By focusing predominantly on discourse production and language management, language policy research de-emphasizes the material sources of inequality. The lecture argues that language management, often restricted by ritualistic and symbolic gestures, cannot rectify historically formed relations of power and calls for critical examination of both sociolinguistic and socio-economic consequences of language reforms. About the Speaker: Juldyz Smagulova is Associate Professor and Dean of College of Humanities and Education, KIMEP University (Almaty, Kazakhstan). Her research interests include language ideology, language education, and language policy. She co-edited the Language Change in Central Asia (2016) and co-authored the bilingual Kazakh-Russian Dictionary of Sociolinguistics (2020). She has articles published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics, the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, World Englishes and the International Journal of Bilingualism.
This lecture presents research findings on the reasons for Chechen population growth in times of harshness. The investigation begins with an observation of a quite contradictory nature: Chechens would not postpone creating families in times of war (1994-1996 and 1999-2009). Being based on demographic statistics, which imply longitudinal studies, the analysis goes back as far as 200-250 years ago, when the first estimates of Chechen population size were made. This lecture analyzes available statistical data of the censuses conducted in Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation, examined with the periods of harshness experienced by the Chechen nation. The analysis of these interviews revealed a strong link between reproductive motivation and two other variables, namely ethnic identity and population loss due to times of harshness. About the Speaker: Marat Iliyasov is a graduate of Vilnius University, where he obtained his MA in Diplomacy and International Relations. His second MA comes from Ilia State University, and he holds a PhD from the School of International Relations of the University of St Andrews in Scotland. His current work comes to the crossroad of several disciplines, among which are: International Relations, Ethnography, and Political Demography. Dr. Iliyasov is an author of several publications that analyze migrants’ identity evolution, the demographic trends in the conflict and post-conflict societies, self-legitimation of authoritarian governments, and politics of memory in autocracies.
Hannah Chapman presents a theory of how non-democratic regimes use seemingly democratic forms of communication and participation to bolster regime legitimacy and mitigate information dilemmas. She argues that autocrats develop and maintain participatory technologies—elite-mass communication strategies that promote increased interaction between the public and individuals in power—as a tool of legitimation and information management in authoritarian regimes. About the Speaker: Dr. Hannah Chapman is the Karen and Adeed Dawisha Assistant Professor of Political Science at Miami University and a faculty associate at the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies. Her research examines political participation, information management, and public opinion in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
Panel Discussion with Kathryn Ciancia, Lukasz Wodzynski, Krzysztof Borowski, and Brian Porter-Szucs : December 13, 2021, marked the 40th Anniversary of the Declaration of the Martial Law, the Communist Government’s violent attempt to quell a civic mass movement that gave millions of Poles hope for a better future. It marked the end of the “carnival of Solidarity,” ushering in a new era of brutality and repression. Despite the ultimate defeat of communism in East-Central Europe, the shadow of Martial Law still looms large in Poland’s cultural memory. This panel discussion seeks to address Martial Law’s troubled cultural and historical legacies, particularly in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Polish-Belarussian border crisis, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In March 1968, Polish youth rebelled against the communist regime, demanding free speech and academic freedom. In response, the government publicly accused Polish Jews of staging the demonstrations as part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to weaken communism and forced thousands of Jews to leave the country. The talk exposes the conspiracies the communist regime held and promoted, which had turned Polish Jews into “security risks,” and points to connections between contemporary memory politics in Eastern Europe and the anti-Jewish drive of 1960s Poland. About the Speaker: Anat Plocker teaches at the School of General Studies at Stockton University, specializing in Modern European History. She gained her PhD from Stanford University and had been a fellow at Yale University and the University of Haifa. Plocker’s first book, The Expulsion of Jews from Communist Poland, was published with Indiana University Press in 2022.
There is very little academic literature on polygyny among Central Asians in general and among the Kyrgyz in particular. This talk, based on Michele Commercio’s forthcoming book, will explore the normalization of polygyny among the Kyrgyz in contemporary Kyrgyzstan, which criminalizes such unions, from a historical perspective. By this, she means implicit tolerance of unconcealed polygynous marriages at the mass and elite levels of Kyrgyz society within a state that is obligated but neglects to penalize men with multiple wives. During the talk, Commercio will explain how communist institutions gradually limited the rate of unconcealed polygynous marriages among the Kyrgyz, and how the breakdown of those institutions combined with enduring hegemonic constructions of gender gradually contributed to the re-emergence of unconcealed polygynous marriages among the Kyrgyz. About the Speaker: Professor Commercio specializes in Central Asian comparative politics. Her research interests include issues related to regime transition, ethnic politics, gender, and Islam in post-Soviet states. Her current research focuses on obstacles women desiring a career in Kyrgyz politics confront as well as obstacles women in Kyrgyz politics confront.
While James Joyce’s place in the modernist pantheon has long been firmly entrenched, its resonances continue to be uncovered. In the Russian context, the Irish writer has occupied many roles since his work was first translated in the mid-1920s. This talk will trace the development not of a monolithic Joyce, but rather of five separate Russian Joyces — the versions of the author imagined by his Russian readers. About the Speaker: José Vergara is Assistant Professor of Russian at Bryn Mawr College. He specializes in prose of the long twentieth century, with an emphasis on experimental works. His first book, All Future Plunges to the Past: James Joyce in Russian Literature, examines Russian writers’ reception of Joyce’s fiction.
The world has been shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Why did this happen? What is the true historical relationship between Russia and Ukraine? How are people reacting in Russia? What are the implications for the United States, NATO, and international security? What will be the impact of sanctions and other financial penalties that the United States and its allies have imposed on Russia? A panel of University of Wisconsin faculty members addressed these and other questions. Panelists include Mark Copelovitch (UW-Madison, Political Science), Yoshiko Herrera (UW-Madison, Political Science), Andrey Ivanov (UW-Platteville, History), Kirill Ospovat (UW-Madison, GNS+), and Jessica Weeks (UW-Madison, Political Science). Moderated by Ted Gerber (UW-Madison, CREECA Director).
Military assertiveness in the “near abroad” and elsewhere has characterized Russia’s foreign policy at least since 2008. It has also played well with the Russian public. Is this aggressiveness due only or mostly to Putin’s ambitions or do popular attitudes in Russia support it as well? About the Speaker: Michael Alexeev is Professor of Economics at Indiana University in Bloomington. His research and teaching interests lie mostly in the fields of institutional economics, law and economics, and economics of transition from a Soviet-type economy to a market economy.
From 1878 to the early 1920s, millions of Ottoman Muslims became citizens of other European states. This talk explores the many ways Muslims responded, from resistance to negotiation, illuminating how Muslim citizens shaped the states and societies in which they lived. Emily Greble addresses questions about why Muslims have been erased from so much of European history and what we can learn about secularism, religious freedom, and European legal norms by analyzing Muslim lives and perspectives. About the Speaker: Emily Greble teaches History and East European Studies at Vanderbilt University. A historian of the Balkans, she is the author of Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe (2021) and Sarajevo, 1941-1945: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Hitler’s Europe (2011.