Title of Abstract: Exploring Russian Colonial Identities Through a Native American Lens
Name of Mentor: Alyssa Gillespie
Mentor’s Organization or Department: Department of Russian, Bowdoin College
Research Abstract: With the guidance of Professor Alyssa Gillespie, I spent 10 weeks working on two projects which focused on bringing a voice to underrepresented groups in Russia. The first project was helping Professor Gillespie find works to use for a course titled “Inter-Ethnic Encounters in the Russian Cultural Space.” My second project was a research paper based on Indigenous literature in Russia and the US, specifically focusing on the ways that writers express trauma. I think both these projects are valuable in furthering study in understudied topics in Russia. This project is vital in creating a space to decolonize and re-humanize perspectives and experiences from groups that have not had the opportunity to tell their own stories. It empowers those who have been silenced and ignored.
Mackey O’Keefe ’21