17TH ANNUAL
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE ON SLAVIC AND EAST/CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES
APRIL 26, 2014
UCLA
09:00am – 09:30am Coffee and Refreshments (Humanities 348)
09:35am – 09:40am Opening Remarks (Humanities A51)
Ronald Vroon, Chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, UCLA
09:50am – 11:10am Session 1
Panel 1A: TOPICS IN LITERATURE AND TRANSLATION (Humanities A51)
Chair: Michael Lavery
Roy Ginsberg (University of Wisconsin – Madison) “The Personal Transformation of Pierre Bezukhov during his Time in French Captivity in Tolstoy’s War and Peace”
Dmitry Neronov (UCLA) “How Shall I Compare Thee? Translating Shakespeare’s Sonnets into Russian”
Lucas Fronk (Portland State University) “Daniil Kharms and Soviet Political Ideology”
Matthew E. Borbon (UCLA) “”Consumer Goods with Wings”: Three Women Authors in and above the Balkans”
Panel 1B: RUSSIA’S DOMESTIC POLICIES (Humanities A65)
Chair: Kathy Pham
Yelena Muratova (UCLA) “Tracing the Trajectory of the Russian Gay/Lesbian Identity”
Ashley Moe (Portland State University) “The Ecological Impact of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia”
Miles DeVinny (UCLA) “An Insight from Soviet Era to Today of Russia’s Internal Conflict”
Nadia Riabkova (UCLA) “The Problem with Russian Science: Pseudoscience and the Public Health Crisis”
11:10am – 11:20am BREAK
11:20am – 12:20pm Session 2
Panel 2A: TOPICS IN LITERATURE (Humanities A51)
Chair: Roxana Chavarria
Gladys Rivas (UCLA) “A Comparative Analysis of El burlador de Sevilla and Каменный гость: How Character Development Can Change the Meaning of Death”
Nicole Marcelino (UC Irvine) “Muselmänner and Dokhodiagi: Goners in the Nazi Concentration
Camps and the Soviet Forced Labor Camp System”
Maria Mirabella Spektor (UCLA) “Chekhov’s Depiction of Progressive Women in Nineteenth- Century Russia”
Panel 2B: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES IN EASTERN EUROPE (Humanities A65)
Chair: Susan Bauckus
Rafaela Bradvica (UCLA) “The Evolution of the Family Structure in Central and Eastern Europe in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries”
Yannelly Perez (UC Irvine) “Comparative Analysis of Ukraine as Conveyed by U.S. and Russian Online Media”
Porey Lin (UCLA) “Explaining Repression: How legislatures increase the likelihood of repression”
12:20pm – 01:40pm LUNCH (Humanities 348)
01:40pm – 02:40pm Session 3
Panel 3A: POPULAR CULTURE AND LANGUAGE (Humanities A51)
Chair: Jesse O’Dell
Marta Polovin (UCLA) “Taking to the Streets: A New Age of Expression in Belgrade”
Miriam Goldman (Portland State University) “Substance Abuse among Russian-Speaking Youth in the Portland Metropolitan Area”
Ryan Wauson (UCLA) “Insecurity in Uncertain Times”
Panel 3B: RUSSIA IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS (Humanities A65)
Chair: Dante Matero
Braunny Ramirez (UCLA) “Russia and North Korea’s Nuclear Program: Russia’s Policy towards North Korea’s Nuclear Program and its Response to the North Korean Crisis”
Hristiana Petkova (UCLA) “Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt: Miscommunication in an Age of Realism”
Daniel Higuchi (UCLA) “Russia’s Relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Perceived Imbalance and Inequality”
02:40pm – 02:50pm BREAK
02:50pm – 03:50pm Session 4
Panel 4A: TOPICS IN RELIGION AND IDENTITY (Humanities A51)
Chair: Peter Winsky
Alex Lenk (UCSB/University of St Andrews) “Chernorizets Chrabar’s Treatise ´О письменехь´ as an Assertion of the Emergence of a New Academic Community in late 9th-century Bulgaria”
Daniel Rosas (UCLA) “The effect of Islam on Russian Society since 1991”
Julianna Jerosch (University of Wisconsin-Madison) “The Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian State”
Panel 4B: TOPICS IN EASTERN EUROPEAN ECONOMY AND POLITICS (Humanities A65)
Chair: Jasmine Lin
Daniela Bradvica (UCLA) “Human Trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe”
Alexander Mitrushina (UCSD) “Political ties between Russia and Ukraine throughout history”
Nenad Sapungin (UCLA) “Serbia’s Potential Acquisition”
04:00pm Closing Remarks & Presentation of Certificates (Humanities A51)
Larry McLellan, Department of Germanic, Slavic, & Semitic Studies, UCSB