Spring 2023 Events
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The Global Impacts of the War in Ukraine: Family and War
Dr Elena Kopteva was born in Ukraine and spent part of her childhood in Siberia, Russia before returning to study in Ukraine for university. When war broke out, she with her family had to leave Ukraine, going first to Poland and then the Czech Republic before arriving in the United States. |
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REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Claire Shaw, "Writing the History of the Soviet Body: Questions and Approaches"
In this Noontime Scholars Lecture, Dr. Claire Shaw will discuss her current book project, Socialist Bodies, which considers the history of the body as both a revolutionary dream and an embodied reality under Soviet socialism. The Bolshevik desire to transform and perfect the human body was a central goal of the revolution, reflecting wider ideological and scientific visions of the future of communism. Yet this dream was fraught with complexity, challenged by the messy realities of the imperfect human body, and struggling to translate the lofty ideological goals put forward by Trotsky and others into an embodied experience of Soviet everyday life. This paper will discuss the questions and challenges raised by the project and consider how it responds to wider literatures on the history of the body and of the Soviet Union. Claire Shaw is Associate Professor in the History of Modern Russia at the University of Warwick. Her research focuses on the history of disability, the senses and the body under Soviet socialism. She is the author of the prize-winning monograph Deaf in the USSR: Marginality, Community, and Soviet Identity, 1917-1991 (Cornell University Press, 2017). |
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REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Franziska Yost, "Gay Erotica in the Post-Soviet Sexual Revolution, 1990-98"
With the collapse of the USSR, Russian society experienced a sexual revolution in which it became possible to discuss, create, and consume sexuality in new ways and on a greater order of magnitude than had been previously possible. This revolution included gay men, who published newspapers and magazines including nude photography, lewd caricatures, and erotic fiction. The editors of these magazines understood this production of Russian gay erotica not simply as a way to boost circulation but also as part of a wider project of the development of a national gay culture in their country. This talk will feature viewing and discussion of these materials and their significance, focusing on what they tell us about these would be gay culture-builders. Franziska Yost is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently finishing her dissertation explicating the production of LGBTQ identity in Russia during the 1990s. |
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REEEC New Directions Lecture: Jessica Werneke, "Sovetskoe Foto and De-Westernizing Photography Theory"
The history of photography and photography theory in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is often preoccupied with “Western” criticism and arguments about the photograph as art, document or technology. Yet, this criticism has ignored the development of photographic theory in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s, where prominent Russian theorists used the journal Sovetskoe foto (The Soviet Photo) as a platform to devise their own interpretations of the social purpose of photography in the USSR. These elucidations were based on a number of factors that were Soviet specific: the legacy of Stalinism, photographers’ lack of access to prestigious artistic circles, and explaining photography within the context of Socialist Realism, the officially mandated artistic style of the Soviet Union. An investigation of how these theoreticians conceived of photography within the ideological and aesthetic boundaries set by cultural authorities and photographers themselves is warranted, not least because it addressed theoretical problems that were absent from and irrelevant to discourses about photography in the Capitalist West. Nevertheless, there are several similarities, particularly when it came to discussions of documentary photography as art. In the 1950s and 1960s, rather than questioning the documentary authenticity of photographs, critics publishing in Sovetskoe foto tended to rely on the camera’s perceived inability to lie, despite evidence of photographic manipulation in previous decades. The resulting stylistic and analytic discussions about photography led to the development of Socialist Realist photography, or “artistic photojournalism,” the theoretical scope of which has been largely ignored by Western scholars. Jessica Werneke is a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of Iowa and former Assistant Professor of Comparative Humanities at Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan. She received her BA in History from the University of Iowa (2007) and Ph.D. in Modern European History with a concentration in Russian and Soviet visual culture from the University of Texas at Austin (2015). Afterwards, she held postdoctoral research fellowships at the International Centre for the History of World War II and its Consequences at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow Russia and was a British Academy Newton International Fellow at Loughborough University in the UK. Dr. Werneke has taught broadly in history, but primarily her courses focus on modern Russian cultural history, Europe after World War II, as well as historiography and historical methods. |
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REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Catherine Prendergast, "The Man Who Wasn’t There: Excavating the life of Schachno Epstein, GRU agent in the Yiddish Press"
This presentation introduces Schachno Epstein who as a secret agent worked behind the scenes to shape everything from America’s nascent Communist Party to Stalin’s Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. As editor of the Frayhayt, Epstein became a chief player in the ComIntern’s policy of infiltrating American trade unions to bring them under Moscow’s control. He recruited spies for GRU including, famously, American Juliet Stuart Poyntz, who in 1937 he helped execute in New York. Later, he was the shadow secretary of the doomed Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, reporting the committee’s activities to the NKVD, and contributing to the eventual execution of its members. This talk describes how Epstein, a man with five aliases whose most common name has been variously transliterated from Yiddish to English, slipped through the cracks of history. I discuss the Yiddish sources and Comintern files that record his remarkable and revealing life. Catherine Prendergast is a Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Fulbright Scholar. Interviewed by NPR and New York Magazine, she has written on battles over school desegregation, anxieties over the global spread of English, and recognition of disability rights. Originally from New Jersey, she can now be found amidst the cornfields of the Midwest with her husband and son. |
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Illinois Global Institute 2023 Career Day
Current and recent University of Illinois graduate and undergraduate students are invited to attend the Illinois Global Institute Career Day. Please join us on Friday, March 3, 2023 for a day focusing on using foreign language, area studies, and thematic studies in careers in government, business, university, non-profit organizations, and more. Come learn how to identify and better communicate your skills, hear professionals discuss their current positions and paths from graduation to employment, connect with alumni through informational interviews, and engage with peers, colleagues, alumni, and staff at the networking reception! |
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Holding Putin Accountable for "Crimes Against Peace" (EUC Spring 2023 Brown Bag)
As Russia continues to wage a predatory war against Ukraine, international lawyers and world leaders have been drafting proposals for a “special international tribunal” to try Putin for waging an illegal war of aggression—committing crimes against peace. What are crimes against peace? Why will it be critical to hold Putin and other Russian leaders accountable for waging an illegal war? Why is it important to talk about postwar justice now? How can the history of war crimes trials help us to think about and plan for the future? This brown bag talk, organized by the European Union Center, is part of the Illinois Global Institute's Spring 2023 Series, "The Global Impacts of War in Ukraine." Register here. About the speaker: Francine Hirsch is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches courses on Russian and Soviet history, postwar Europe, and the history of human rights. Her first book, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Cornell, 2005), received several awards, including the Wayne S. Vucinich Prize of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Her second book, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War Two (Oxford, 2020), won four book prizes including the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association. Hirsch has published in a number of venues including the New Republic, Time, the LA Times, and the Washington Post. Hirsch has launched a new book project on the long history of Russian-American entanglement, tentatively titled "Enemies, A Love Story." |
