WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Nov. 23, 2009 -- A new book by Olga Shevchenko, assistant professor of sociology at Williams College, has been awarded a 2009 Heldt Prize from the Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS). The prize, awarded Nov. 14, recognizes the best book by a woman in any area of Slavic/East European/Eurasian studies.

Shevchenko's book, "Crisis and the Everyday in Postsocialist Moscow" (Indiana University, 2009) is ethnography of daily life in the city in the late 1990s.

It draws from more than 100 in-depth interviews with Muscovites to understand how political uncertainty affected individuals' basic notions of how their life was to be lived, and what constituted practical competence, safety, or freedom in such radically changed environment.

The AWSS praised the book for being "smart, sophisticated, and also very timely." The prize committee lauded Shevchenko's "careful methodology" and "intellectual boldness," her unusual choice of everyday experience as an "analytic frame," and her ability to "perfectly capture the angst of Russia."

"Your intimate and insightful portrait of Russians in the 1990s is beautifully written and an exemplary piece of scholarship," the committee officially communicated to Shevchenko.

The book takes the reader into the kitchens and offices, markets and subway crossings, streets and squares of Moscow to explore the "postsocialist crisis" not as an external disaster, but as the routine and daily reality of everyday life in Russia.

Shevchenko argues that after many years of instability, crisis became "a symbolic resource, and grew to become the individuals' second nature, a source not only of daily aggravations, but, paradoxically, also of a sense of identity, dignity, and status."

As Muscovites learned to judge themselves by how successfully they could cultivate practical and mental autonomy from their disorderly environs, their families offered a political and symbolic refuge, a "safety buffer" from the chaos outside. But as the family became more important, wider networks and solidarities became less so, making collective action even less likely than it seemed in the immediate aftermath of 1991.

At Williams since 2002, Shevchenko's research is focused on memory and identity, postsocialism, everyday life, and culture and consumption. She has taught the courses "Images and Society," "Communism and Its Aftermath," and "Memory and Identity."

Shevchenko's research has been published in a number of journals, including Social Identities, Health and Human Rights, Journal of Consumer Culture, Communist and Post-Communist Studies and Europe-Asia Studies, as well as edited volumes, such as "Russian Transformations."

She is the recipient of a number of awards, including an International Collaborative Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research in 2006 and a Class of 1945 World Fellowship awarded by Williams College in 2005.

Shevchenko received her B.A. from Moscow State University and her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.Ã,�

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News: Alison Hansen-Decelles