http://www.awsshome.org/past-awards.html

Olga Shevchenko Wins Best Book Award for Study of Crisis in Moscow

Best book by a woman in any area of Slavic/East European/Eurasian
studies:

Olga Shevchenko, Crisis and the Everyday in Postsocialist Moscow,
Indiana University Press, 2009

The Committee praised Crisis and the Everyday as smart, sophisticated,
and also very timely. The book is a very thorough exploration of the
discourse and experience of crisis among Muscovites in their everyday
lives. What happens to people when the hubris of empire is exposed as
unsustainable, and the ontological reality of an entire nation must be
radically reshaped within a few short years? This is not only a picture
of an actual crisis, but a portrait of how people construct and deploy a
discourse of crisis within the quotidian moments of daily life.
Shevchenko argues that the imagination of the crisis was just as
important as the crisis itself, and that individual reactions to
personal crisis reinforced and deepened the larger societal crisis. Dr.
Shevchenko has mastered Western sociological and anthropological theory
and method, while never losing sight of the deeper intricacies of the
process of social change in Russia. The strength of this book is its
focus on everyday experience, an analytic frame which is so often
ignored, but which has provided incredibly rich scholarship in the past.
Dr. Shevchenko perfectly captures the angst of Russia in the 1990s
through the words and thoughts of her diverse informants, giving us a
window into the internal anxieties and survival strategies of a
population caught in the midst of radical social, political, and
economic change. Chapter 6, about building autonomy in everyday life, is
particularly brilliant, demonstrating how Muscovites internalized
postmodern individualism and walled themselves off from the state and
from each other. It includes a fascinating reexamination of Russians'
purported political apathy, and a persuasive argument about how their
withdrawal from politics is nevertheless staged in highly politicized
terms and based on renewed commitment to family. This leads Dr.
Shevchenko to a sophisticated critique of the concept of civil society
and its potential for stimulating political engagement. The Committee
liked this book for its careful methodology, intellectual boldness, and
the hopeful note upon which it ends. This is an intimate portrait of
Russians in the 1990s, beautifully written and an exemplary piece of
scholarship.

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http://www.williams.edu/admin/news/releases/1888/

A new book by Olga Shevchenko, assistant professor of sociology at
Williams College , has been awarded a 2009 Heldt Prize from the
Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS). The prize, awarded Nov.
14, recognizes the best book by a woman in any area of Slavic/East
European/Eurasian studies.

Shevchenko's book, "Crisis and the Everyday in Postsocialist Moscow"
(Indiana University, 2009) is ethnography of daily life in the city in
the late 1990s.

It draws from more than 100 in-depth interviews with Muscovites to
understand how political uncertainty affected individuals' basic notions
of how their life was to be lived, and what constituted practical
competence, safety, or freedom in such radically changed environment.

The AWSS praised the book for being "smart, sophisticated, and also very
timely." The prize committee lauded Shevchenko's "careful methodology"
and "intellectual boldness," her unusual choice of everyday experience
as an "analytic frame," and her ability to "perfectly capture the angst
of Russia."

"Your intimate and insightful portrait of Russians in the 1990s is
beautifully written and an exemplary piece of scholarship," the
committee officially communicated to Shevchenko.

The book takes the reader into the kitchens and offices, markets and
subway crossings, streets and squares of Moscow to explore the
"postsocialist crisis" not as an external disaster, but as the routine
and daily reality of everyday life in Russia.

Shevchenko argues that after many years of instability, crisis became "a
symbolic resource, and grew to become the individuals' second nature, a
source not only of daily aggravations, but, paradoxically, also of a
sense of identity, dignity, and status."

As Muscovites learned to judge themselves by how successfully they could
cultivate practical and mental autonomy from their disorderly environs,
their families offered a political and symbolic refuge, a "safety
buffer" from the chaos outside. But as the family became more important,
wider networks and solidarities became less so, making collective action
even less likely than it seemed in the immediate aftermath of 1991.

At Williams since 2002, Shevchenko's research is focused on memory and
identity, postsocialism, everyday life, and culture and consumption. She
has taught the courses "Images and Society," "Communism and Its
Aftermath," and "Memory and Identity."

Shevchenko's research has been published in a number of journals,
including Social Identities, Health and Human Rights, Journal of
Consumer Culture, Communist and Post-Communist Studies and Europe-Asia
Studies, as well as edited volumes, such as "Russian Transformations."

She is the recipient of a number of awards, including an International
Collaborative Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research in 2006 and a Class of 1945 World Fellowship
awarded by Williams College in 2005.

Shevchenko received her B.A. from Moscow State University and her Ph.D.
in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.