRC showed me the various opportunities that are available in 

the world of social impact. I learned so many skills pertaining to data analysis and 

collection that I will be able to apply to other industries and my overall career in 

the future.” - Makayta Cole 

Makayta Alexia Cole 

“I conducted literature reviews of social psychological research, specifically diving 

into the impact that moral exemplars have on enhancing outgroup perceptions 

in an intergroup conflict context. I also looked into the antecedents and 

consequences of common ingroup identity for an intergroup conflict context…I 

learned about the factors that help people to see others as part of their own 

ingroup, as well as the positive consequences that that psychological shift can 

have.” - Forrest Dollins 


Harry Bernholz (’23, Economics) 

Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University 

of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia 

The Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the 

University of Tartu combines top-level scholarly research with 

a dynamic, international learning environment at all three 

levels of higher education. With over 430 students and about 

20 academic staff members, the institute is one of the most 

international units of the University of Tartu, both in terms of 

staff and students and it is ranked as one of top three political 

science departments in the new member states of the 

European Union (QS University Ranking by Subject 2019). 

sales: “I appreciate[d] the international aspect of the job. I 

enjoy working with a startup in a different part of the world, 

learning a little more about their culture…Working with 

TechHub and Hackmotion has introduced me to the world of 

international business and marketing...I have gained skills 

that are transferable to almost all jobs, especially in our 

increasingly digital world.” — Nora Brew 

Barbara Sanford (’23, International Relations) & 

Michael Carragee (’24, International Relations & 

History) 

The Museum of Occupations and Freedom VABAMU / SA 

Kistler Ritso Eesti, Tallinn, Estonia 

“I worked under Dr. Viacheslav Morozov. Our work focused 

on exploring Soviet national identity and literature from the 

1960s and 70s. I edited reports from research on two decades 

of Soviet National Identity databases. The most significant 

thing I learned was proper citation and research practices, 

especially in historical research. I also gained experience 

with translation and comparing texts in Russian and English, 

and supported the University of Tartu Conference on Russian 

and East European Studies.” — Harry Bernholz 

Laura Bocek (’24, International Relations & Computer 

Science) & Nora Brew (’24, International Relations) 

TechHub Riga, Riga, Latvia 

Barbara Sanford 

Michael Carragee 

The Museum of Occupations and Freedom VABAMU, 

founded in 1998, collects, studies and presents the history 

of the occupations of Estonia 1939–1991, the resistance 

movement and the return of independent statehood. 

Interns worked on editing interviews with Estonians 

about the German and Soviet occupations as well as 

descriptions of objects from the museum; conducting 

archival research on the Welles Declaration, a key 

document for U.S.-Baltic relations; and designing a plan 

for a Stanford Spotlight digital exhibition. 

Laura Bocek 

Nora Brew 

TechHub Riga is the first startup co-working space in Riga, 

Latvia, and the center of the startup community in Latvia and 

a global community for tech entrepreneurs. 

“I had an amazing experience where I got to witness the 

fast-paced environment of a startup engaged in agile 

development. I learned about the difficulties of running 

a startup, getting funding, and the defense contracting 

process. I gained experience that for most people my age 

would be inaccessible.” — Laura Bocek 

Nora worked with Hackmotion Sport Technologies on their 

advertising and online presence and collecting data on 

“My daily work was fascinating and meaningful, allowing 

me to explore my historical interests through archival 

research and learn about the operations of the museum. 

The other intern and I designed an upcoming digital 

exhibition targeted at Stanford students and affiliates. 

Leveraging my perspective as an American student with 

international interests was especially important as we 

oriented our content towards an American audience.” 

— Barbara Sanford 

“I helped research US policy toward the Baltic States and 

created an outline for an exhibit on the Soviet occupation 

of Estonia for Stanford Libraries. I learned a great deal 

from [my supervisor] and made great improvements to 

my research and communication skills.” 