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Jewish Studies Lecture, Sasha Senderovich: "How the Soviet Jew Was Made"
Sasha Senderovich discusses his new book, How the Soviet Jew Was Made, published by Harvard University Press in 2022 and named a finalist for the 2023 National Jewish Book Award. In insightful readings of Yiddish and Russian literature, films, and reportage, Senderovich finds characters traversing space and history and carrying with them the dislodged practices and archetypes of a lost Jewish world. Senderovich urges us to see the Soviet Jew anew, as not only a minority but also a particular kind of liminal being. Sasha Senderovich is an Assistant Professor in Slavic Languages & Literatures and the Jackson School of International Studies, and a faculty affiliate at the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle |
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Jewish Studies Seminar: "In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Translating Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union"
Despite a steady stream of scholarship and literary translation related to the Holocaust and its aftermath, very little literature published in the former USSR is available in English. In their current collaborative translation of eight different writers – some of whom wrote in Yiddish and others in Russian – Harriet Murav (U of I) and Sasha Senderovich (University of Washington) seek to capture a rich and complex cultural conversation about the nature of historical trauma and memory in texts written after and about the Holocaust. This seminar will outline a broader conceptual framework that will eventually form the introduction to this collection of translated short fiction, forthcoming from Stanford University Press. |
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Research and Language Learning Discussion Series: Marianne Kamp, "Learning to Listen in Uzbek: Oral History and Language Proficiency"
The Language Workshop at Indiana University, the Slavic Reference Service, and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) are hosting an online discussion series - Research and Language Learning. We are inviting established scholars and students to discuss the role language proficiency plays in conducting research, using examples of published scholarly works or ongoing research projects. The initiative will be launched with the Turkic languages of Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Uyghur, and Uzbek. We welcome language learners of all academic backgrounds to participate in these discussions. The next installment features Dr. Marianne Kamp. Join us on March 23 at 3pm CT for the talk entitled "Learning to Listen in Uzbek: Oral History and Language Proficiency." For more information and to register, please visit: https://forms.gle/Lz15p4ua3efrfrebA. |
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Information Session - Language Careers at the National Security Agency (NSA)
Are you interested in applying your foreign language skills to aid in national defense? What does it take to be a Language Analyst at NSA? What’s the work like? Join Jenny W., NSA Language Outreach Lead, for an information session to explore potential learning opportunities and career paths at NSA! Hosted by the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies in partnership with the Center for Global Studies, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Russian, East European and Eurasia Center, and Woman and Gender in Global Perspectives Program |
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IGI Series on Global Responsibilities: Jose Duran, "Lights and Shadows of War in the Ukraine: Economic and Social Effects on Latin America and the Caribbean"José E. Durán Lima is currently an Economic Affairs Officer and a Chief of International trade and Regional Integration Unit at the Division of International Trade and Integration of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Barcelona. He has more than 25 years’ experience as a researcher and consultant and has a particular interest in areas of research such as Regional Integration, Vertical Specialization, Export Promotions, International Trade, Asia Pacific, and General Equilibrium Models. He has several published papers and has contributed several chapters of several ECLAC flagship publications: Foreign Investment in Latin American and the Caribbean and International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean, among others. He is also a co-editor of several reference documents relating to trade policies in Latin America and the Caribbean including South American IO Matrix: main assumptions and methodology; The Pacific Alliance and its Economic Impact on Regional Trade and Investment: Evaluation and Perspectives and Latin America in global value chains.
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Creative Clippings: Polish Paper Cuts
This free family event is a celebration of wycinanki, the Polish folk art of paper cutting. Activities will be available for family members age five and above and include coloring pages and cutting sheets of designs ranging from simple to intricate. Polish folk music will provide a lively background for the fun. Polish papercuts come in two distinct formats, each based in a different region of the country. Those from Kurpie are cut from a single piece of paper, folded once, which results in a symmetrical design. Those from Lowicz start with a design base that is then covered in multiple layers of colored paper. Plants and animals serve as common design motifs, with roosters and multilayered flowers as traditional favorites. This event is a collaboration of the Spurlock Museum and the UIUC Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center. Contact Kim Sanford (Spurlock, ksheahan@illinois.edu) or Danielle Sekel (REEEC, dsekel2@illinois.edu) for further information. |
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IGI Series on Global Responsibilities: Monika Stodolska, "Ukrainian Refugees in Poland and the Response of the Polish and Ukrainian Immigrant Population to the Refugee Crisis"The Russian invasion of Ukraine gave rise to a refugee crisis that is unprecedented in history. The scale and the speed of the migration made it one of the largest migration crises currently unfolding in the world and was declared a Level 3 (the highest) emergency by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The great majority of Ukrainian refugees (over 9,25 million as of 1/18/23) who crossed the Ukrainian border settled in Poland. Almost all of them were women and children. The talk will explore the findings of a study on the experiences of post-February 24th, 2022, Ukrainian refugees in Poland and the Polish and Ukrainian immigrant populations’ response to the refugee crisis. In particular, the talk will examine how the Ukrainian refugees adapt to life in Poland and how they cope with the trauma of war and resettlement. It will also investigate how the local volunteer networks were established in Poland and how they evolved in the days, weeks, and months following the beginning of the refugee crisis. Dr. Monika Stodolska is a Brightbill/Sapora Professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism, University of Illinois. She received her Ph.D. in 1999 from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada. Her research focuses on the roles of leisure, recreation, and sport in improving health and well-being among ethnic and racial groups and immigrants. Her studies explored the development of ethnic identities as well as cultural change and adaptation among immigrants. Dr. Stodolska’s research has been funded by the USDA Forest Service, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The National Research Foundation of Korea, and The National Recreation and Park Association. She has co-edited books on Race, Ethnicity and Leisure and two editions of Leisure Matters: The State and Future of Leisure Studies. Among other outlets, her research has also been published in Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, Journal of Leisure Research, and Leisure Sciences.
