Students from the CENES Department will be showcasi ng class projects\, independent research\, as well as their work-in-progres s on topics related to central\, eastern\, and northern European Studies\, such as language\, linguistics\, literature\, culture\, and history.
This is a great opportunity for undergraduates to gain experience presentin g their work in a conference setting\, engage in meaningful conversations w ith peers and faculty\, and for student attendees to provide constructive f eedback on their peer's work.
This is a hybrid (in-person and virtual ) Symposium\, which will be held on Friday\, March 20\, 2026 from 1 PM – 4 PM in Buchanan Tower 726 and online via Zoom. Please register h ere if you plan to attend online.
1:1 0 pm - 1:50 pm
[accordions collapsible=true active=false][accord ion title="Luka Lukic deBakker: Visual Representations of Greenland in Denm ark: 1870–1945"]
For much of its history as a Danish colony\, access to Greenland was strictly controlled by the Konglige Grønlandske Handel (Ro yal Greenlandic Trading Company\, KGH)\, limiting who could travel to\, or otherwise directly interact with Greenland to those sanctioned by Danish co lonial authorities. As such\, most Danes’ impressions of Greenland were med iated by its portrayal by those who were granted the opportunity to spend t ime in Greenland.
This thesis will analyse some of these portrayals w hich took visual form\, from the 1870s to 1940s\, the period when it was mo st common for Danish artists to travel to Greenland in order to represent i t visually. Through how these portrayals of Greenland were presented in Den mark\, Greenland was\, somewhat contradictorily\, simultaneously shown to b e part of the Danish Empire through imagery featuring among other things\, the Dannebrog (Danish flag) and national romantic motifs\, and exotified th rough its icy\, mountainous landscape\, drastically different from that of the flat Denmark\, and often misleadingly represented as free of human life \, both colonist and Greenlander.
[/accordion][accordion title="Tyler Horman: Danish Dialects: Language Variety and Inter-Language Contact"]
"Danish Dialects" explores notable examples of dialect variation in the Danish-speaking world\, both within Denmark and abroad\, and features they share with nearby languages. By examining contemporary written and spoken e xamples of non-standard Danish in the Nordic region\, and archival recordin gs and transcriptions of Danish in the Americas\, this project demonstrates the effects of language contact and multilingualism on Danish spoken today or in recent decades.
The project begins with an overview of major D anish dialect groups\, lays out specific examples of syntactic\, phonetic\, and lexical features that distinguish particular varieties from “rigsdansk ” (Standard Danish)\, then situates them geographically to observe how they relate to neighbouring languages including German\, Norwegian\, Swedish\, English\, and Spanish.
This project was developed as a lecture for DA NI 210\, intending to expand on students’ knowledge of rigsdansk and bring awareness to the diverse and often stigmatized local varieties of Danish.
[/accordion][accordion title="Zoé Stojanović: Sámi Language Policy: In digenous Voices\, Narratives and Discourses"]
This paper explores the narratives embedded in public discourse and perception of the revitalisati on process of the Sámi languages. The Sámi languages are the endangered lan guages of the people of Sápmi\, present across Norway\, Finland\, Sweden an d the Russian Kola peninsula. Beyond the details of these extensive policie s and their varied national approaches\, looking at the expression around S ámi languages allows a clear look at the major insights that occupy the dis course of Sámi people today.
Through a qualitative data collection sc oping through social media platforms and analysing its recurring patterns a nd key conflicts\, four major themes emerge as central to this discussion. They include the lack of fluency in language acquisition expressed by nativ e Sámi\, the persistent identification despite these challenges\, the oppor tunity for a global mobility narrative and growing community of practice\, and finally the reaction to majoritarian counternarratives.
Looking d eeper into these themes reasserts the need for a reframing of Sámi issues a s an object inscribed in a national and global context\, deserving of natio nal preoccupation.
[/accordion][accordion title="Malia Eva Kiagasugu Poirier: Uplifting Voices Through Visual Storytelling"]
Last year\, I created an art gallery event to raise awareness of Indigenous injustices\, spending over 40 hours designing art related to MMIWG\, residential school s\, Inuit inequalities\, and cultural resilience. I connected with my Inuvi aluit culture by displaying traditional clothing and artifacts. By networki ng with elders\, I enhanced my knowledge of Inuit history. I practiced advo cacy\, utilized project management to organize the event\, and encouraged v isual storytelling and cultural awareness.