— Michael Carragee 

14

SUMMER RESEARCH & LANGUAGE STUDY GRANT RECIPIENTS 

Maciej Patryk Kurzynski 

Ph.D., Chinese 

CREEES Summer Language 

Grant (2020) 

Thanks to the generous support of 

the Center for Russian, East European 

and Eurasian Studies, I was able to attend 

an intensive Russian online course offered by the ProBa 

Russian Language Centre. It was a wonderful opportunity 

for me to practice my Russian with a native speaker and to 

learn more about the culture of Saint Petersburg, the city 

where my instructor Natalia lived. Since the classes took 

place every day, five days per week, I saw rapid improvement 

and was able to hold long conversations just after a 

few weeks of classes. More importantly, given my interest 

in the culture and society of the Soviet Union, the CREEES 

grant allowed me to learn more about Russia’s modern 

history and to understand the Russian perspective on the 

long 20th century. Besides, Natalia would share with me 

articles and videos about important Russian festivals, contemporary 

music, and social transformations taking place 

in modern Russia, including such phenomena as feminism 

and digitalization (цифровизация). After the pandemic 

ends, I hope to visit Saint Petersburg in person! 

Emilia Anna Porubcin 

History, Minor in Computer 

Science 



In the summer of 2020, I studied Russian 

at Indiana University’s intensive 

language workshop. Besides meeting dear friends whom 

I’ve since visited in person around the US, I strengthened 

my Russian to the extent that I was able to use Russian-language 

documents to write my thesis. In my study 

of queer subjectivity in the early Stalinist Soviet Union, 

I relied on primary sources to learn how individuals 

from the time period understood both themselves and 

the world around them. I was able to personally engage 

with my historical documents despite the distanced and 

distancing consequences of remote research. As I prepare 

to begin law school this fall, I am continuing to learn 

Russian in the hopes of extending my study of modern 

history in Russia and Eastern Europe. I’m hoping to learn 

Czech and Slovak next! 

Kristo Nurmis 

Ph.D., History 

Summer Research Grant (2020) 

“Totalitarian Nation-Building. 

Legitimation 15 and Mass Mobilization 

in the Soviet and German 

Occupied Baltic States, 1940–53.” Palo Alto, CA 

I was awarded the CREEES Summer Grant 2020 at 

the outset of the Covid pandemic. What was intended 

to be a research grant for archival research 

in Latvia and Lithuania became a writing grant 

to work on my dissertation here at Stanford. The 

generous CREEES Summer Grant was incredibly 

helpful in supporting my writing over the summer. 

I have a family with two small kids, and the grant 

contributed immensely to maintaining my work 

routine without financial difficulties through the 

2020 lockdown. 

15 

Stu McLaughlin 



Global Studies through CREEES 

was an invaluable opportunity to 

make the most of an extensive network 

of expertise during my master’s program. During the 

summer of 2020, Global Studies provided a research 

grant to participate in the Central Eurasian Studies 

Summer Institute through the University of Wisconsin 

Madison. With CESSI, I attended daily intensive 

Uyghur language classes and engaged with a wide 

breadth of materials to expound the cultural elements 

of language use as well as the finer details of 

ancient and modern elements that influence literature 

and identity in a variety of contexts. Advanced 

proficiency in the Uyghur language is an indelibly 

strong component of my research concerning multilingualism 

and its impact on identity for the Turkic 

peoples of Central Asian spaces. CREEES strengthened 

my academic and professional background 

with the discipline-specific and practical research 

skills necessary to continue my pursuits as a doctoral 

researcher and philologist. 


A YEAR IN EVENTS 

Highlights from 2020-2021 

Modern Surveillance 

Regimes Speaker Series 

This year, CREEES hosted a 

series of scholars who analyzed 

the evolution, functions, 

structures and consequences 

of surveillance, policing, and 

information gathering in the 

modern era. 

Evgenia Albats 

Journalist 

Institutional Persistence: The Role of 

the Political Police in the USSR and 

Present Day Russia 

Erica Marat 

National Defense University 

Technological Solutions for Complex 

Problems: Emerging Electronic Surveillance 

Regimes in Eurasia 

23rd Annual Alexander Dallin Lecture 

Eliot Borenstein 

New York University 

Plots Against Russia: The Uses of Conspiracy 

After the Soviet Collapse 

John Connelly 

University of California Berkeley 

From Peoples Into Nations: 

A History of Eastern Europe 

16

Yugosplaining and Beyond 

Aleksandar Hemon, Princeton University 

Aida A. Hozić, University of Florida 

Nita Luci, University of Prishtina 

Francine Hirsch 

University of Wisconsin-Madison 

Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: 

A New History of the International 

Military Tribunal after WWII 

Born of the “Yugosplaining” project from 

Summer 2020 when 30+ scholars, authors 

and artists from (former) Yugoslavia, shared 

their experiences of state dissolution, war, 

genocide and exile on “The Disorder of 

Things” blog, speaking about the present 

from an unresolved past. 