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REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Kenneth J. Yin, "Dungan Folktales and Legends: The Sino-Muslim Folkloric Narrative Tradition of Central Asia"
This presentation discusses the findings of an in-depth structural and comparative analysis of folk narratives of the Dungan people, Sino-Muslims who first migrated from northwest China to Russian Central Asia after the suppression of the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877). Conducted in the second half of the twentieth century by Boris Riftin, Makhmud Khasanov, and Il′ias Iusupov, the study indicates that Dungan folk narratives are deeply rooted in Chinese storytelling traditions but also exhibit substantial Middle Eastern, East Asian, and Central Asian influence. Detailed findings of this study and the full texts of seventy-eight folk stories are available for the first time in an annotated English version by Kenneth J. Yin, under the title Dungan Folktales and Legends (2021), volume 16 in the Peter Lang International Folkloristics series. Kenneth J. Yin teaches modern languages, literatures, and linguistics at the City University of New York. His scholarly work centers on the Dungan literature and culture of Central Asia, as well as the Tungus literatures and cultures of North Asia—namely Siberia and the Russian Far East—with a focus on Udege, Nanai, and Evenk. A graduate of Cornell University and Georgetown University, he has received fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the City University of New York. He is the author of Dungan Folktales and Legends (Peter Lang, 2021) [https://doi.org/10.3726/b18299] and Mystical Forest: Collected Poems and Short Stories of Dungan Ethnographer Ali Dzhon (Peter Lang, 2023) [https://doi.org/10.3726/b18961]. |
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IGI Series on Global Responsibilities: Margarita Balmaceda, "Russia's War on Ukraine: Impacts on the Global South"In the aftermath of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, the United States, Canada, and the European Union states showed unusual unity in identifying Russia as an aggressor and taking swift measures both to move away from energy dependency on Russia and to institute sanctions to limit Russia's ability to finance this war. In the Global South, however, the range of responses has been wider, with much more of a sympathetic ear to Russia’s position. This webinar will focus on some of the geopolitical and geo-economic impacts of the war on Global South states including the Middle East and North Africa states, as well as on the less obvious but crucial energy links connecting Russia with these countries. Currently, Dr. Balmaceda is an Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. A specialist on the comparative energy politics of the post-Soviet states, since 2000 she has been “following the pipeline” – i.e. following the complex web of interconnections that accompany the energy relationship between Russian oil and gas producers, post-Soviet transit states, and European consumers.
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Nerses Kopalyan: "Armenia's Pivot to the West: Collapse of the Russian-Led Security Architecture in the South Caucasus"
Russia's power and influence in the South Caucasus has exponentially diminished due to its invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent failures of securing a swift outcome. As the entirety of the resources of the Russian state is being allocated to the Ukrainian front, the peripheries of the post-Soviet Space, traditionally placed within Russia's sphere of influence, are dealing with the consequences of Russia's decline. In the South Caucasus, the Russian-led security architecture collapsed after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, as Azerbaijan initiated hostilities against Armenia. Russia's failure to meet its obligations as the security guarantor of Armenia, and Russia's subsequent alliance with Azerbaijan prior to its invasion of Ukraine, has altered the reconfigurations in the region. Armenia, having democratized after the 2018 Velvet Revolution, has sought a pivot to the West, while a new Russo-Azerbaijani axis has formed to both curtail Armenia's pivot as well as keep the West out of the South Caucasus. With the regional hegemon in decline, and the West's attempt to fill this power vacuum, what are the trajectories of instability, democratization, and potential developments for the region? Nerses Kopalyan, Ph.D., is an assistant professor-in-residence of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His fields of specialization include international relations, political theory, and philosophy of science. He has conducted extensive research on analytic philosophy, feminist theory, and paradigm building. He is the co-author of Sex, Power, And Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). He is also the author of World Political Systems After Polarity (Routledge, 2017). His current research concentrates on political violence and terrorism, and its impact on geopolitical and great power relations. |
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IGI Series on Global Responsibilities: John Ulimwengu, "The impact of Russia-Ukraine Conflict on Food and Nutrition Security in Africa: A Call for a More Resilient African Food System"In February 2022, war erupted between Russia and Ukraine.These two countries account for about 12 percent of the total calories traded in the world, raising serious concerns about the implications for global food security. Although it is too early to draw a conclusion on the capacity of the world to absorb these stressors and rebound, past trends, early macroeconomic impacts, and policy responses can provide a glimpse of possible impacts. As pointed out by Mme Sacko (the African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture) and Mr. Mayaki (the former CEO of AUDA-NEPAD), while Africa is still recovering from the socioeconomic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict poses another major threat to the global economy, with many African countries being directly affected. Wheat consumption in Africa is projected to reach 76.5 million tons by 2025, of which 48.3 million tons or 63.4 percent, is projected to be imported outside the Continent. Russia and Ukraine are major players in the export of wheat and sunflower to Africa. Thirty-two percent of total African wheat imports come from Russia and 12 percent from Ukraine. The presentation will present early impacts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on food and nutrition security in Africa as well as a review of policy responses. Dr. John Ulimwengu is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (https://www.ifpri.org/profile/john-ulimwengu). He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University (USA), and Master in Development Economics from Williams College (USA). His research interests include resilience, food systems, poverty dynamics, and network analysis. Since 2007, Dr. Ulimwengu has been involved in strategic research on the transformation of agricultural sector in Africa under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) agenda. In 2017-2021, he was the Africa-wide coordinator of the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS, www.resakss.org). |
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REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Alyssa Mathias, "Songs from the Silicon Mountains: Music and IT Development in 21st-Century Armenia"
