BY RYAN REED, Technical Assistant and Doctoral Researcher
The Gulag Echoes Project Workshop was carried out successfully from March 25th to March 27th at Christ Church, Oxford. The some 40 participants of the workshop were treated to the amenities of Christ Church and Oxford. From breakfast in the Great Hall under the famous sentinel portraits (our PI Judith Pallot included), to an evening reception and dinner at the Ashmolean museum, we hope the workshop’s guests found warmth in our welcome. Accordingly, we must first thank the staff at Christ Church- the Porters Lodge, Duncan for his technical assistance, and the kitchens’ staff. Their help was generous, personal, and prompt the entire way through. Further we would be amiss if we did not thank the organizer of the workshop, Yuliya Brin, for her skill and tact in handling the schedules and desires of two score academics.
As Judith Pallot stated in her introductory remarks, the breadth of presentations at the workshop demonstrated the tremendous reach the project has had since its start in 2018. This is in terms of topics, disciplines, and the network of researchers connected by the project. Of course, the project and the world have transformed drastically since 2018. The project faced three major challenges- difficulties in cooperation with Russian academic institutions, the COVID19 global pandemic, and Russia’s war of aggression upon Ukraine. Despite these obstacles, the team found new methods, new avenues, and new topics to research.
And so, the workshop brought together this aforementioned network to summarize findings, test theories, and collect constructive feedback as the project enters its final phases and the research and hard work of the Gulag Echoes teams manifests into manuscripts, articles, and other publications. The proceedings were arranged into three sessions dedicated to exploring the historical, sociological, ethnic and cultural underpinnings of the project’s findings. Presenters had 15 minutes to present. For assigned discussants there was 10 minutes to endorse, critique, or expound. What followed was always a lively and fruitful discussion session. Despite the rigorous schedule and complex ideas presented, the workshop’s participants stayed attentive, insightful, and incisive in their comments and questions.
Overall, the workshop brought productive conversations, thought provoking presentations, and a real sense of accomplishment to the members of the Gulag Echoes team. Not only in terms of the ideas and conclusions presented, but also in the network of people in the room who were in some way or another, linked to the project. The Gulag Echoes team is tremendously grateful to all those who shared these few days with us at Christ Church and we look with anticipation to the future blossoming of this nexus of ideas and researchers we have forged over these past six years.
The final schedule of the proceedings:
26th March
7:30-9:00 am Breakfast. Christ Church Hall
10.30 am Assemble and Coffee.
11 – 11.15 am. Welcome and Introduction by Judith Pallot, PI GULAGECHOES
11.15 am – 3.00 pm SESSION I: COMMUNIST PENAL COLLECTIVISM – MYTH OR REALITY?
CHAIR Professor Sarah Badcock, History Department, University of Nottingham.
11.15 am -12.15 pm. Dr Carrie Crockett, (Honorary Fellow, University of Leicester). “Ethnic crossroads within a penal framework: the prisoners of Sakhalin Island, 1868-1905.”
Discussant: Professor Sarah Badcock, History Department, University of Nottingham.
12.15pm – 1.00 pm: Dr Mikhail Nakonenchnyi (Post-doctoral researcher for GULAGECHOES Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki). “Ethnically Blind or Covertly Ethnicized?: Minority Prisoners, Discrimination and Construction of their Ethnicity in the Soviet Penal System, 1921-1991.”
Discussant: Professor Sherzod Muminov, Associate professor in Japanese History, School of History, University of East Anglia.
1pm – 2pm LUNCH Christ Church Hall.
COMMUNIST PENAL COLLECTIVISM” – MYTH OR REALITY? continued
2.00– 2.45 pm Presentation by zoom: Alin Muresan, (PhD candidate, University of Oradea, Romania) “Ethnicity in the Romanian Gulag”
Discussant: Dr Brendan Humphreys, senior post-doctoral researcher for Yugoslavian Penal Nationalism project, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki.
2.45 – 3.30 pm Dr Nathan Light: (Affiliated Researcher in the department of cultural anthropology and Ethnology, University of Uppsala, Sweden). “Ethics and Ethnicity in the Gulag: a Central Asian victim speaks out.”