Kathryn Ciancia 

University of Wisconsin-Madison 

On Civilization’s Edge: A Polish 

Borderland in the Interwar World 

Roundtable: 

“The Nagorno-Karabakh 

Crisis: Global, Regional and 

Domestic Perspectives” 

Robert Crews 


Nona Shahnazarian 

The Institute of Archeology and 

Ethnography, National Academy 

of Sciences, Yerevan, Armenia 

Paul Stronski (M.A. ‘97) 

Carnegie Endowment for 

International Peace, Russia and 

Eurasia Program 

Dominique Kirchner Reill 

University of Miami 

The Fiume Crisis: Life in the 

Wake of the Habsburg Empire 

Pey-Yi Chu 

Pomona College 

The Life of Permafrost: A 

History of Frozen Earth in 

Russian and Soviet Science 

Bojana Videkanic 

University of Waterloo 

Nonaligned Modernism: 

Socialist Postcolonial Aesthetic 

in Yugoslavia, 

1945-1985 

Dean Vuletic 

University of Vienna 

Eurovision and Intervision: 

The Politics of Europe’s Song 

Contests 

Andrey Kurkov 

Novelist 

From Violence to Vaudeville: 

How War Has Brought 

Comedians to Power 

Vitaly Chernetsky 

University of Kansas 

Heterotopic Dreams: 

Yuri Andrukhovych’s Essayistic 

Project and Its Evolution 


CREEES M.A. CLASS OF 2021-2022 

Alexa Black graduated from the University of California Los Angeles with a double major in 

History and English Literature and a minor in Russian Language. As an undergraduate, she 

completed a semester at University College London and an immersive Russian program with 

American Councils in Almaty, Kazakhstan. In 2020 she was awarded a Boren Scholarship to 

complete the Russian Overseas Flagship Capstone program, conducted virtually from Al-Farabi 

Kazakh National University. Alexa’s research interests include national identity building in the 

Soviet context and environmental justice in Soviet and modern Central Asia. 

Benjamin Bronkema-Bekker graduated with Highest Honors from the University of Michigan 

with a B.A. in political science, international studies, and Russian. His thesis assessed the 

role of internally displaced pensioners in bringing a resolution to the Donbass conflict. Ben 

has professional experience in environmental and labor organizations, and has conducted 

research for Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and Centers for 

Equity, Community, and Leadership. He is interested in post-Soviet peace, conflict, and security 

studies, as well as technology, environmental, and U.S. foreign policy. 

Xingru Chen graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University with a double major in Russian 

Language and Finance. She spent her junior year studying at Pushkin State Russian Language 

Institute in Moscow. During her college years she interned at CHN-RUS Energy Cooperation 

Investment Fund, People’s Daily, Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, 

Center for Public Diplomacy Studies, and worked as a volunteer for several business and 

cultural exchange activities between China and Russia. As a CREEES student, Xingru hopes 

to probe into economic and political dynamics between China and Russia/Central Asia and 

improve her mastery of the Russian language. 

Estelle Ciesla graduated from University College London with a B.A. in Politics, Sociology and 

East European studies. During her undergraduate career, she served as student president of the 

School and Slavonic and East European Studies. Estelle spent a year in Russia, living in Saint 

Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan. She has written her undergraduate dissertation on the impact 

of facial recognition cameras in Russia. At CREEES, she plans to further investigate the impact 

of technology on Russian politics by exploring how Russian opposition groups use social media 

to mobilize support. 

Katherine Davidson graduated from Bowdoin College with majors in Russian and Government. 

