A PhD scholarship is available to study the poorly understood impact of famine on what has been referred to as the ‘feminised’ rural society in the Soviet Union during the post-war WWII period, where a range of factors left many rural areas with a significant demographic imbalance in favour of women to men. Applicants may address the following questions: how did famine affect this type of society? How did burdens fall differently and how were they dealt with along gendered lines and also by children? What can such a study tell us about the role of gender in famine and shaping post-famine societies?
The candidate will require a working knowledge of the Russian language, have some grounding in the history of the period and, desirably, relevant expertise in histories of gender, human movement, and ecology.
Contact: Dr Filip Slaveski – filip.slaveski@deakin.edu.au\