Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Ethnographic Research on the Question of Diaspora Among Ukraine's Displaced Crimean Populations

该项目旨在了解2014年俄罗斯吞并乌克兰克里米亚半岛后，该地区国内流离失所者的身份形成。自被吞并以来，成千上万对该地区新俄罗斯当局持批评态度的克里米亚人——尤其是乌克兰族和克里米亚鞑靼人——自愿在乌克兰大陆重新定居。随着这些群体在新的地方扎根，许多人开始称自己为“散居者”。他们对这个词的使用令人震惊，因为散居通常意味着跨越国际边界的移民和共同的种族认同，而流离失所的克里米亚人则是种族多样化的，并留在自己的国籍国。考虑到侨民的问题，本项目考察了乌克兰大陆流离失所的克里米亚人如何在新的地缘政治现实面前重新协商种族、国家和地区身份。本研究项目所产生的知识将为理解乌克兰与俄罗斯之间的当代冲突做出宝贵贡献，对政策制定者和社会科学家具有重要意义。该研究项目将依靠民族志领域的方法——包括访谈和参与者观察——直接与乌克兰大陆流离失所的克里米亚人社区接触，并向他们发出声音。利用散居的概念来构建流离失所的克里米亚人身份（再）建构的经历，有助于质疑主流的理论假设，即如果没有共同的种族认同和从一个民族国家迁移到另一个民族国家的经历，移民人口就不是散居的。这种观点排除了在一个民族国家边界内迁移的群体，尽管事实上种族、民族、语言和文化的差异在民族国家内部的人口之间的差异可能与民族国家之间的差异一样大。该项目有助于对流散者进行更批判性的理解，克服“领土陷阱”，或过度依赖民族国家的空间性来构建、询问或解释社会现象。该项目将对整个社会科学中更广泛的散居者和社会空间身份的研究产生重要影响，对乌克兰和整个后苏联空间的身份研究具有特别显著的应用。

This project is aimed at developing an understanding of identity formation among internally displaced peoples from Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula following Russia's annexation of the region in 2014. Since the annexation, thousands of Crimeans critical of the region's new Russian authorities - particularly ethnic Ukrainians and indigenous Crimean Tatars - have voluntarily resettled in mainland Ukraine. As these groups lay down new roots, many have begun referring to themselves as a "diaspora." Their use of this term is striking, as a diaspora typically implies migration across international borders and a common ethnic identity, while displaced Crimeans are ethnically diverse and remain within their country of citizenship. With the question of diaspora in mind, this project examines how displaced Crimeans in mainland Ukraine are renegotiating ethnic, national, and regional identities in the face of new geopolitical realities. The knowledge generated from this research project will make a valuable contribution to understandings of the contemporary conflict between Ukraine and Russia, with important implications for policymakers and social scientists. This research project will rely on ethnographic field methods - including interviews and participant observations - to directly engage with and give voice to communities of displaced Crimeans in mainland Ukraine. Using the concept of diaspora to frame experiences of identity (re)construction among displaced Crimeans serves to problematize the prevailing theoretical assumption that migrant populations are not diasporic without a common ethnic identity and the experience of displacement from one nation-state to another. This view excludes groups that migrate within the borders of a nation-state, despite the fact that differences of race, ethnicity, language, and culture may vary as much among populations within nation-states as they do between them. This project contributes significantly to a more critical understanding of diasporas that overcomes the "territorial trap," or the over-reliance upon spatialities of the nation-state to frame, interrogate, or explain social phenomena. This project will have important implications for the study of diasporas and socio-spatial identities more generally across the social science, with particularly salient applications for the study of identity in Ukraine and throughout the post-Soviet space.