TWENTY NINTH ANNUAL UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE
ON SLAVIC AND EAST/CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Royce Hall 314
8:00-8:50 am Check-in. Coffee and tea.
8:50-9:00 am Opening Remarks by Тanya Ivanova-Sullivan (UCLA)
Panel 1: 9:00-9:55 am
19th Century Russian Literature: Representations of Women
Chair: Elinor Vangilder
Kexin Zhou (UCSB) – Sanctity in Sin: Why Dostoevsky Portrays a Prostitute as a Saint
Diba Morady (UC Davis, virtual) – Literary Portraits: Representations of Reading in Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground
Aaron Gorner (Brigham Young University) – La moule en est brisé: Peasant Dreams in Anna Karenina Reconsidered
Panel 2: 10:00-11:10 am
Russian Literature: Spirituality
Chair: Elena Makarova
Deanna Shaposhnikov (UC Santa Barbara) – Corporal Punishment in Imperial Russia: An Analysis of Its Effects in Dostoevsky’s Memoirs from the House of the Dead
Elise Edwardsen (University of Wisconsin, virtual) – The Russian Empire as a Philosophical Testing Ground: Existential Crisis in Notes from Underground and The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Elvira Lundberg (UC Santa Barbara) – Raskolnikov’s schism and the path to sobornost’
Alisa Konkina (Pasadena City College) – Preserving the Russian Soul in Poetry: Yesenin’s Rural Defense and Yakovlev’s Émigré Memory
COFFEE BREAK: 11:10-11:20am
Panel 3: 11:20-12:15 pm
20th Century Literature: Autonomy under the Soviet State
Chair: Galiia Sadykova
Celeste Alcalay (University of Chicago, virtual) – “The Invisible Conductor”: Authoritarian Voice and the Illusion of the Exemplary Soviet Citizen in The Master and the Margarita
Semyon Bayramov (UCLA) – The Body Against the State: Somatic Resistance in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita
Emma Shobe (Brigham Young University) – From Pasternak to the Present: Sexual Agency, Abuse, and the Shifting Portrayals of Lara Antipova
LUNCH: 12:15-1:15pm
Panel 4: 1:15-2:10 pm
International Relations in the Cold War
Chair: Sylvie Vidan
Nathan Ayala (UC Riverside) – Soviet Cultural Diplomacy in Mexico: Intellectuals, the Peace Movement, and Cultural Sovietica during the Early Cold War
Michelle Baram (UCLA) – One War, Different Memories: How Russia and the United States Construct and Mobilize the Memory of World War II
Alina Garmash (UCLA) – National Ideologies Illustrated Through Children’s Cartoons: A Comparison of The Soviet and American Pinocchio and Winnie the Pooh
Panel 5: 2:10-3:05 pm
Resilience under Soviet Ideology
Chair: Sofia Pacheco
Pavan Radhakrishnan (UCLA) – Nicolae Sulac and Orchestra Lăutarii: A National Turn in Soviet Moldovan Folk Music
Lev Afonine (UCLA) – Ethnosports and Investment Development: Kyrgyz Athletics in the Soviet and Post-Independence Eras
Sophia Wielawski (University of Kentucky) – The Legacy of Soviet Dentistry: A Study of Policy, Propaganda, and Patient Experiences
COFFEE BREAK: 3:05-3:15pm
Panel 6: 3:15-4:10 pm
Language Practices and Policies
Chair: Emilia McLennan
Viola Perkins (UCLA) – At Risk of Being Frozen in Time: The Long-term Effects of the Resettlement of Ethnic Germans in the Krasnoyarsk Region
Gilda-Mei Pesqueira (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) – Latvia’s Identities in Orbit: An Examination of the Impact of Latvian Language Policy on Interethnic Relations Between Ethnic Latvians and Ethnic Russians Through the Lens of Yuri Lotman’s Semiosphere
Irina Koval (University of Alaska Fairbanks, virtual) – Beyond the First Semester: Unpacking Student Motivation and Retention Challenges in Russian Language Learning
Panel 7: 4:10-5:05 pm
Ukrainian Resistance
Chair: Amy Cabrales
Ivana Prokopenko (UCLA) – A War of Dependence: Why Ukraine’s Natural Resources Remain Central to the Russian State
Nina Dinan (UCLA) – Drone Warfare in Ukraine: A Qualitative Analysis
Ronnie Volman (UC San Diego, virtual) – Language Under Siege: Multilingualism in Alex Averbuch’s Wartime Poetry
Panel 8: 5:05-6:00 pm
Russian Propaganda in the 21st Century
Chair: Tanya Ivanova-Sullivan
Katherine Bradford (University of Georgia, virtual) – The US, Russia and their Propaganda Campaigns in Latin America
Isabelle Bubnick (University of Wisconsin-Madison, virtual) – Russia Rewritten: Satirical Responses to Putin’s Regime
Sofia Pacheco (UCLA) – The Evolution of Russian-Language Advertising in the US: From First-wave Immigrants to Modern Platforms and Strategies
6:00-6:10 pm Closing Remarks & Presentation of Certificates: Yelena Furman (UCLA) and Tanya Ivanova-Sullivan (UCLA)