Since the decentralization of Armenia’s cultural sector in the 1990s, Armenian musicians have found precarious work with NGOs and for-profit companies whose missions are not the preservation of cultural heritage, but instead development priorities like democracy building, conflict transformation, and economic growth. This talk focuses on the surprising prevalence of traditional music in Armenia’s burgeoning information technology sector, where musicians teach folk songs to young coding students, consult on heritage-related mobile apps, and lead traditional dances at industry trade shows. Based on fieldwork in Armenia and the diaspora, I inquire into this confluence of art and technology, suggesting that it signifies on multiple levels: the push among transnational development agencies to support creative economies, the legacy of Soviet perspectives on artistic and scientific innovation, and the pervasiveness of local anxieties over ethical citizenship and ethical work. Alyssa Mathias is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Knox College. Having conducted ethnographic research with musicians in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Russia, and the United States, her work focuses on the possibilities and challenges of arts-based development in the South Caucasus, with case studies in conflict transformation, information technology, and sustainability. She is also working on a multigenerational study of silence in the US Armenian diaspora. A violinist and singer, Mathias earned her PhD in Ethnomusicology from UCLA and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute during the 2021-2022 academic year. |
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Away from the Empire: The Linguistic and Cultural Shift in Ukraine in the Wake of the Russian Invasion: Alex Averbuch and Yuliya Ilchuk
The Russian-Ukrainian war of the 21st century aimed not only to physically destroy Ukraine but also to expand the linguistic borders of the “Russian world,” denationalize Ukraine, and reestablish the cultural dominance of Russia over the Ukrainian people. The war that began in 2014 and intensified in the last year's invasion has led to a cultural and linguistic shift from Russian to Ukrainian among much of the Ukrainian population. On April 19, 21, and 26, 2023, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host a virtual symposium titled "Away from the Empire: The Linguistic and Cultural Shift in Ukraine in the Wake of the Russian Invasion" that will explore this topic. The symposium will feature seven Ukrainian scholars (linguists, sociologists, literary scholars, ethnologists, and political scientists) and practitioners (front-line interpreters embedded with the Ukrainian Armed Forces). We kindly invite you to this exciting event. The symposium is supported by the Center for Global Studies and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois. For a full lineup of the symposium, please see the attached flyer. |
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Kâtip Çelebi and the Transformation of Ottoman Geography
Kâtip Çelebi was one of the Ottoman intellectuals in the 17th century who worked in the fields of geography, history, and bibliography. Join UIUC's Turkish Program on Zoom together with Professor Gottfried Hagen (Professor, University of Michigan) as we learn more about one of the well-known geographers in Ottoman Empire in the context of Islamic, Ottoman, and Western traditions of geography. |
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Away from the Empire: The Linguistic and Cultural Shift in Ukraine in the Wake of the Russian Invasion: Voldymyr Dubovyk, Oleksandra Deineko, and Olesia Bozhko.Volodymyr Dubovyk (Assistant Professor and Assistant Chairperson in the Department of International Relations, Institute of Social Sciences, Odesa Mechnikov National University); Oleksandra Deineko (Associate Professor, School of Sociology, Kharkiv National University, Guest Researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, OsloMet); Oleisa Bozhko ((Former Ukrainian Diplomat, now an Educator, Founder of the Ukrainian Civil Society Organization "Space of Knowledge") |
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Slavic Story Time at The Urbana Free Library
Join us to hear the story Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco. It is a warm tale of love and the unexpected from the bestselling author of The Keeping Quilt. Old Babushka is preparing her eggs for the Easter festival when she takes in Rechenka, an injured goose, who shows her that miracles really can happen Afterwards, we'll listen to a song and make a craft! |
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Away from the Empire: The Linguistic and Cultural Shift in Ukraine in the Wake of the Russian Invasion: Yaryna Zakalska and Serhii YanchukThe Russian-Ukrainian war of the 21st century aimed not only to physically destroy Ukraine but also to expand the linguistic borders of the “Russian world,” denationalize Ukraine, and reestablish the cultural dominance of Russia over the Ukrainian people. The war that began in 2014 and intensified in the last year's invasion has led to a cultural and linguistic shift from Russian to Ukrainian among much of the Ukrainian population. On April 19, 21, and 26, 2023, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host a virtual symposium titled "Away from the Empire: The Linguistic and Cultural Shift in Ukraine in the Wake of the Russian Invasion" that will explore this topic. The symposium will feature seven Ukrainian scholars (linguists, sociologists, literary scholars, ethnologists, and political scientists) and practitioners (front-line interpreters embedded with the Ukrainian Armed Forces). We kindly invite you to this exciting event. The symposium is supported by the Center for Global Studies and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois. For a full lineup of the symposium, please see the attached flyer. |
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Sanctions on Russia, the War in Ukraine, and the Foreign Service: A Discussion with Director Rob Lee
Please join us for a discussion with U.S. Department of State’s Rob Lee, Director of the Office of the European Union and Regional Affairs, on April 27 at 12:00 PM CDT in 108 Coble Hall (801 S. Wright St., Champaign, IL 61820) for a chance to learn about sanctions, what they are, how they’re implemented, and how they’ve been effective against Russia amidst the war in Ukraine. Rob will also discuss his career in the foreign service, opportunities at the State Department, and answer student questions. As Director for the Office of European Union and Regional Affairs, Rob is responsible for formulating and implementing U.S. policy related to and engagement with the European Union at the Department of State. He served as Director for the Office of Regional and Security Policy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2016 to 2018. In this position, he helped formulate the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy. Prior assignments included: Canberra, Guangzhou, Ankara, EUR’s NATO Desk, the Intelligence and Research Bureau’s Office of Current Intelligence, Shanghai, and Athens. Rob is a Thomas R. Pickering Fellow and has a master’s in public policy from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a master’s in national security and resource strategy from the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School. He has a bachelor's degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland. Rob speaks fluent Mandarin and conversational Turkish and Korean. He is married to Julia Fu and they have two children. |
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Ukrainian Studies Lecture: Mark Andryczyk, “Linguistic Repositioning in a Time of War—Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s Mondegreen: Songs About Death and Love”Mark Andryczyk has administered the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University and has taught Ukrainian literature at its Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures since 2007. He has a PhD in Ukrainian Literature from the University of Toronto (2005). His monograph The Intellectual as Hero in 1990s Ukrainian Fiction was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2012. He is also a translator of Ukrainian literature into English. In 2008-2016 he organized the Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series (cosponsored by the Harriman and Kennan Institutes), which brought leading Ukrainian literary figures to audiences in North America. Andryczyk is editor and compiler of The White Chalk of Days, the Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series Anthology (Academic Studies Press, 2017). He has translated eleven essays by Yuri Andrukhovych for the publication My Final Territory: Selected Essays (University of Toronto Press, 2018).) His latest publication is a translation of Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s novel Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love (Harvard Library of Ukrainian Literature, 2022). He has recently guest-edited a special issue of East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies (vol. 9, no. 1, 2022) that focuses on Ukrainian culture and Russia’s invasion of Donbas from 2014 to 2022. |
