Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2004
Courtney
Doucette, ’04, from Racine, has begun a ten-month study
of Russian history at the European University in St. Petersburg, courtesy of
a $23,000 grant from the J.
William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. This is the second straight
year and the third time in the past four years that a Lawrence student has
been awarded a Fulbright
Fellowship.
Doucette’s research is centered on the impact of political regimes on
the way we understand the past, and she also is working outside of academia
to explore the way ordinary citizens regard history after the “official” view
of the past is significantly changed.
"Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russians have had to question
what really happened in their country while the Communist regime was in power,” says
Doucette, a history and Russian double major, as well as a founding member
and former president of Lawrence’s Russian and East European Club.
“There now is strong evidence suggesting that events of the Soviet era
played out differently than the Party claimed. The new political regime’s
power is based partly on its ability to disprove the Communist Party’s
view of history, and thus there is a need to radically reinterpret and rewrite
history
in Russia.”
She also is exploring the impact the Soviet regime had on the content of
Russian history books and the ways the post-Soviet regime has rewritten them.
In addition,
and outside the formality of the European University, she hopes to examine
ways personal experiences and oral histories challenge the officially sanctioned
interpretations of the past.
In addressing the second question, she plans to observe what today’s
youngest generation of
Russians are learning about their history through observation sessions at
primary and secondary schools.
She also is becoming involved with Memorial, a non-profit organization in
St. Petersburg that chronicles the experiences of victims of Stalinism.
"Part of my interest in Russian history and culture stems from my interest
in the process of writing history,” says Lawrence’s latest Fulbright
Scholar, who previously spent time in Russia on an off-campus study program
in Krasnodar. “Contemporary
Russia provides an ideal context for me to investigate that process. As a Fulbright
Scholar, I’ll be able to improve my Russian skills, gain valuable experience
with Russian archival sources, and form connections with professional Russian
scholars.”
Following her year abroad, she plans to pursue graduate studies in Russian
history, with the hope of eventually teaching at the college level.