I aim to give the same gal lery walk presentation virtually (via Zoom) to share my artwork and researc h on Northern Indigenous injustices.
This presentation aligns closely with CENS 203 - Arctic Art and Activism.
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2:05 pm - 2:45 pm
[accordions collapsible=true a ctive=false][accordion title="Cornell Xu: The Pivot of Pivot: How does Ener gy Construct Russia’s National Identity in the Era of Global Green Transiti on"]
This research sets out to examine the mechanisms through which t raditional energy shapes Russia’s national identity and to explore how rene wable energy is being discursively and institutionally mobilized under glob al green transition.
Using a qualitative approach grounded in interpr etivism and a two-level theoretical framework\, the study analyzes official documents and academic literature to reveal the mechanisms behind identity formation. The findings show that traditional energy acts as a totalizing foundation for identity\, serving as a material power base\, an institution al backbone for governance\, and a symbolic language of sovereignty. Conver sely\, renewable energy currently plays a peripheral role driven by externa l pressures and path-dependency.
The research highlights a hybrid ide ntity where Russia pragmatically adopts green rhetoric while maintaining it s status as a hydrocarbon superpower. Ultimately\, the study suggests that for a successful transition\, Russia must leverage fossil fuel wealth to fu nd green infrastructure and reposition renewable technology as a new tool o f statecraft.
[/accordion][accordion title="Karen Zhou: New Media for Indigenous Futures"]
I wrote this paper for NORD 341 Arctic Art and Activism with Dr. Tim Frandy last year. It is a comparative essay that disc usses two artists\; one Russian Siberian band named Otyken\, and another mo re local Canadian artist\, Lisa Jackson. The thesis highlights the idea of Indigenous futurism as a movement and how it has been utilized by artists t o combat European colonialist ideas.
The essay touches on various ide as:
[/accordion][accordion title="Vera Arshima Lodge: Cultural Frame Switching and Identity Formation in a Russian Context"]
This presentation explores identity formation in Moscow through the lens of cultural psychology\, focusing in particular on cultural frame switching and the ways individuals come to understand the mselves across different social contexts.
Drawing from lived experien ce alongside cross-cultural research\, I consider how everyday environments cue distinct cultural orientations that shape language use\, emotional exp ression\, aesthetic choices and patterns of interaction. Rather than approa ching identity as something fixed or internally stable\, cultural psycholog y suggests that people move between multiple cultural schemas that become s alient in response to situational cues.
While this process is not uni que to any one place\, Moscow provides a meaningful setting in which histor ical legacies and contemporary global influences intersect in visible ways. By reflecting analytically on these dynamics\, this talk connects personal observation to broader conversations in Central and Eastern European Studi es about memory\, modernity and the ways social environments shape the form ation and expression of identity.
[/accordion][accordion title="Emily Hu\, Rosemary Kim\, Lisa Feng: Framing Civilian Vulnerability: War Photogr aphy and Painting in Bosnia and Ukraine"]
This presentation examines how three visual works foreground civilian vulnerability during wartime thr ough specific compositional strategies.
Focusing on one photograph fr om Ron Haviv’s documentation of the Bosnian War\, Kristina Otchich-Cherniak ’s Not Indifferent\, and Aris Messinis’s photograph of a children’s hospita l converted into a basement shelter in Ukraine\, the project considers how framing\, spatial arrangement and bodily positioning guide the viewer’s att ention. In each case\, the arrangement of figures limits depth\, restricts movement or isolates bodies within stark visual fields\, intensifying the v isibility of exposure.
By comparing these formal strategies across Bo snia and Ukraine\, the presentation argues that compositional choices shape how civilian suffering is seen\, remembered and interpreted within Central \, Eastern and Northern European contexts.
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2:55 pm - 3:3 5 pm
[accordions collapsible=true active=false][accordion title= "Julia Collins: The Metamorphizing Role of the 'Auteur' in Cinema Revolutio ns"]
In my essay I will explore the contrasting nature of the relatio nships that the French New Wave and the Scandinavian Dogme 95 cinema moveme nts have with the idea of auteurship. I will focus on how this relationship is affected by the respective movement's views of Hollywood.
Dogme 9 5 was disgusted with the superficiality and emotional exploitativeness of H ollywood in the nineties\, and in reaction created "The Vow of Chastity\," a set of radically restrictive film-making rules that aimed to revive the a uthenticity of cinema. One of these rules was that the director must not be credited.