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Bluejays Began to Sing: Songs and Dances beneath Balkan Skies, Spring Concert and Commemorative Benefit for Victims of the Turkish and Syrian EarthquakesThe University of Illinois Balkan Music Ensemble
Bluejays Began to Sing: Songs and Dances beneath Balkan Skies
Spring Concert and Commemorative Benefit for Victims of the Turkish and Syrian Earthquakes |
Six World Premieres: Opera Scenes and Workshop ProgramSponsored by: Lyric Theater @ Illinois |
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Reading the Backstreets in Urumchi: Translation as Ethnographic Method in Northwest China
Please join us on Wednesday, May 3rd, at 3:00 pm Central Time for the last Research and Language Learning talk of the year, featuring Dr. Darren Byler of Simon Fraser University. His talk is entitled, Reading the Backstreets in Urumchi: Translation as Ethnographic Method in Northwest China. Professor Byler will discuss his experiences learning Uyghur and incorporating his language skills in his research. This series aims to provide students and faculty with space to reflect on the ways the language learning and research processes are interconnected. All are welcome to join. Interested individuals may register through the following link: https://forms.gle/566ScxDfbAf8ch5q7. |
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REEEC Spring Reception
Please join us at 5:00pm on May 3rd for the REEEC Spring Reception in Room 210 of the Levis Faculty Center. We will celebrate the end of the spring semester, connect with members of the REEEC community, and celebrate graduating students and their achievements. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome! |
Fall 2022 Events
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REEEC Welcome Back Reception 2022 Date: Sep 14, 2022
Please join us at 4:30 pm on September 14th for the REEEC Welcome Back Reception in room 210 of the Levis Faculty Center. We are excited to kick off the new academic year by connecting in-person with our REEEC community and looking ahead to the coming year. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome! 210 Levis Faculty Center (919 W. Illinois St., Urbana, IL 61801) |
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REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Elizabeth Abosch Date: Sep 20, 2022
Song was a powerful tool for propagandizing socialist construction and for raising the level of cultural education of the new Soviet public. More accessible, versatile, and participatory than art music, song could reach the public through films, the radio, the estrada stage, the komsomol club, the amateur musicians’ circle, and the gramophone. As much as it was beneficial for the development of mass culture, the accessibility of song carried the risk that the not yet fully educated masses would fall victim to the harmful musical influence of “gypsy” song, criminal song, and other song genres associated with urban ills. State cultural organs considered the “musical front” the last stand for vestiges of the bourgeois past which permeated spaces of heathy socialist life and spread through nascent Soviet mass culture like a contagion. While cultural ideologues considered it important that citizens gain the knowledge and taste level to appreciate popular song and art music on the same level, song was particularly didactic and dangerous to emerging Soviet society and its intent to transform the bodies and minds of citizens. Press, literature, and archival documents from the late 1920s and early 1930s reveal the significant role of song in socialist construction and the development of mass culture, and the perceived risk of uncontrolled popular song. |
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Date: Sep 21, 2022
After nearly a year of deliberations, the Task Force on Antisemitism and Academic Freedom of the Association of Jewish Studies released its Working Report in December 2021. Bruce Rosenstock was one of several AJS members who participated in the writing of the Working Report and serves on the Task Force today. The Task Force was formed because it had become apparent that the academic study of the history and nature of antisemitism diverged from the pro-Israel activism of many mainstream Jewish community organizations. Some Jewish Studies faculty members found themselves in disagreement with these organizations or with pro-Israel donors about what constitutes antisemitism. University administrators were caught between pro-Israel community pressure and their commitment to the academic freedom of their faculty members. In response to this growing set of problems, the Association of Jewish Studies decided to examine the issues and offer best practice recommendations about how to respond to mounting charges that university administrators were failing to protect pro-Israel students from what was claimed to be antisemitic harassment. |
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Chicago Immigrant Orchestra Afternoon Pop-Up Concert Date: Sep 27, 2022
Please join us for an afternoon pop-up concert featuring the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra (CIO). This event is free and open to all and offers an opportunity to listen to and talk with the musicians. Refreshments will be served. The CIO is a world music ensemble founded in 1999 by the City of Chicago and now headed by guitarist Fareed Haque and oud player Wanees Zarour. Its instrumentalists and vocalists represent musical traditions from East, South, & Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Performances explore the differences and relationships among these traditions, creating a unique and cohesive tapestry of cultures. Co-Sponsored by: Center for African Studies; Center for Global Studies; Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies; Center for Middle Eastern & South Asian Studies; Illinois Global Institute; Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategies; Robert E. Brown Center for World Music; Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center; Women & Gender in Global Perspectives Program |
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The Chicago Immigrant Orchestra Evening Concert Date: Sep 27, 2022
This performance is a co-presentation of Krannert Center and the International and Area Studies Library. This event is free to University of Illinois students, faculty, staff, and their guests, but tickets are required for all audience members. Dedicated to the authenticity and historicity of living musical traditions, the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra was established in 1999 by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to perform as part of the first annual Chicago World Music Festival. Directed by Willy Schwartz, the orchestra involved Chicago musicians from the immigrant community representing music from all over the globe. The project lasted through 2004 and had a lasting impact on the Chicago music scene. In 2019, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events approached guitarist Fareed Haque and oud player Wanees Zarour to restart the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra and headline 2020’s Chicago World Music Festival. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the orchestra performed a critically acclaimed virtual concert in September 2020. The new CIO today is a 20-piece ensemble that consists of members of the Chicago immigrant community, representing musical traditions from all over the world. In this fresh approach under the direction of Haque and Zarour, Chicago Immigrant Orchestra musicians from the Far East to Western Europe, Africa and the Americas are thoroughly involved in the evolution of the musical ideas that are presented. One orchestra, a world of music. For more information and to reserve tickets, please visit https://krannertcenter.com/events/chicago-immigrant-orchestra. |
