Dr Hannah Parker joins the team for first semester
4th October 2021
I am delighted to be joining the University of Gloucestershire for semester 1 2021/22 as a part time Lecturer in Russian and Soviet History, whilst Professor Melanie Ilic undertakes her research into the roles of women in Soviet dissident movements. This semester I will be Module Tutor for the undergraduate modules ‘HM4405: Emancipation to Revolution: Russia, 1861-1921’ and ‘HM5406: Revolution from Above: the Soviet Union, 1921-1953’, and am very pleased to be co-teaching on ‘HM5001: Research and Inquiry’ alongside Dr Christian O’Connell.
As Melanie mentioned in her earlier blog, she very kindly agreed to act as external examiner for my doctoral thesis in 2018, providing some incredibly valuable feedback on my own research. I am thrilled to be able to work alongside Melanie this semester, as her research and approach to Soviet history, and women’s history, have been influential to my own.
My research at present focuses on the letters women wrote to authorities and the press in the early Soviet period, and their subjective significance as texts and objects. My research explores the reception of Soviet ideology and discourse among women, examining emotional expressions and constructions of self. I am also in the (very very) early stages of developing a new project examining Aleksandra Kollontai’s diplomatic assignments in Norway in 1922 and 1927-30, as only the third women to undertake modern diplomatic service, but also in effective exile from her work in domestic politics and the Zhenotdel in particular.
I am sure that discussions will be particularly valuable to the preparation of two forthcoming publications, on the value of letters for ‘ordinary’ Soviet women as ‘emotional agents’ in mediating ‘un-Soviet’ emotions, and on gendered articulations of gratitude and loyalty during the Stalinist Terror, which I will be working on this winter. I am very much looking forward to getting to work with, and to share research and perspectives with, the students at the University of Gloucestershire.