“In Visible Presence” Earns Honorable Mention
The judging panel of the Alexander Nove Prize is the latest to recognize the book In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos, co-authored by Oksana Sarkisova (Blinken OSA Archivum, CEU Visual Studies Platform) and Olga Shevchenko (Williams College). Established by the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies, the Nove Prize is awarded for scholarly work of high quality in Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet studies. Previously, In Visible Presence has earned honorable mentions from the juries of the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History, presented at the annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies, and the Heldt Prize, offered by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.
The laudation from the BASEES panel praises the work as “a rich and brilliantly written exploration of Soviet history and memory through family photographs. Meticulously researched, Sarkisova and Shevchenko’s book uncovers multi-generational perspectives on the Soviet era, all prompted by the same set of photographs. With great care and sensitivity to their sources and interlocutors, the authors unravel layers of memories—both nostalgic and traumatic—revealing silences and unspoken pains in family histories. The book also highlights the entanglements between private and public spheres, showing how family stories intertwine with, and are often exploited by, contemporary memory politics in Russia.
You can read In Visible Presence at the Blinken OSA Archivum. Watch our short interview with Oksana and Olga:
