KU News Release

KU senior’s essay on Soviet animation wins Laird contest

LAWRENCE — Michelle Tran, a graduating senior from Derby at the University of Kansas, has been named the 13th winner of the prestigious Dr. Roy D. Laird Essay Contest offered by KU’s Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

Tran received the award, which includes a $500 honorarium, at the center’s final brown bag discussion May 8. Her essay was titled “Beyond Disney: The Poetry and Magic of Soviet Animation, 1962-1990.”

Tran said she wanted her essay to show that beyond the popularity of Disney’s animation “there is a whole of part of the animation sphere represented by some very important films produced in the former Soviet Union.”

“Animation was able to slip under the radar of Soviet censorship and truly flourish as an art because the authorities often dismissed animated films as child’s play,” Tran said. “In this way, many animators were able to express themselves more freely than other artists and writers during the Soviet period. Animators were able to avoid Soviet censorship, often embedding their own philosophical or political views and social commentary into their films. Many animated films produced during the Soviet period are still widely viewed today and are highly acclaimed as works of artistic achievement.”

Tran is majoring in Slavic languages and literatures and in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies. She will also earn a minor in Arabic. This summer, Tran will be an intern at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. In September, she will begin working on a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Tran is the daughter of Chinh and Lan Tran of Derby and is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H.

At KU, Tran was one of 75 students selected nationally as a 2006 Harry S. Truman Scholar and one 20 students named nationally to receive a 2005 Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship for outstanding students planning careers in foreign service. She was president of the Dennis E. Rieger Scholarship Hall and was named a woman of distinction by the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center.

The essay contest is named for the late Roy D. Laird, a longtime member of the Russian and East European studies and political science faculties, and Betty Laird, whose support makes the prize possible. Tran’s name will be added to the list of previous winners on a plaque outside the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies office.

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