NSU professor receives State Department research fellowship

Northeastern State University associate professor of history Dr. Denis Vovchenko will travel to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union this summer as a recipient of the 2017 American Councils Title VIII Advanced Research Fellowship.

Funded by the U.S. Department of State, his fellowship will allow him to conduct field research for a minimum of three consecutive months. Vovchenko plans to collect materials for his new book, tentatively titled: Unorthodox Fascism: Religion and Race in the Far Right in Russia, Greece, and Bulgaria (1905-1939).

There is no comparative investigation of the rise of fascism in Christian Orthodox lands, but I am proposing to go beyond simple comparison of the relative weight of religious and racist elements in three different countries. I will focus on how Russian, Greek and Bulgarian extreme right-wing activists made sense of their shared religion and communicated with or about each other, Vovchenko said.

Vovchenko plans to examine the far-right movements not in isolation, but integrating all national cases into one chronological narrative.

Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Dr. Phillip Bridgmon commended Vovchenkos selection.

Dr. Vovchenko is a leading scholar who enjoys an international reputation, Bridgmon said. His selection by the American Councils for International Education as one of their sponsored research scholars is a well-deserved recognition for him and NSU. His colleagues and I in the College of Liberal Arts applaud this opportunity for Dr. Vovchenko and for the research support made possible by the U.S. Department of State."

About Vovchenko:

Vovchenko grew up as part of the Russian minority in Kazakhstan in the former Soviet Union.

He has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies from Moscow State Lomonosov University. He earned a Ph.D. in Modern European History and the Middle East from the University of Minnesota.

Vovchenko has written several articles about the religious and political aspects of Russia's relations with the Balkans and the Middle East. His first book, Containing Balkan Nationalism: Imperial Russia and Ottoman Christians (1856-1914), is published by Oxford University Press.