French New Wave\, in contrast\, was enamoured with Hollywo od in the sixties\, and chose to interpret the films as artistic visions an d select Hollywood directors as true auteurs. A key element in French New W ave theory was the idea of the "auteur" as being an "author" of a film with a clearly defined artistic voice that was expressed in the film.
[/a ccordion][accordion title="Omar Ammari: The Long Road to Unity: The Struggl e to Unite Germany"]
This presentation examines the long and complex struggle to unite Germany from the early nineteenth century to the end of W orld War II.
I begin with the fragmentation of the German states afte r the fall of the Holy Roman Empire and the rise of nationalism in the 1800 s. I discuss the failed 1848 revolutions and the eventual unification under Otto von Bismarck in 1871. The project then explores how internal tensions \, militarism\, and nationalism shaped the German Empire\, contributed to W orld War I\, and influenced the instability of the Weimar Republic. Finally \, I analyze how these developments created conditions that led to dictator ship and the devastation of World War II.
This topic connects to Cent ral\, Eastern\, and Northern European Studies by showing how German unifica tion and expansion reshaped borders\, identities\, and power structures acr oss the region.
[/accordion][accordion title="Lourine Rissle: The Pol itics of Sexuality in the Far Right: Anti-LGBTQ"]
This project examin es how anti-LGBTQ+ narratives constructed by the German far-right legitimis es the use of violence towards the queer community. The assumed dangers of “gender-ideology” and sexual pluralism has become a core argument of the fa r-right movement across Europe and world wide\, and the impacts are felt bo th in parliament and on the streets.
Examining policies by the AfD (A lternative für Deutschland) and ideology weaponized by Neo-Nazi fringe grou ps such as the “Letzte Verteidungswelle\,” this essay will argue that viole nce towards LGBTQ+ individuals and events is legitimized through the (recon struction) of a homogenous\, “true” Nation. In doing so\, it will also trac e back alt-right ideology to their historical\, fascist origin and evaluate the danger these movements pose towards the queer community and democracy as a whole.
[/accordion][accordion title="Ann-Cathrin Muller: When Mo dernisation Backfired: A Catalyst of Antisemitism in Imperial Germany"]
This presentation would combine two research projects I have completed\, investigating the role of modernisation in amplifying antisemitism in the German Empire with a focus on the period of 1880-1900.
I found that t he desire to modernise among the Jewish societies at this time did not lead to increased respect and acknowledgement from the rest of society\, as the y had hoped for\, but instead manifested and intensified antisemitism. Comb ined with jealousy\, as well as religiously motivated prejudice\, antisemit ism became not just a widespread opinion\, but a solidified ideology with i ncreasingly racist aspects. Political parties instrumentalised the rising a ntisemitism across society to strengthen politically motivated hatred again st Jews to garner support for their agenda.
While there have been man y studies on antisemitism during WWII\, many scholars disregard the importa nce of the Imperial period in laying the groundwork for antisemitism as a r acial ideology. This project therefore deepens the understanding of the dev elopment of these harmful ideas.
[/accordion][accordion title="Jia Gu : Grimm’s Fairy Tales & Vocaloid Music: German Cultural Diffusion in Japane se Popular Culture"]
My research explores the cultural diffusion of t he Grimm’s fairy tales to Japanese popular culture\, with a specific focus on the way these fairy tales have been incorporated and reimagined by Japan ese Vocaloid artists to create a uniquely Japanese interpretation.
My work highlights the intersection between German and Japanese culture throu gh the medium of popular music. The Grimm’s fairy tales originated as a ser ies of folklore—a malleable and adaptive form of storytelling that continue s to take on new meaning. A close reading of contemporary retellings of the se fairy tales highlight the ways German media continues to inspire other c ultures\, and reveals the way these fairy tales continue to resonate with p eople today.
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CATEGORIES:Featured Danish,Featured Events,Featured German,Featured Homepage,Featured Modern European Studies,Featured Nordic Studies,Featured Polish,Featured Russian,Featured Slavic Studies,Featured Swedish,Featured Ukrainian,Featured Undergraduate,Featured Yiddish LOCATION:Buchanan Tower 726 + Online GEO:49.268580;-123.253452 URL;VALUE=URI:https://cenes.ubc.ca/events/event/cenes-undergraduate-researc h-symposium-2026/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cene.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2026/03/kenny-eliason-1-aA2Fadydc-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:20260308T100000 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR