SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Drawing upon their time as participants in the intense one-month, university-sponsored summer field study program in Moscow last summer, Wittenberg University students recently secured first and second-place prizes for their research at the East and West Lakes Divisions Conference of the Association of American Geographers, Oct. 17.
Held on the Western Michigan University campus in Kalamazoo, Mich., the conference provided an opportunity for five Wittenberg students to present their research findings to colleagues and peers representing universities in seven Midwestern states.
Four of the five student-presenters were part of a larger group of 11 students who participated in the research trip last June during which they studied the evolution of Russian civil society by interviewing members of Moscow-based grassroots organizations. Gerry Hudson, professor of political science and director of Wittenberg’s Russian Studies program, and Olga Medvedkov, professor of geography, accompanied the students to Moscow and to the October conference. “The presentations of our Moscow research group were the best we have had,” Hudson said. “It makes me very proud to see how our students operate on a professional level.”
“It was a wonderful learning experience for our students,” added Medvedkov, who began inviting students to present their papers three years ago when she became chair of the East and West Lakes Division. “Our students should feel very proud of themselves for what they accomplished at this conference.”
The students selected to present their papers included: senior history major Sarah McCance from Jerome, Mich.; sophomore Ross Kaplan, a double major in Russian Studies and political science from Seven Fields, Pa.; sophomore political science major Joyce Dindo from Akron, Ohio; junior political science major Jennifer Carney from Orrville, Ohio; and senior geography major Caela O’Connell from Jessup, Md.
McCance discussed “Povarskaya Sloboda: A Case Study of Civil Society Formation in Post-Soviet Moscow,” while Kaplan discussed the “Consequences of Land Value in New Capitalist Systems.” Dindo presented on “The Rise of Municipal Power in Post-Soviet Russia,” while Carney discussed the “Conflict Between Public and Private Space in Moscow.” O’Connell, who participated in a different summer field study program in Cuba, also presented a paper titled “Farming and the Environment: A Cultural and Ecological Examination of Agriculture in Cuba and Ohio” during a separate panel at the conference.
Kaplan and Carney received the first- and second-place prizes for best undergraduate presentations, respectively, following the conclusion of the event. The awards included certificates of recognition and checks for $100. Olga Vendina, a professor of geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences, served as the discussant for the Moscow research presentations.
“These were absolutely some of the best papers I have seen,” she said. “They were very analytical and thoroughly researched, and they showed just how much the students utilized their time in Moscow. I was very impressed.”
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