{"id":1244,"date":"2021-05-24T10:20:49","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T14:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=1244"},"modified":"2021-05-24T14:44:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T18:44:01","slug":"five-questions-with-ted-holland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2021\/05\/24\/five-questions-with-ted-holland\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions With &#8230; Ted Holland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Note:&nbsp;2020-21 marks the 20<\/em><sup><em>th<\/em><\/sup><em> anniversary of the Havighurst Center.&nbsp; One of the ways we will mark this occasion is through a regular \u201cFive Questions With \u2026\u201d series, where we will check in with former colleagues, postdoctoral fellows, and students.&nbsp; In this latest installment, Havighurst Center Director Stephen Norris asked Ted Holland five questions. Dr. Holland was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center from 2013-16 and is now Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Geosciences at the <a href=\"https:\/\/fulbright.uark.edu\/departments\/geosciences\/directory\/index\/uid\/echollan\/name\/Edward+C.+Holland\/\">University of Arkansas<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. A lot of your research has focused on the Republic of\nKalmykia: how did you first become interested in that region of Russia? What\nare some of the significant dynamics &#8212; political, cultural, social &#8212; in\nKalmykia?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My path to studying Kalmykia was circuitous. My master&#8217;s thesis was on national identity among the minorities of Dagestan, one of the republics in Russia&#8217;s North Caucasus. During that time, I was also working with a Dagestani geographer on internal migration within the republic. I was initially interested in working in Dagestan, but when I was beginning my PhD fieldwork in the late 2000s the region wasn&#8217;t safe. My colleague in Dagestan put me in touch with a professor at Kalmyk State University who encouraged me to visit the region and facilitated my research there. There weren&#8217;t many people working on Buddhism in Russia&#8211;still aren&#8217;t!&#8211;and I felt that this was a niche I could fill in our academic knowledge of the country. Overall, I think that the view from the margins matters, in Russia and elsewhere. It can be a challenge in Russia for a whole host of reasons, but I would make the case that scholarship on contemporary Russia needs to be more attentive to the country&#8217;s minority groups and geographic peripheries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"564\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/pam1.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1245\" class=\"wp-image-1245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/pam1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/pam1-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/pam1-768x541.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption>Ernst Neizvestny&#8217;s sculpture &#8220;Exodus and Return.&#8221;<br><br><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"715\" height=\"476\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/pam.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1246\" data-link=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?attachment_id=1246\" class=\"wp-image-1246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/pam.jpg 715w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/pam-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 715px) 100vw, 715px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/1024px-Isxodiwozwr1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1247\" data-link=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?attachment_id=1247\" class=\"wp-image-1247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/1024px-Isxodiwozwr1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/1024px-Isxodiwozwr1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/1024px-Isxodiwozwr1-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Two important dynamics in Kalmykia are Buddhism&#8211;more on that\nbelow&#8211;and the legacy of the deportation of the Kalmyk population en masse for\npurported collaboration with the Nazis during World War II.&nbsp;The sculptor\nErnst Neizvestny, who is perhaps best known for the Mask of Sorrow in Magadan\nin the Russian Far East, sculpted the deportation memorial in Elista,\nKalmykia&#8217;s capital. It is called Exodus and Return, and is the gathering spot\nfor commemorating the deportation every December.