Today, while acknowledging with pride the multi-national essence of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin continues to boost Russian national exceptionalism by re-writing the national master narrative, usually grounded in history. By emphasizing ethnic Russian sacrifice and heroism during WWII and Russians as guardians of humanity against Nazism, not recognizing other ethnicities’ and nations’ contributions to WWII victory, Russia’s master narrative advances a Russo-centric national identification and guarantees ethnic Russians’ dominant place in the network of identities. This presentation offers insights into a project (resulting in a co-edited with Gulnaz Sharafutdinova volume), which abides by the imperative of integrating the lived experiences of Russia’s social minorities and the multiple sources of agency that communities in the lower ranks of racial hierarchies have in our sociological and humanistic thinking. Aided by the naturecultural and ecosocial models, the project brings attention to the fact that the sources of diversity are in the lived experiences and interactions with the surrounding and in the ecosystems of living and nonliving matter.

Yana Hashamova is Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Slavic and Professor of Film Studies at Ohio State University, with affiliate positions in Comparative Studies; Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies; and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. Dr. Hashamova serves as editor of the Slavic and East European Journal, the publication of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages and this year she is the winner of the association's Outstanding Contribution to the Profession award. In her interdisciplinary monographs and multi-disciplinary co-edited volumes, she strives to establish links between political ideology and constructs of national, ethnic, and gender identities in cultures, while analyzing power relations and post-Soviet conditions.

Sponsored by the Department of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, with the generous support of a loyal Bowdoin family.