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Ivan Krastev: "Russia's War in Ukraine: Reimagining the East-West Divide in Europe" Date: Oct 4, 2022
The war in Ukraine is having a dramatic impact on the political imagination of Europe. It has reframed the East-West divide by replacing the Cold War narrative of the past decades with one of decolonization and the threat for the sovereignty of the European nation states born out of the disintegration of the 20th century continental empires. The war does not simply change the borders of Europe but also the nature of EU's external borders. It increases the tensions between the imperative for geopolitical EU and the imperative to preserve the constitutional integrity of the Union. This lecture will be held in Levis Faculty Center Room 300, and it will also be livestreamed here: https://ensemble.illinois.edu/Watch/Krastev. "Russia's War in Ukraine: Reimagining the East-West Divide in Europe" is a part of the Illinois Global Institute's "Russia's War on Ukraine: An IGI Series on Global Responsibilities." |
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College of Media: Reporting on Politics and Elections in 2022 Date: Oct 13, 2022
Four of the country's top political journalists will give a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to cover politics in 2022. The panelists will weigh in on the upcoming midterm elections and potentials national outcomes, from the fate of of President Joe Biden to the control of Congress, and more. Zoom registration link: Webinar Registration - Zoom |
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REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Joanna Kula, "The North Caucasus On and Off the Beaten Track" Date: Oct 18, 2022
The North Caucasus is one of the most diverse regions of Russia in terms of ethnicity, language, religion and, last but not least, landscape. For over two hundred years it has remained part of the Russian state but has maintained its cultural distinction. Classical Russian literature of the 19th century (Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy) created a mythologized image of the Caucasus. The negative portrayal of the 'gorets', 'abrek', 'rebel', 'traitor' or 'terrorist' has been generated and used by official propaganda created to satisfy current political needs. In fact, people in other regions of Russia and Europe know little about the North Caucasus beyond these portrayals. A scholar might find there a whole spectrum of historical, cultural and literary inspirations. 'Reading' the Caucasus requires field research and sensory experience - the Caucasus is color, sound and taste. Joanna Kula, PhD, is a scholar of Russian literature working in the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Wroclaw (Poland). Her dissertation focused on the problem of a 'hero' in modern Russian prose (A Hero of the End of the 20th Century in Works by Vladimir Makanin, 2013). The main subject of her current research is the region of the Caucasus and its reflection in Russian literature from 19th to 21st century, both fiction and non-fiction. She studies the interaction of the two contrary ideas of geopolitics and geopoetics, colonial and postcolonial narrations, the question of Caucasian self-identity in a post-Soviet era. |
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Illinois Global Institute 'Exploring International Music Night' Date: Oct 19, 2022
Please join the Illinois Global Institute for a night of international music as a part of this year's International Education Week. This performance will include sets by local Congolese rumba musician Jean Rene Balekita and his group Bomoyi, the Illinois Flamenco-Jazz Collective featuring David Chiriboga, and Afro-Brazilian percussion ensemble Bloco Gavião. This event is free and open to the public. |
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Date: Oct 26, 2022
Colonel Patrick M. Pascall is an experienced military strategist with the United States military. He has planned and directed strategic, operational, and tactical military operations worldwide during combat and disaster response operations. Col. Pascall will assess the current military situation in Ukraine, give an update on Russian and Ukrainian military objectives, and explain strategic goals and tactics used in the war. Associate Professor Emerita Carol Leff specializes in Eastern European politics and has taught at the University of Illinois for three decades. In this teach-in, she will describe the impact of Russia's War on Ukraine and NATO, NATO's current response to the war, and how additional countries joining NATO will affect the European theater. |
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Slavic Story Time at The Urbana Free Library Date: Oct 29, 2022
Join us to hear the story "The Girl Who Cried a Lake" from Tales Told in Tents: Stories from Central Asia by Sally Pomme Clayton & Sophie Herxheimer. Afterwards, we'll listen to a song and make a craft! For children of all ages and their caregivers. |
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Live Q&A with the production team of "Song Searcher" Date: Oct 31, 2022
There will be a Live Q&A over Zoom with the production team of the film "Song Searcher" on Zoom at 12:00 PM Monday, October 31st. For information on accessing the Q&A Zoom, please see https://watch.showandtell.film/watch/song-searcher-movie-ui. The film is the story of a man’s lifelong search for authentic Yiddish folk music and of his unique archive, which was presumed to be lost forever. Moyshe Beregovsky, a musician and scholar, crisscrossed Ukraine with phonograph in hand during the most dramatic years of Soviet history in order to record and study the traditional music of Ukrainian Jewry. His work began in the 1920’s and led to his arrest and imprisonment in a Stalinist labor camp in 1950. Most of those he recorded on hundreds of fragile wax cylinders were shot by the Nazis and tossed into countless mass graves. Ultimately, Beregovsky succeeded in saving the musical heritage of the centuries-old Yiddish civilization. He rescued the Living Voice of his people from the flames of the Holocaust but paid for it with his life. |
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Date: Nov 1, 2022
There will be a screening of the film "Song Searcher" on Tuesday, November 1 at 7:00 PM at Illini Hillel (503 E. John St., Champaign, IL 61820). The film will also be available for online screening through November 6 at https://watch.showandtell.film/watch/song-searcher-movie-ui. |
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Date: Nov 2, 2022
The Papashoy Klezmer Band will be performing Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 PM at Room 300 Levis Faculty Center (919 W. Illinois St., Urbana, IL 61801). Papashoy Klezmer Band is a local band that plays old-time klezmer music in the style of the village bands of Ukraine. The ensemble includes Frances Harris (fiddle) and Amanda Ramey (fiddle), Rob Sweedler (accordion), Rob Krumm (guitar), and Charlie Harris (bass). |
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Research and Language Learning: Kazakh Date: Nov 9, 2022
The Language Workshop at Indiana University, the Slavic Reference Service, and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) are hosting an online discussion series - Research and Language Learning.
