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This presentation introduces Ms. Gayan's dissertation project which examines Georgian reaction to Khrushchev's February 1956 "Secret Speech." The project focuses on the multi-leveled contested cultural nature of national identity in the Soviet Union. She will place this event in the current historiography, speak about methodology and source problems, and explain why this topic is still relevant to scholarship. Finally she will share how her project has turned to questions of how these events have been remembered or forgotten.
Melissa Gayan is a history Ph.D. candidate at Emory University specializing in Russia and the former Soviet Union with a focus on the Caucasus. Ms. Gayan's dissertation topic is on the 1956 Georgian pro-Stalinist, anti-Soviet protests which took place after Nikita Khrushchev's February 1956 "Secret Speech." She also holds a Master's Degree in History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where her thesis examined Russian influence in Georgia during the first ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ms. Gayan has been a teacher for many years in both public schools, institutes, and universities. She lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, cat, and two dogs.
Melissa F. Gayan
Ph.D. Candidate in History, Emory University
ARISC Fellow
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 5:00pm
Ilia University
Austrian Library
3/5 Cholokashvili Str. room H105
Tbilisi, Georgia
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180015715399090
www.arisc.org
This talk is co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus, Ilia University, and also made possible by a Russian and East European Studies Graduate Travel Grant from Emory University.
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