Her honors thesis analyzed the US and UK policy formation process in response to Russian 

disinformation in 2016 elections and assessed the impact of structural differences on 

government responses. Kate has interned for Praescient Analytics, a data analytics company, 

the US House Committee on Homeland Security, and GameOn Technology. Her academic 

interests include Russian exercise of sharp power, foreign policy dynamics of the near abroad, 

the relationship between technology and international security, and Russian poetry. 

Saga Helgason is Icelandic and graduated with distinction from the University of Iceland 

in 2019 with a BA degree in Russian Studies and a minor in Business Administration. Her 

BA thesis explored the changing attitudes of historians on the origins of the Cold War. Saga 

has completed one year of the M.A. program in Environment and Natural Resources at the 

University of Iceland whilst interning at The Arctic Institute. Through the CREEES program, 

she plans to deepen her academic interests in international security, sustainable energy and 

natural resource management, US-Russia relations and Arctic geopolitics. 

18

Christina Hill graduated from Columbia University in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in 

History and Slavic Studies. Her senior honors thesis analyzed the KGB’s active measures in 

the Global South during the Cold War. Following graduation, Christina spent a summer in 

Almaty, Kazakhstan interning at the US Consulate General and later remained in Almaty to 

study Russian and work as a Princeton in Asia fellow. In 2020, she began working as a staff 

assistant for US Senator Brian Schatz in several of his issue areas. Christina has a career 

interest in international policy and security and hopes to attend law school to focus on 

international law after receiving her masters degree from CREEES 

Grace Kier graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the College of William & Mary with a B.A. 

in Government and a B.A. in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies. As an undergraduate, 

she studied at the Saint Petersburg State University and the Moscow State Institute of 

International Relations (MGIMO) and wrote her capstone on state building efforts in 

Gagauzia. Following graduation, she was a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow at the Carnegie 

Endowment for International Peace, where she researched Russian foreign policy and 

military activity. Grace’s writing has been published by Foreign Policy, the Pulitzer Center 

on Crisis Reporting, and Carnegie.ru. Her research interests include U.S.-Russia arms 

control and the separatist states of the former Soviet Union. 

Rachel Landau graduated with honors from Brown University, where she concentrated 

in Literary Arts and Slavic Studies. She has been a poet-in-residence at Pushkinskaya-10, 

an intern at the Partnership for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Folklore, and 

a participant in CAMP AS ONE. After graduating from Brown in 2020, Rachel interned 

remotely at PEN America’s Eurasia department, where she researched and wrote about 

the intersection of cultural work and free expression in the region. Her academic interests 

include poetics, radicalization, and non-conformist art. Outside of her primary research, 

Rachel writes and translates poetry. 

Rajiv Sinha graduated from University College London (UCL) with a B.A. in Politics & East 

European Studies in 2020. As part of this degree, he spent a year at the Higher School of 

Economics (HSE) in Moscow, specialising in Russian language & culture, media studies, 

and business. Since undergraduate study, Rajiv has worked at a fast-growing startup in 

London in the field of music technology. He has held various positions within the Green 

Party of England & Wales, completing a term as Treasurer of the Young Greens in July 2021. 

He is also a board trustee on the Paddington Development Trust, a charity dedicated to 

alleviating poverty and inequality in deprived areas of London. 

True Sweetser is a coterm student who completed an undergraduate degree in History 

and a minor in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Stanford. Within history, his focus is 

on Russian history, particularly the history of political thought, and this intersects with 

his interests in Russian literature and the Russian view of reality. At CREEES, True plans to 

continue his studies of Russian history and literature, particularly during the Soviet era, 

and to grapple with depictions of Russian nationalism in the past and present. During 

his previous years as an undergrad, True was a member of the varsity Stanford Men’s 

Swimming and Diving Team and the USA Swimming National Team, where he represented 

the US internationally at multiple world championships and the Pan American Games. 


20 

COMMUNITY 

COLLEGE 

OUTREACH 

CREEES collaborates 

with Stanford Global 

Studies on a number 

of initiatives aimed 

at incorporating 

regional and 

global content and 

perspectives into the 

community college 

learning experience. 

Throughout the 

year, CREEES faculty, 

scholars and staff 

share their expertise 

through workshops 

and lectures for 

community college 

faculty and students. 

