Zukhra Kasimova

Zukhra Kasimova (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago) is an Assistant Professor of Eurasian History. She teaches classes on Russian, Soviet, and Central Asian history. Professor Kasimova's research and teaching interests include cultural history, history of migration, "new imperial history," as well as construction of "hybrid" Soviet identities, and Soviet Union's engagement with the world. In her work, she aims to "decenter" Russian and Soviet Studies beyond the typical Russocentric narratives that have prioritized or emphasized the imperial centers. She is currently working on her first book manuscript, tentatively titled “Orphans into Soviet Uzbekistanis: Wartime Mass Adoption Movement, Postwar Orphanages and Hybrid Identities, 1941-1981." This project is centered around the generational arc of World War II Soviet orphans and unaccompanied child evacuees, and traces the formative decades of their lives. Kasimova argues that wartime evacuation (and subsequent adoption) of these orphans from Ukraine, Belarus, and other Western "borderlands" into Central Asian families produced a new (“constructivist”) understanding of biological and social kinship, and formed a new Soviet generation that possessed intimate familiarity with the Soviet state from a very young age. This "orphan generation" had acquired a set of skills (from multilingualism to adaptability, flexibility, and mobility) that made them successful Soviets. Ultimately, their sense of multiple belonging and their “constructivist” attitude to reality turned them the core of postwar (multi)national intelligentsia, as well as the backbone of the “Thaw” generation. Simultaneously, Kasimova is conducting research for her second project on the Cold War cultural exchange programs. Kasimova plans to examine the activities of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (founded in 1944), the "People to People" program (established by Dwight Eisienhower in 1956), and Soviet-American "Sister Cities" citizen diplomacy initiative created after the U.S.-U.S.S.R Summit of 1973. Envisioned as a transnational “history from below,” this project aims to demonstrate the hidden agendas of both states behind these "grassroots" initiatives as well as ordinary peoples' attempts to “bridge” the Cold War divide: from Siberia to Alaska, from the U.S. Pacific Northwest to Soviet Central Asia and beyond. The geographic focus of this project will help to shift the attention from Moscow and Washington D.C., and bring the histories of everyday people of Seattle and Tashkent, Stalinabad (Dushanbe) and Boulder, Atlanta and Tbilisi, Donetsk and Pittsburg, Juneau and Vladivostok, Louisville and Perm, Almaty and Tucson to the forefront. The project draws from public archives of non-governmental organizations and thus helps to overcome the limitations and restrictions of post-Soviet state archives.