Professional Affiliation

Author, Riverhead Books; Former Senior Associate, Kennan Institute

Wilson Center Project

"Configuring the Past in Rural Russia: An Essay on the Symbolic Topography of Social Memory"

Project Summary

Analyzes the ways in which notions of the past are constructed by rural Russians, noting the anthropological concerns on dynamics of collective memory. Examines how Russians understand their own heritage, particularly in the context of social, political and economic decomposition and the recomposition of the former Soviet Union. Takes into its analysis the competing hegemonies that complicate peasants’ sense of collective memory -- the church, the Soviet state and their own village order.

Previous Terms

Short-Term Scholar, Apr 01, 1998 - May 01 1998: "Speaking the Past in Rural Russia: An Essay in the Symbolic Topography of Memory"