Archivum Fellow Oksana Sarkisova and IAS Alumna Olga Shevchenko Honored for In Visible Presence
Oksana Sarkisova, Research Fellow at Blinken OSA Archivum and Head of Visual Studies Platform (CEU), and Olga Shevchenko, Paul H. Hunn `55 Professor in Social Studies (Williams College), received two Honorable Mentions—the 2024 Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History and the 2024 Heldt Prize granted by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies—for their co-authored book. In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos (MIT Press, 2023) is an astonishing journey into domestic photography, family memory, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the Soviet past.
The Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History recognizes outstanding monographs published on Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia in the field of history.
From the statement of the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize committee: “Richly illustrated and brilliantly argued, Oksana Sarkisova and Olga Shevchenko’s book In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos is a model of interdisciplinary research. Sarkisova and Shevchenko take the reader on a journey through the meanings of personal photographs from the Soviet era and what they tell us about experience, memory, and silences about the past.”
The 2024 Prize committee included Aaron Retish (chair), Małgorzata Fidelis, and Stephen Norris.
The Heldt Prize, granted by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS), honors the accomplishments of Barbara Heldt, one of the founding figures of Slavic Studies in the United States and of the association. In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos was recognized with a Heldt Prize Honorable Mention in the category of best book introducing new, innovative, and/or underrepresented perspectives into any area of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies.
From the Heldt prize committee statement: “With its presentation of over 250 beautifully reproduced black and white photos and its fascinating analyses of how people narrate the stories behind these photos, the study provides unparalleled insights into the tensions between the forms of post memory available in the public arena and in family discourses.” The 2024 Heldt Book Prize committee included Michele Rivkin-Fish, Daria Mattingly, Nicole Monnier, Dragana Obradovic, and Bojana Videkanic.
The recognitions were announced at the 56 Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) that took place on November 21–24, 2024, in Boston.
Watch the video of the official book launch at the Blinken OSA Archivum, which took place on January 18, 2024
