“Russia outside Russia”: Transnational mobility, objects of Migration, and discourses on the locus of culture amongst educated Russian migrants in Paris, Berlin, and New York (Gan, 2019)

Author

Gan, G.

Year

2019

Title

“Russia outside Russia”: Transnational mobility, objects of Migration, and discourses on the locus of culture amongst Educated Russian migrants in Paris, Berlin, and New York

University

University of British Columbia

Discipline (uncoded)

Anthropology

Macrostructure

Hybrid Simple/ Manuscript

Proposed Area of Unconventionality
(Tardy, 2016)

Modality, Practice, Rhetorical aims & strategy, Linguistic & Textual Form

Description and other notes

“The researcher investigates transnational Russian identity through ethnographic, auto-ethnographic, and visual anthropology methods . . . . Different anthropological ‘voices’—autobiographical, autoethnographic, empirical, and multi-media—are used throughout the dissertation. . . . Using visual anthropology research methods, the presentation and dissemination of this research also moves beyond the textual mode. Interviews with research participants, recorded and edited into short vignettes, became part of an interactive multi-media installation and online archive on the tangible and intangible places, objects, and memories of Russian transnational migration” (Abs). In addition: Uses preface to outline how the content for some chapters was presented elsewhere (e.g., as a paper, presentation, or a talk). Three publications are included in the dissertation, including two journal articles and one paper published in the proceedings from a conference. Written component organized as follows: Introduction, Research Sites, Research Methods, Findings and Discussion (chapters 3-6).

(Proposed) Degree of separation or connection between atypical or unconventional component(s) and conventional or written component(s)

Connected. Atypical or unconventional components are positioned as inextricable from the written or conventional components.

(Proposed) Type of relationship construed between atypical or unconventional component(s) and conventional or written component(s)

Intermingled. There is there is a strong sense of interdependence between the installation and the research that was undertaken for the written or conventional component(s), as well as a distinct understanding that they are a part of the same project. Author notes that the written and video components of the dissertation both consider how “people search for personal fulfillment across different political contexts” (Lay Summary).

Notes/Reasoning

Describes unusual elements in chapters or enacts them (e.g., different forms of writing. Multi-media installation is included in supplementary materials. Includes pictures (e.g., of installation, stills from the audio-visual material itself). Interviews with research participants became part of an interactive multi-media installation and online archive. Wrote dissertation as an experimental text, combining four authorial voices: autobiographical (self-reflexive), autoethnographic, (self-referential), empirical (academic), and multimedia (as an interactive audio-visual installation). Here the writing for the dissertation is positioned as part of the inquiry process and the product, which means they are difficult to disentangle. For example, personal vignettes are written using bold italicised text, whereas more “auto-biographical” (p. 4) text is written using a lighter typeface.”Academic  prose” is represented using bold type (p. 5). The written creative or unusual components appear simultaneously separate from each other and connected at the same time. On the whole, the different components operate together to enrichen the overall effect of the dissertation. That is, taken together, they add up to persuade the reader of Gan’s engagement with the inquiry process and topic at hand.

Discipline 2 (coded)

Anthropology

Discipline Grouping (coded)

SS

Source

CAGS