Variety of Deviance and Social Control (Ivan Shmatko)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/8/2026 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/31/2026.

Project Description

This project aims to document diversity in how people approached human relations. To be more precise, it seeks to document diversity in terms of control over human behavior. We will dig deeper into how different people, groups, and societies think about what constitutes wrong and right, what they define as crime, and what they see as inappropriate, shameful, desired, and required. No less importantly, we will try to figure out what they do when those norms are breached. We will primarily work with secondary sources. However, it is possible, under certain circumstances, that we might engage in some empirical work as well.

Prerequisites

No

Special Comments

No

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/8/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/31/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Hybrid

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Ivan Shmatko (email: ishmatko@wlu.edu)

Fear, Conformism, and State Power in the USSR and Russia: A Literary Perspective (Anna Brodsky)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/8/2026 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/31/2026.

Project Description

Students will read a variety of texts involving the discussion of conformity, beginning with Vladimir Sorokin and Friedrich Gorenshtein. Most importantly, students will read contemporary newspapers addressing the events described or alluded to in the literary texts.

Prerequisites

Students must be fluent in Russian.

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/8/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/31/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Remote

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Anna Brodsky (email: brodskya@wlu.edu)