Versions of these 

articles first appeared 

on the Stanford 

Global Studies 

website. 

EPIC FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM 

The Education Partnership for Internationalizing 

Curriculum (EPIC) fellowship program, 

which brings together community college 

faculty and academic staff to work collaboratively 

with colleagues at Stanford on projects 

that incorporate global perspectives and 

intercultural learning into their courses in the 

form of innovative curricular materials, extra-academic 

programs, and digital learning 

resources. The fellowship is led by Stanford 

Global Studies in partnership with the Stanford 

Program on International and Cross-Cultural 

Education and the Center for Spatial 

and Textual Analysis. 

Throughout the 2020-2021 academic year, 

eleven fellows met virtually each month and 

attended seminars taught by Stanford scholars, 

including Katherine Jolluck (Senior Lecturer 

in History and CREEES affiliate) and CREEES 

Associate Director Jovana Lazić Knežević, as 

they worked collaboratively on projects that 

spanned disciplines, from public health and 

sociology to photography and art history. 

The fellowship culminated in a virtual symposium 

in May, which was attended by more 

than 60 faculty and staff from universities and 

community colleges in California and beyond. 

Cheryl Gibbs, senior director of the Office of 

International and Foreign Language Education 

in the U.S. Department of Education, opened 

the symposium with a keynote address. “In 

more recent years, the 9/11 terrorist attack, 

migration crises, and the COVID-19 pandemic 

have brought into stark relief the relevance 

of international education and the need to 

continuously strengthen the infrastructure and 

pathways that help prepare Americans and 

diverse sectors to engage with the world,” she 

emphasized in her opening remarks. 

Addressing the fellows directly, she said, 

“What you have produced speaks to your 

integrity and commitment to international 

education, students, and your core values. In 

reading your bios and the descriptions of your 

curriculum projects, it is abundantly clear that 

you are not only a community of practice but 

a community of interest and action. Congratulations 

on your achievement; you are making 

a difference locally, nationally, and globally.” 

Maiya Evans, adjunct 

professor at Skyline 

College, 

challenged 

her class to 

reimagine 

public health 

by developing 

a roundtable 

series that 

invited students 

to “reshape and rethink our 

approaches to health and 

health care in the United 

States by borrowing from 

public health methodologies 

from other nations.” 

“My favorite part 

about being a 

fellow was 

having a solid, 

supportive 

group of both 

Stanford 

professionals 

and other EPIC 

fellows around 

me as a sounding 

board. It was an environment 

that pro moted creativity and 

innovation.” 

Rebecca Nieman 

Professor of Law at San Diego 

Mesa College 

“Participating in 

this program 

reinvigorated 

my teaching 

about global 

issues and 

allowed me 

to creatively 

redesign components 

of my 

curriculum.” 

Melissa King 

Assistant Professor of Anthropology, 

San Bernardino Valley 

College

GLOBAL CAREERS FAIR FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS 

On April 24, 2021, more than 80 community college students interested in global studies gathered 

virtually to explore international career paths at the first ever Global Perspectives, Global Careers: 

Stanford Fair for Community College Students. 

“The goal of the career fair was to empower community college students in their global learning by 

fostering dialogue and community around global engagement, providing interactive opportunities 

for students to learn from leading scholars about global research and careers, and foregrounding 

students’ diverse perspectives and experiences,” said event organizer Kristyn Hara, outreach coordinator 

at Stanford Global Studies. 

Robert Crews, professor of history and former CREEES director, opened the event with 

a discussion about globalism in the 21st century. He acknowledged the ways this 

phenomenon has benefited society but also encouraged students to “recognize the 

inequalities, the hierarchies, and the gaps that are also the story of globalization.” 

In his concluding remarks, Crews looked at the deep connection between cultivating 

a global perspective and confronting the world’s most pressing problems. “I propose 

that we see our engagement with the globe as more than a career. I propose that 

we see it as an ethical obligation, one related to the challenges that face us: climate 

change, migration, public health, the next pandemic,” he said. “The globe is already in 

our neighborhoods through migration, supply chains, what we consume, what we eat, the 

news we process, and more. Your generation is going to push the rest of us toward social justice, to 

challenge racism, to challenge the mistreatment of migrants, and so on. These are all problems that 

need a global imagination, a global framing, in order to reach our collective goals.” 

