Mariya Murashko (Ukraine/Luxembourg)
I am thrilled to be reading for an MPhil in History here at Oxford. I am originally from Kyiv, but moved to Luxembourg when I was seven, where I finished my schooling, before moving to London to pursue a BA in History at UCL. I spent my three years studying diverse time periods and subject matter, which was very fulfilling to a wide scope of my curiosities. I landed on writing a dissertation on how The Arabian Nights could be used as a historical resource for studying non-elite “popular cultures” in late medieval Cairo. By then I understood how much I enjoyed using cultural history as a lens for analysing identity and power, and I realised my attachment to the late medieval time period. I also happened to pick up a great love for folkloristics.
My MPhil project lands me closer to home, studying the northern Black Sea region in the 14th-16th centuries. I am hoping to interrogate how local populations built cultural identities in relation to each other and to the many imperial and state powers invested in the region – from the Golden Horde to the Ottoman Empire, Crimean Khanate, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova, and Muscovy, alongside Genoa, Venice, and the Mamluk empire competing for control of the slave trade. The study of this region is especially affected by a sparse local source base, which has been historically censored, particularly under the Soviet Union. This is accompanied by a scarcity of scholarly attention to the time period surrounding the 15th century, which creates interesting methodological and historiographical challenges for this project. I aim to employ my existing languages, as well as learn Polish and Latin, to undertake a transnational approach, anchoring my multilingual sources within their Black Sea context. As part of this project, I hope to contribute towards a Ukrainian historiography which opposes the imperial, homogenising history pushed by the Russian state by abandoning its politics of superiority and encompassing the culturally heterogenous histories of the Ukrainian region.
The interdisciplinary nature of Ertegun House makes it an incredible place to pursue my research. I began my academic journey fuelled by a desire to know some of everything. Now, whilst I am focused by what I want to accomplish, it nonetheless bridges several different historical and disciplinary fields. I am already inspired by my fellow scholars, excited to learn from, and with them, and contribute to this vibrant and welcoming community.
Beyond academics, I spend my time pursuing dance and choreography, writing (prose, as a rule), and reading a lot of sci-fi/fantasy, among other things.
