2003 SSRC Eurasia Program Dissertation Development Workshop
Published on: Apr 10, 2003

Central Asia & the Caucasus

On April 6-7, the Eurasia Program held its final dissertation development workshop in a series of three focusing on Central Asia and the Caucasus. This year’s workshop was held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. It was composed of ten graduate students, chosen on a nationally competitive basis and four faculty members representing different social science disciplines. The students, working on dissertations ranging in topic from tuberculosis and health care issues in the country of Georgia to legal and economic factors associated with agricultural production in Central Asia, received comments and suggestions from their peers and the faculty members. The faculty and student participants composed a truly interdisciplinary group of excellent scholars, undertaking important new work in the Central Asian and Caucasian region.

In addition to the two-day workshop, the Eurasia Program organized two events in which workshop participants interacted with relevant graduate students, faculty, and administrators from the University of Michigan and the university’s International Institute. A forum for workshop faculty and University of Michigan faculty allowed for all present to discuss the state of Eurasian, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Caucasian studies in an interdisciplinary and cross-regional setting, and a reception allowed for a larger group of workshop participants and interested individuals from the university to discuss their research and study programs in an informal setting at the International Institute Gallery.

Faculty Participants:

  • Bruce Grant, Swarthmore College, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair SSRC Title VIII Oversight and Selection Committee
  • Stephen Hanson, University of Washington, Boeing International Professor, Department of Political Science and Director Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies (REECAS) Program
  • Adeeb Khalid, Carleton College, Chair, Department of History
  • Beth Mitchneck, University of Arizona, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Student Participants:

  • Joseph Boots Allen - Sociology (University of Texas, Austin) Tourism and Migrant Employment in Central Asia Mountain Zones: Benefits and Disadvantages of a Growing Sector
  • Kelly Cormier - Agricultural Economics and Law (University of Wisconsin – Madison) Understanding Farmer Response in Kazakhstan
  • Eva-Marie Dubuisson - Linguistic Anthropology (University of Michigan) Language and Social Groups: A Post-Soviet “Kazakhness” in Aitus Poetry
  • Brian Grodsky - Political Science (University of Michigan – Ann Arbor) After the Party: Foreign and Domestic Influences on Human Rights Accountability In Post-Communist States
  • Ali Igmen - History (University of Washington – Seattle) Modernizing through Arts: The Houses of Culture in the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic and a Counter Case in the Republic of Turkey
  • Erin Koch - Anthropology (New School University) Transformations I the Culture of Science and Medicine in the Republic of Georgia
  • Noor O’Neill - Anthropology (Harvard University) Transnational Religion in Central Asia
  • Michael Rouland - History (Georgetown University) Music and the Making of a Kazak Nation, 1920-1936
  • Leslie Sargent - History (University of Santa Barbara) Armenian and Azerbaijani Communities in the 19th century: The Reconstruction of ‘Transcaucasian’ Society and Culture during Russian Colonial Rule
  • Dana Sherry - History (University of California) Constructing the Caucasus: Mentality and Policies of Russian Colonial Officials, 1801-1863
 
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