Following his talk, students had the opportunity to attend seminars led by Stanford 

scholars, including Saumitra Jha, Rodolfo Dirzo, Rose Gottemoeller, and Allen S. 

Weiner. In the seminars, they learned about career paths in business and technology, 

environmental science, government and international affairs, and law. The 

students also participated in an interactive workshop facilitated by instructors 

from the Stanford Life Design Lab, including CREEES Student Services Manager 

Nelia Lanets. Using design thinking, the students reflected on their personal and 

professional goals, brainstormed different global career paths, and reimagined 

their futures. 

The event concluded with a panel discussion featuring three students who transferred 

from community colleges to four-year institutions in the Bay Area. They talked about the factors 

that inspired them to pursue their degree programs, the benefits of studying abroad, and what they 

have gained from incorporating an international perspective into their studies. “My experiences in 

community college encouraged and inspired me to seek a more international focus as I continued 

my studies. It really impacted me to be able to speak with people who had grown up in places and 

had experiences that were so different from mine,” said Tia Geri, an international relations major 

who transferred to Stanford from Foothill College. “Incorporating an international perspective, and 

especially the time that I’ve spent in different countries and communities, has opened my mind to 

different possibilities and ways of doing things.” 

CREEES Chronicle | 2020-2021 21

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT 

As CREEES weekly events moved into the virtual space for the 2020-21 academic year, five Stanford alumni from 

around the country collaborated with the Center to share their expertise of the region. 

Sarah Cameron (M.A., 2002) met with CREEES M.A. students in the fall to 

discuss her book, The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet 

Kazakhstan, which won four book awards (the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize, the W. 

Bruce Lincoln Book Prize, the Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic 

Studies and the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies Book Prize) and two 

honorable mentions (the Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize and the Heldt Prize). It 

has also provoked intense discussion in Kazakhstan, where the famine remains 

a partially forbidden topic in part due to Kazakhstan’s close relationship with 

Russia. Russian and Kazakh translations of the book have been released. 

Kathryn Ciancia presented a talk about her new book On Civilization’s Edge: A 

Polish Borderland in the Interwar World, which explores how, after the end of the 

First World War, an eclectic group of Polish men and women—from border guards 

and urban planners to teachers and military settlers—attempted to modernize 

a poor, war-torn, and multiethnic eastern province. Ciancia earned her Ph.D. 

from Stanford in 2011 and is an associate professor of history at the University 

of Wisconsin-Madison. While at Stanford, her research in Warsaw and Rivne was 

supported in part by CREEES. 

Ian McGinnity is a program officer at the National Endowment for Democracy 

and met with students in winter quarter as part of the Stanford Global Studies 

Career Series to discuss how his academic background is relevant to his 

current position and provided tips on how to pursue a career in Washington, 

DC. McGinnity received his CREEES M.A. in 2016. 

Pey-Yi Chu presented a talk about her new book, The Life of Permafrost: A 

History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science, which tells the history 

of permafrost as a scientific idea in order to uncover its multiple, contested 

meanings. By tracing the English word permafrost back to its Russian roots, The 

Life of Permafrost reveals the political and cultural contexts for investigating 

frozen earth and demonstrates the contributions of Russian and Soviet science to 

contemporary global understandings of the environment. Chu recieved her B.A. 

from Stanford in 2003 and is an associate professor of history at Pomona College 

Paul Stronski (M.A., 1997/Ph.D., 2003) is a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia 

Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Stronski participated in the 

roundtable “The Nagorno-Karabakh Crisis: Global, Regional and Domestic Perspectives” 

and met with CREEES M.A. students during fall quarter to discuss current issues in 

Central Asia and the South Caucasus as well as pursuing careers that leverage their 

language knowledge and regional expertise. Stronski earned his CREEES M.A. in 1997 and 

his History Ph.D. in 2003. 

22

Center for Russian, East European 

and Eurasian Studies 


615 Crothers Way, Encina Commons 

Stanford, CA 94305-6045 

creees.stanford.edu

CREEES Chronicle 2020-21

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