Discussant Dr Yury Surochkin, Post-doctoral researcher, GULAGECHOES Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
3.30 – 5.00 pm SESSION II: DIVERGENT STARTING POINTS AND DIVERGENT PATHS 1989/1991 TO PRESENT
CHAIR: Brendan Humphreys, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki.
3.30 – 4.00 INTRODUCTION. Dr Gavin Slade, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Nazerbayev University, Kazakhstan.
4.00 – 4.30 TEA
4.30 – 5.15 pm. Professor Mykhailo Romanov, (Yaroslavl Mydriy National Law University (Kharkiv) and Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki University).
Strategy for reforming the penitentiary system of Ukraine: is there one?
Discussant: Professor Laura Piacentini, School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
5.15 – 6.00 pm. Dr Jakub Dràpal, (Faculty of law, Charles University, Prague) Expansive judiciary as a (temporary) solution against penal populism: Case study of Czechia.
Discussant: Dr Barbara Havelkova, Shaw Foundation Fellow in Law, University of Oxford.
6.30 – 7.15 pm. DRINKS RECEPTION: The European Art Gallery, Ashmolean Museum
7.15 – 9.00 pm DINNER: Rooftop Restaurant, the Ashmolean museum.
March 27th
7.30-9.00 am Breakfast. Christ Church Hall
SESSION II: DIVERGENT STARTING POINTS AND DIVERGENT PATHS 1989/1991 TO PRESENT continued
9.30 – 10.15. am. Dr Krešimir Petković (Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb). “Is there such a thing as Croatian prison? A brief history of political regime changes and disciplinary power in Croatia”
Discussant: Dr Olga Kantokoski, post-doctoral researcher for Yugoslavian penal nationalism project, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
10.15 – 11.00 am. Dr Anna Markina (Researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Tartu, Estonia). “The Estonian prison system: a journey of 30 years”
Discussant: Dr. Olga Zeveleva, Post-doctoral researcher for GULAGECHOES, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki and from 1st April 2024 Assistant Professor in Conflict Studies, at Utrecht University, the Netherlands
11 – 11.30 am Coffee break
11:30 pm – 5.45pm. SESSION III: THE CARCERAL JOURNEY: ETHNIC AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION, HIERARCHIES AND EMERGENT INTERMEDIATE STATUSES
CHAIR: Olga Zeveleva, GULAGECHOES.
11.30 – 12.15 pm INTRODUCTION: Ivan Peshkov, (Institute of Eastern Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University Posnan, Poland).
12.15. – 12.45 : Dr Lili di Puppo: (post-doctoral researcher for GULGECHOES, Alexsanteri Institute, University of Helsinki) “Muslims do not submit to anyone except the Almighty”: Staying the same and evading prison categories in Chechen prisoners’ experiences in Russia
Discussant: Dr Igor Mikeshin, University Researcher, Study of Religions Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki
1.00 pm – 2 pm LUNCH Christ Church Hall
2 .00 – 2.45 pm: Dr Elena Racheva and Professor Federico Varese (University of Oxford). “Criminal governance in Russian prisons”
Discussant: Professor Svetlana Stephenson, School of Sociology, London Metropolitan University, UK.
2.45 – 3.30. Dr Rustam Urinboyev, (Sociology of Law Department, Lund University, Sweden and 2019-2022 post-doctoral researcher for GULAGECHOES) “The Carceral Journey of Uzbek Muslim Prisoners”
Discussant: Dr Agnieszka Kubal, SSEES, University College, University of London, UK.
3.30 – 4 pm TEA
4.00– 4.45 pm: Dr Gabriela Groza, (Independent scholar and psychology expert, associate professor of Babes Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Psychology and Faculty of Law Cluj-Napoca, Romania) “Who are the inmates who have power in the penitentiary? A study on former inmates of Romanian penitentiaries”.
Discussant: Dr Costanza Curro, GULAGECHOES.
4.45 – 5.30 pm: Film. “Wardens’ Gardens”: The Late Soviet gulag in Georgia
Introduced by Dr Costanza Curro, GULAGECHOES
5.30 Farewell and disperse.