We are inviting established scholars to discuss the role language proficiency plays in research, with examples from their own scholarly work. The initiative will be launch with the Turkic languages of Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Uyghur, and Uzbek. We welcome language learners of all academic backgrounds to participate in these discussions. |
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REEES Graduate Programs Information Session Date: Nov 16, 2022
Join Dr. John Randolph, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for an informal opportunity to learn about our graduate programs, including our MA in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES) and our dual MA REEES/MS LIS degree in REEES and Library and Information Sciences. There will be plenty of chances to ask questions: all interested prospective students and applicants are welcome! |
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Technology, Business, and War: The Role of IT Industries in Russia's War on Ukraine Date: Nov 17, 2022
In mid-October, Elon Musk announced his companies could no longer support Starlink services over Ukraine. This immediately threatened to sever communications systems on which Ukraine has depended since Russia’s invasion last February. Musk himself has also sought to intervene in geopolitics in other ways–reportedly consulting with Russian President Vladimir Putin before proposing his own thoughts on a Ukraine peace deal on Twitter. While Musk more recently said that Starlink services will continue, the incident highlights the mounting power of IT industries and their owners in all aspects of modern life, including war. As the Washington Post as recently noted, “With tech giants amassing stratospheric levels of influence over global affairs, they are morphing into a species of geopolitical actor, with uncertain long-term consequences.” This raises the question whether a new, “technopolar” world is emerging outside of states, transcending the geography of the post-Cold War era. This roundtable will explore these issues, with reference to the ongoing war in Ukraine as well as events across contemporary Eastern Europe and Eurasia. How are information technologies and industries shaping war and politics? What roles are being played by transnational information technologies and industries in the region,, and how has this evolved over the course of the war in Ukraine? What lessons does this experience have for the world at large, as it considers how to react to the rapid accumulation of money and power in the IT sector? Please join us for a Current Affairs Roundtable discussing these issues, with perspectives from both IT and area studies disciplines. |
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FLAS Virtual Information Session I Date: Nov 28, 2022
Upcoming information session for students interested in applying for Summer 2023 and AY 2023-2024 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. Virtual Session I will be Monday, November 28, 2022, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Undergraduate and graduate students are welcome. To register for Virtual Session 1, please visit: https://go.illinois.edu/FLASInfo1 Topics of discussion include eligibility and requirements, walking through the application, and answering questions about the application process and the fellowship. FLAS Coordinators from individual Centers will be in attendance and available to the students for questions and discussion in break-out sessions after the main presentation. |
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REEES Graduate Programs Information Session Date: Nov 28, 2022
Join Dr. John Randolph, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for an informal opportunity to learn about our graduate programs, including our MA in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES) and our dual MA REEES/MS LIS degree in REEES and Library and Information Sciences. There will be plenty of chances to ask questions: all interested prospective students and applicants are welcome! |
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Date: Nov 29, 2022
The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) was established in 2014 and includes five states: Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. The Concept of Foreign Policy of Kazakhstan for 2020-2030 states that integration within the EAEU would be carried out only within the framework of the Treaty on the Establishment of the EAEU of May 29, 2014. However, processes within the EAEU have been going beyond the scope of the Treaty, spreading on more and more areas that are not considered in the Treaty of 2014. Thus, by 2025, the EAEU five member-countries plan to complete the formation of a common energy market, a common financial market, and the aim of creating a common educational space is also being discussed. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, demands to withdraw from the EAEU have increased in Kazakhstan’s society. There had been protests against the EAEU in Kazakhstan at the time of signing the treaty in 2014, but this year the voices of opponents of Kazakhstan's participation in the EAEU gained a new impetus. In my research, I examine what policy Kazakhstan has been implementing within the framework of the EAEU. Despite the protests in Kazakhstani society, the processes in the EAEU are moving at their own pace, nullifying the aspirations of the country's authorities to limit integration to the provisions of the Treaty of 2014. Hundreds of amendments have already been made to the Treaty of 2014, which indicates the gradual loss of sovereignty by the authorities of the country. Ailuna Utegenova is an Assistant Professor at Almaty Management University (AlmaU), Kazakhstan. Currently she has an internship on “Pedagogy and Educational Technologies” at the UIUC. Her research includes Kazakhstan’s foreign policy strategy toward Russia and Kazakhstan’s policy in the EAEU. |
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Date: Dec 2, 2022
What drives violent confrontation between groups in multi-ethnic and multi-confessional societies? Why do some communities in such societies experience conflict, while others remain peaceful? We explore these questions in the context of the 1905 Russian Revolution, which triggered numerous anti-Jewish pogroms. We show that the sharp increase in pogroms after October 1905, when publication of the October Manifesto and accompanying antisemitic propaganda increased feelings of political threat among many non-Jews, was smaller in settlements with relatively large Jewish populations. Our findings suggest that diversity can help to insulate communities from the violence that often accompanies momentous political change. Scott Gehlbach is a professor in the Department of Political Science and Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. A political economist and comparativist, Gehlbach’s work is motivated by the contemporary and historical experience of Russia, Ukraine, and other postcommunist states. He has made numerous contributions to the study of autocracy, economic reform, political connections, and other important topics in political economy. Known for employing a wide range of methods in his research, Gehlbach has contributed to graduate education through his widely used textbook Formal Models of Domestic Politics. He is the author or coauthor of many articles in top journals, including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics; the award-winning monograph Representation Through Taxation: Revenue, Politics, and Development in Postcommunist States; and the forthcoming Cambridge Element Reform and Rebellion in Weak States. |
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FLAS In-Person Information Session II Date: Dec 6, 2022
Upcoming information session for students interested in applying for Summer 2023 and AY 2023-2024 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. In-Person Session II will be Tuesday, December 6, 2022, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT in Gregory 321. Undergraduate and graduate students are welcome. Topics of discussion include eligibility and requirements, walking through the application, and answering questions about the application process and the fellowship. FLAS Coordinators from individual Centers will be in attendance and available to the students for questions and discussion in break-out sessions after the main presentation. |
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Date: Dec 7, 2022
Please join us at 4:30 pm on December 7th for the REEEC Winter Reception to celebrate the end of the fall semester. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome! Wednesday, December 7th, 4:30-6:30 PM 300 Levis Faculty Center 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana, IL 61801 |
Summer 2022 Events
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REEES Policy Research Roundtable: Russia-Ukraine War Date: Jun 8, 2022
