Heather Sonntag

Heather S. Sonntag is a PhD candidate in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, specializing in Central Asian Cultural History. Her dissertation project will utilize visual culture to assess Russian and Soviet domination of local populations in Central Asia. The project will focus on the photographic representations of Central Asia compiled in three albums, spanning the first decade of Russian dominance in Turkestan, dating approximately from 1864-1876. She will compare these photos to twentieth-century images and actual locations to explore exploitative land use and constructions of ethnic identity. Heather’s studies at UW-Madison have been supported by Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships for Russian and Uzbek. The Scott Kloeck-Jenson award will fund pre-dissertation travel to Saint Petersburg, Russia, where she will collect visual data on two albums, in addition to related historical documentation. This research will then be applied to further fieldwork conducted in Uzbekistan.