&nbsp;These dynamics are more\ncomplex than just a monument and commemoration, especially given the\nincreasingly public presence of memory projects associated with the war in\nPutin&#8217;s Russia. I had a Fulbright grant to Kalmykia in 2017 and was there for\nVictory Day (May 9). There was a massive parade from the city center to the\nWorld War II monument and then an Immortal Regiment march. I participated but\nwas thinking the whole time about the fact that the Kalmyks had been deported\nfor a year and a half by the time the war ended. Perhaps that&#8217;s what other\nparticipants were thinking too, and performing the march became even more\nimportant as a display of allegiance to the state.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. When most people think of religion in Russia, they tend to\nthink first of Russian Orthodoxy, then perhaps Islam, and then maybe Judaism.\nYet Buddhism also has a long history in Russia and in Kalmykia particularly,\nthe subject of several of your articles. How did Buddhists in the region\nexperience the Soviet era and how has Buddhism revived since 1991?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Soviets were systematic in their crackdown on Buddhism, but this came after a similar campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church. The worst years for Soviet Buddhists were the late 1930s, with temples closed and razed and monks imprisoned and killed. And like Orthodoxy, Buddhism came to be viewed as something that could be useful to the Soviet state. For example, in 1946 Ivolginsky Datsan opened in the Siberian region of Buryatia; this was the seat of Soviet Buddhism and one of only two functioning Buddhist temples in the country in the late Soviet period. When the Dalai Lama first visited the USSR in 1979, he went to Buryatia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/1024px-Tsogchen-dugan._The_main_cathedral_church_of_the_Ivolginsky_datsan-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1248\" width=\"523\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/1024px-Tsogchen-dugan._The_main_cathedral_church_of_the_Ivolginsky_datsan.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/1024px-Tsogchen-dugan._The_main_cathedral_church_of_the_Ivolginsky_datsan-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/files\/2021\/05\/1024px-Tsogchen-dugan._The_main_cathedral_church_of_the_Ivolginsky_datsan-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 523px) 100vw, 523px\" \/><figcaption>Ivolginsky Datsan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Under Gorbachev, Buddhists in Kalmykia established the first\npost-deportation religious organization in 1988. In the interim between the\nKalmyks&#8217; return from deportation in 1956 and 1957 and Gorbachev&#8217;s reforms,\nthere were former monks who came back to Kalmykia and practiced Buddhism in\nrelative secrecy; this is a fascinating time in the history of Buddhism in\nKalmykia that scholars are just now starting to explore in more\ndepth.&nbsp;&nbsp;In my articles on Buddhism in post-Soviet Kalmykia, I have\nbuilt the case that the republic&#8217;s religious revival has been institutional and\nlinked primarily to national identity. It takes the form of temple\nconstruction, or people identifying as Buddhist but not actively practicing the\nreligion. I&#8217;m also interested in the role that the US-based Kalmyk diaspora has\nplayed in the religion&#8217;s revival. The head of Kalmykia&#8217;s leading Buddhist\norganization, Telo Tulku Rinpoche, was born in the US to Kalmyk parents who\ncame to the States after World War II. And the politics associated with Tibetan\nBuddhism&#8217;s international profile and appeal matter a lot in Russia today, as\nwell. The Dalai Lama&#8217;s last visit to Russia was in 2004, when he stopped in\nKalmykia for a couple of days. He hasn&#8217;t been back since. Russia&#8217;s Buddhists\nare ever hopeful that he will secure a visa to visit, but it has been almost\ntwo decades since this last trip. Instead, many Kalmyk Buddhists go to India or\nelsewhere to hear the Dalai Lama teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Another strand in your research concerns violence in the\nNorth Caucasus region: what are some of the most important conclusions you have\nreached related to this topic?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The North Caucasus are a fascinating part of Russia; I was\nfortunate to travel to Dagestan in April 2017 when I was in Kalmykia on the\nFulbright.&nbsp;I spent five days in the republic&#8217;s capital of Makhachkala,\ngave a talk at the local university, traveled to the city of Derbent (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/02\/18\/world\/europe\/derbent-as-russias-oldest-city-think-again-moscow-says.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Russia&#8217;s oldest\ncity, though this isn&#8217;t without controversy<\/a>), and spent some time in the mountains\nincluding a visit to the silversmith factory at Kubachi. It felt safe&#8211;the\nroads were by far the most dangerous part!