Join the Slavic Reference Service on June 8 at 2:00 p.m. CST for a roundtable discussion on policy research and projects related to the Russia-Ukraine War. Panelists for the discussion include David Satter of the Hudson Institute, Dr. Paul Stronski of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Dina Spechler of Indiana University, Bloomington. |
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Russia and the Global Color Line Workshop Date: Jul 14-15, 2022
Workshop Organizers: Eugene M. Avrutin (Tobor Family Endowed Professor of Modern European Jewish History, University of Illinois) and Professor Valeria Sobol (Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Illinois) Zoom registration link: https://illinois.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMrcu6orDssGN3HsXsJerNdDaegFgeApRVA Probing the role of Russia in the global dimensions of the color line, this interdisciplinary workshop raises exploratory questions about the meanings and functions of racial identifications and categories; the relationship between race, whiteness, and geography; how Russia fits into the global dimensions of the color line; and when and why skin color emerged as an important element in the complex process of identity formation. This workshop is a part of this year’s Summer Research Laboratory (SRL) in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is sponsored by the Humanities Research Institute, the University of Illinois History Department, Slavic Languages & Literatures Department, Slavic Reference Service, and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (Ralph & Ruth Fisher Fund). |
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Date: Jul 21, 2022
Cavallaro's dissertation forms two interlocking microhistories examining the intertwined trajectories of two 19th century Russian imperial museums: the Tver Historical Museum, which opened in provincial Tver in 1866, and the National Museum of Turkestan, which opened in colonial, Central Asian Tashkent in 1876. Following these museums from their founding to 1917, his research operates on three scales: the local, imperial, and global. At the local scale, he examines travelogues, newspapers, and exhibition materials to reconstruct the daily life of museums’ employees and visitors. At the imperial scale, he explores literary works and publications of archaeological and ethnographic societies to argue that intellectuals in Moscow and St. Petersburg apprehended provincial and colonial sites in remarkably similar terms: as places of exploitation, where raw materials could be collected and sent to the center. At the global scale, he considers how museums, a new European technology, were involved in networks of knowledge production beyond the empire. His dissertation shows these museums engaged in a single project to historicize and create proper models of Russian citizenship and nation. Imperial officials simultaneously claimed affinity with Europe and sought to “Europeanize” museum visitors, and, by extension, the empire itself. |
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Fisher Fellow Talk: "Materialising Soviet Selves: Letters, Loyalty and Gender, 1936-40" (Hannah Parker, University of Sussex) Date: Jul 28, 2022
‘I am so anxiously sorry that I cannot show you in any way my gratitude, my desire to be of any use to you’, closed one letter from E.V. Krasnova in Southern Ukraine, in response to Molotov’s intervention in her pension application due to her late husband’s revolutionary merits. Krasnova’s letter can be read as an attempt to substantiate her gratitude, mitigating her distance from Molotov by traversing distance and rank. Critical to Soviet women’s sense of emotional ‘security’, (Tikhomirov, 2013), this paper contends that letters constituted vessels for the ‘productive entanglements’ by which Soviet people negotiated the self, feeling, belonging in dialogue with Soviet power, as the intensification of social and political control reached crescendo. These negotiations were deeply gendered, as women formulated and concretized their history and memory through discursive forms of women’s emancipation, education, and revolution. Hannah Parker is a historian of gender, selfhood, and letter-writing in Russia and the Soviet Union. After completing her PhD and a Teaching Associateship at the University of Sheffield, she held lectureships at the Universities of Gloucestershire and Sussex. Her research interests focus on gender, emotion, education, and selfhood, as well as letter-writing and materiality, in the early Soviet Union, and recent publications have addressed the emotions of female librarians in the early Soviet Union, the performance of loyalty and gratitude in letters to Soviet authorities during the Terror, and new scholarship in public history. She is currently developing these interests in pursuit of a community history project based in Sheffield. |
Spring 2022 Events
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Date: Jan 28, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated pre-existing institutional, structural, and systemic discrimination and inequality in societies across the world. Furthermore, continued campaigns against gender and LGBTQ equity in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, racism in the United States, and the social protest movements that rose in response to such exclusionary projects have reinforced calls for intersectional approaches in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (SEEES). Class, ethnicity and race, dis/ability, gender and sexuality, and other identity markers interweave to produce inequality differently in Eastern Europe and Eurasia than in the Americas or Western Europe. Yet, it is these very differences that provide a rich ground for intellectual conversations in our field. |
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Date: Feb 4, 2022 The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated pre-existing institutional, structural, and systemic discrimination and inequality in societies across the world. Furthermore, continued campaigns against gender and LGBTQ equity in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, racism in the United States, and the social protest movements that rose in response to such exclusionary projects have reinforced calls for intersectional approaches in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (SEEES). Class, ethnicity and race, dis/ability, gender and sexuality, and other identity markers interweave to produce inequality differently in Eastern Europe and Eurasia than in the Americas or Western Europe. Yet, it is these very differences that provide a rich ground for intellectual conversations in our field. |
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Date: Feb 11, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated pre-existing institutional, structural, and systemic discrimination and inequality in societies across the world. Furthermore, continued campaigns against gender and LGBTQ equity in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, racism in the United States, and the social protest movements that rose in response to such exclusionary projects have reinforced calls for intersectional approaches in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (SEEES). Class, ethnicity and race, dis/ability, gender and sexuality, and other identity markers interweave to produce inequality differently in Eastern Europe and Eurasia than in the Americas or Western Europe. Yet, it is these very differences that provide a rich ground for intellectual conversations in our field. |
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ASEEES - Pitt Intersectionality in Focus Series: "(Post-)Pandemic Eurasia: Why Intersectionality Matters"
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated pre-existing institutional, structural, and systemic discrimination and inequality in societies across the world. Furthermore, continued campaigns against gender and LGBTQ equity in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, racism in the United States, and the social protest movements that rose in response to such exclusionary projects have reinforced calls for intersectional approaches in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (SEEES). Class, ethnicity and race, dis/ability, gender and sexuality, and other identity markers interweave to produce inequality differently in Eastern Europe and Eurasia than in the Americas or Western Europe. Yet, it is these very differences that provide a rich ground for intellectual conversations in our field. |
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Presentation & Discussion: Eileen Kane, "Racial Segregation in Odessa, Early 1900s" Date: Mar 3, 2022
Eileen Kane is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Global Islamic Studies Program, Connecticut College. This event is part of the Humanities Research Institute research cluster “Russia and the Global Color Line“.
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