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境内流离失所者的身份形成。自吞并以来，数千名批评该地区新俄罗斯当局的克里米亚人--特别是乌克兰族和克里米亚土着鞑靼人--自愿在乌克兰大陆重新定居。随着这些群体扎下新的根，许多人开始称自己为“散居者”。“他们使用这个词是惊人的，因为散居通常意味着跨越国际边界和共同的民族身份的移民，而流离失所的克里米亚人是种族多样的，并留在他们的国籍国。考虑到散居的问题，这个项目探讨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谈判种族，民族和地区身份。该研究项目产生的知识将为理解乌克兰和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为其发声。使用流散的概念，框架流离失所的克里米亚人之间的身份（重建）建设的经验，以质疑流行的理论假设，即移民人口不是流散没有一个共同的民族身份和流离失所的经验，从一个民族国家到另一个。这种观点排除了在民族国家边界内迁移的群体，尽管民族国家内的种族、民族、语言和文化差异可能与民族国家之间的差异一样大。这个项目有助于克服“领土陷阱”，或过度依赖民族国家的空间性来框定，询问或解释社会现象的散居更关键的理解。该项目将对整个社会科学中更普遍的散居和社会空间身份的研究产生重要影响，特别是对乌克兰和整个后苏联空间的身份研究的突出应用。

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.