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for violence (e.g. bombings, shootings, assassinations,\nbattles between militants and the state) in the region, two things stand out:\n1) the diffusion of violence from Chechnya to Ingushetia and then Dagestan\nafter Ramzan Kadyrov secured control over Chechnya around 2007; and 2) the\ndecline in violence in the North Caucasus over the past decade or so. There is,\nof course, nuance to this story beyond these two overarching conclusions. There\nwas a lot of violence in the region in the early 2000s, with this happening\nalmost exclusively in Chechnya. At the end of that decade there were a number\nof high-profile attacks in Dagestan. Violence declined in the region in part\ndue to significant federal subsidies provided by Moscow to Chechnya, Dagestan,\nand other republics, as well as the tacit encouraging of militants to go to the\nMiddle East to fight with ISIS (where many of them were killed). There is still\nviolence in the region, but these events are more the exception than the rule.\nAt some point I hope to write a book on Russia&#8217;s long war in the North Caucasus,\nmaking the case that Russia&#8217;s experience in the region is a microcosm for the\ncountry&#8217;s post-Soviet political experience: the chaos of the 1990s as reflected\nthrough the first war in Chechnya, the extension of state power during the\n2000s, and the securing of control through cooptation and coercion in the\n2010s. <br>\n<br>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4. What research project (or projects) are you pursuing now and\nwhat scholarly interventions are you hoping to make in it (or them)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So many projects, so little time! I have been working with\nElvira Churyumova from the University of Cambridge on the ways in which Kalmyk\nDPs amended their life stories to avoid repatriation to the Soviet Union from\nEurope after World War II ended, drawing on archival data from the\nInternational Tracing Service that is held digitally at the U.S. Holocaust\nMemorial Museum.&nbsp; This paper is forthcoming at&nbsp;<em>Slavic Review<\/em>&nbsp;and\nshould be out in the Summer 2021 issue. And along with Baasanjav Terbish, we\nare applying for funding to extend the Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation\nProject (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kalmykheritage.socanth.cam.ac.uk\/en\/index.php?language=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.kalmykheritage.socanth.cam.ac.uk\/en\/index.php?language=en<\/a>) to the United\nStates (the project has previously focused on Russia with some interviews in\nChina). This three-year project would interview Kalmyk Americans and gather\ntheir life stories through interviews and digital ethnography. The intended\nculmination of the project is a book on Kalmyk Buddhism in Russia and the\nUnited States. Another project in development is with Carl Dahlman at Miami, on\nautonomy as a way in which states manage their diverse political geographies. I\nalso have papers in various stages of the writing process on topics ranging\nfrom the documentary film&nbsp;<em>Icarus<\/em>&nbsp;(about doping at the 2014\nSochi Olympics) to drug trafficking in Kyrgyzstan to the social media network\nParler and right-wing protest in the U.S. Jack of all trades but master of\nnone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5. You spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow here at Miami and\nat the Havighurst Center: what stands out from that time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The students and faculty of Miami University. I had the\nprivilege of teaching some exceptional students in my Russia-related courses,\nand it has been exciting to see them go on to do great things in their chosen\nprofessions. As for the faculty, I have fond memories of sitting around the\ntable in Harrison Hall eating lunch, discussing a working paper, or chatting\nwith leading scholars in the field. The summer 2016 conference in Vilnius,\nLithuania was another highlight, but also a poignant memory because it was the\nend of my professional affiliation with the Center and the last time I spent\nwith Karen. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to her for giving me the\nopportunity&nbsp;to be a postdoctoral fellow at the Havighurst Center. I often\ntell aspiring academics that persistence is key, but it also takes a lot of\nluck and great mentorship. I was fortunate to have the last in abundance during my time at the Center.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Note:&nbsp;2020-21 marks the 20th anniversary of the Havighurst Center.&nbsp; One of the ways we will mark this occasion is through a regular \u201cFive Questions With \u2026\u201d series, where we will check in with former colleagues, postdoctoral fellows, and students.&nbsp; In &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2021\/05\/24\/five-questions-with-ted-holland\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":1248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}