15TH ANNUAL
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH CONFERENCE
ON SLAVIC AND EAST/CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES
APRIL 21, 2012
UCLA
08:30am – 09:00am Coffee and Refreshments (Humanities 346)
09:00am – 09:10am Opening Remarks (Humanities 135)
Prof. Roman Koropeckyj, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, UCLA
09:10am – 09:30am Balalaika Orchestra
Irina Orlova and Anatoliy Mamalyga (Humanities 135)
09:35am – 10:35am Session 1
Panel 1A: RETHINKING STALINISM (Humanities 135)
Chair: Kate Rudzite
Sarah Tellier (UCLA) “The Man behind the Curtain: Stalin, 1917”
Miguel Liberato (UCSB) “A Communist Mutation-Stalinism vs. Leninism”
Kirk Sharma (UCLA) “Causes of the Great Purges”
Panel 1B: LAW AND CRIMINALS (Humanities 169)
Chair: Naomi Caffee
Derek Groom (UCLA) “The Evolution of the Thieves’ Code: An Analysis of Russian Criminal Tattoos”
Sydney Heller (UCLA) “Cyber Crime”
Polina Mareninova (UCLA) “Legal Education in Russia Today”
Panel 1C: TOPICS IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE (Humanities A56)
Chair: Yelena Severina
Maria Milova (UCLA) “The Origin of Alexander Pushkin’s Economic Thought: The Role of Socio-economic Factors in His Life and Literary Works”
Todd Long (Portland State University) “Poetic Rhythm in Blok’s ‘12’: Controlled Chaos”
Anne Redmond (University of Wisconsin) “Estrangement to the Highest Degree: A Comparative Analysis of Victor Shklovsky’s Formal Method”
10:35am – 10:45am BREAK
10:45am – 12:00pm Session 2
Panel 2A: IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA (Humanities 135)
Chair: Anahit Manoukian
Hayk Barseghyan (UCLA) “Football in Russia Today”
Ludmila Gubin (UCI) “The Newly Emerged Dubious Slogan of Democracy in Russia”
Katja Nelson (UCLA) “The Future of ‘Reset’: The Current Provisions and Future Implications of the Obama-Medvedev Commission”
Adelina Tomova (UCLA) “The Russian Smile”
Panel 2B: PERSONAL AND OTHER VOICES (Humanities 169)
Chair: Yelena Muratova
Thomas Mahoney (Haverford College) “The Soviet New Wave: The Influence of the French New Wave on the Form and Content of Soviet Cinema of the 1960’s”
Mika Kennedy (UCSD) “So in the Soviet Union when the Sun Goes Down”: Beatniks, Bolsheviks, and Vassily Aksenov”
Dustin Chavkin (UCLA) “English Borrowings in Contemporary Russian”
Bianca Beloiu (UCSB) “Slavonic Influences on the Romanian Language”
Panel 2C: BRINGING SOCIETAL WOES TO LIGHT (Humanities A56)
Chair: Jesse O’Dell
Armine Manukyan (UCLA) “Why is Domestic Abuse so Widespread in Russia—and Are Its Causes Culturally Specific?”
Sona Gichyan (UCLA) “Gorbachev and the Culture of Drinking during Perestroika”
Pola Lem (Haverford College) “Substance Abuse in the Russian Federation: Perceptions and Approaches”
Alexandra Kohut (Bryn Mawr College) “Abortion in Russia: the Church and State”
12:00pm – 01:20pm LUNCH (Humanities 346)
Roundtable on Study Abroad in Russia and East/Central Europe
Panelists: Gennady Babankov, Dustin Chavkin, Justin Clune, Derek Groom, Alyssa Haerle, Sydney Heller
01:20pm – 02:20pm Session 3
Panel 3A: IN THE MIRROR OF THE MEDIA (Humanities 135)
Chair: Jocelyn Guevara
Harrison Homel (UCLA) “Правда and Truth”
William F. Holden (Portland State University) “Representations of the Soviet Reader: A Case Study”
Maria Manukyan (UCLA) “Mass Media in Post-Soviet Russia”
Panel 3B: DISCUSSING THE PUBLIC’S FEARS (Humanities 169)
Chair: Lance Jung
Mariam Barseghyan (UCLA) “The Origins of Modern Racism in Russia”
Alexandra Lototsky (UCSB) “Homophobia in Russia: Causes and Influences”
Mikael G. Miller (UCLA) “Как травинки сквозь асфальт: The Emergence of LGBT rights in Post-Soviet Russia”
Panel 3C: TOPICS IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE (Humanities A56)
Chair: Nataliya Pirumova
Sonja Magnuson (UCSB) “2×2=5 and √−1: Irrationality and Symbolic Logic in Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We”
Leyla K. Hasanzade (UCLA) “Bulgakov’s The Heart of a Dog: Analyzing Realistic and Fantastic Aspects of the Novel”
Daria A. Slepenkina (ICI) “Portrait of a Woman: Exploring the Role of Women in I. Grekova’s Literature”
02:20pm – 02:30pm BREAK
02:30pm – 03:55pm Session 4
Panel 4A: FOLKLORE AND MUSIC (Humanities 135)
Chair: Anna Bar
Ibrahim Zaganjor and Milica Sapungin (College of Letters and Sciences, UCLA) “The Projection of Youth Opinion Towards Yugoslav Politics Through Music from 1960-1991”
Allen Wang and Steve Pham (UCSD) “Mass Music and its Impact on Soviet Society”
Kate Stimac (UCLA) “From Ganga to Balkan Beatbox: A History of the Music of Southeastern Europe”
Ruta Heinman (UCSB) “Magic of the Flower Chervona Ruta in Slavic Folklore”
Panel 4B: BUSINESS, POLITICS, AND EDUCATION (Humanities 169)
Chair: Susie Bauckus
Michael Sindicich and Milandeep Singh (UCLA) “Finding an Identity”
Joanna Danielak (UCLA) “Business Development in the Polish Countryside since the Introduction of Capitalism”
Paloma Jeretic (Haverford College) “Soviet Education in Mathematics: A Success in spite of Its Failures”
Kesenia R. Richardson (UCLA) “Real Estate in Russia: A Look Into the Residential Market From Post-Soviet to Now”
03:55pm Closing Remarks & Presentation of Certificates (Humanities 135)
Larry McLellan, Department of Germanic, Slavic, & Semitic Studies, UCSB