Glubokovskii district, East Kazakhstan | June 21 - July 2, 2024

Centuries ago, this was a Cossack military outpost, part of Imperial Russia’s project to expand its influence in east Asia.

Pavlodar province, Republic of Kazakhstan | August 18 - 30, 2023

The village of Uspenka, on the Kulundinskaja steppe, was settled by Ukrainian migrants who came here in search of land and a better life during the Russian Empire’s Stolypin land reforms (1906-1914). Our team will document family history, songs, stories of the supernatural, beliefs, rituals, and material culture, with an aim to understanding the mechanism by which Ukrainian language and traditions adapted to the new location and to close contact with Russian- and Kazakh-speaking populations.

Ust-Kamenogorsk province, Kazakhstan | July 5 - 17, 2023

Since the days of Imperial Russia, remote river valleys of the Altai mountains have sheltered runaway serfs, escaped prisoners and Old Believer religious dissidents. On the banks of the Cheremshanka River you can find villages founded by Old Believers in the eighteenth century. Some of their descendents still live here, with memories of the rituals, songs, beliefs and customs of their grandparents’ day.

Katon-Karagai district | August 10 - 23, 2022

In the days of Imperial Russia, in these borderlands, villages along the Bukhtarma river sheltered runaway serfs, escaped prisoners, Old Believer religious dissidents and other refugees from the Russian government. Despite the persecutions of Imperial and Soviet times, many unique cultural and religious traditions have been documented here by past expeditions — funeral customs, wedding rituals, tales of bears and mythological beings, and oral histories of well-remembered ancestors.

Smolensk Province, Russia | February 19 - March 3, 2020

The season of Maslenitsa (aka Butter Week, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrovetide) is a great time to be in Russia. Everywhere people celebrate the end of winter and the promise of spring with music, merriment and a festive procession led by an effigy of Lady Maslenitsa (who is later burned up on a grand bonfire). It is also a good time to meet with the excellent traditional singers in the Yelnya district of Smolensk province. These singers learned their repertoire directly from previous generations, preserving the songs’ archaic language, vocal production and musical style. This expedition will concentrate on recording songs and old tales of local spirits and other mythological beings, as well as documenting the Maslenitsa festivities.