Please join the American Center in Moscow for the Fall 2024 Culture Connection series, “Russian Culture: А Bridge to the Next Era.” This 6-part online speaker series takes us back 100 years to explore how Russian art, culture and literature provided continuity to the newly-forming Soviet society, even as it evolved into new forms and expressions. Through this lens we can view the cultural foundations of Russian identity and understand how Russians rely on culture to accompany them through changing times.
This series invites American professors to share their findings and insights from their work related to Russian culture and give us insights into how American students respond. We will see how American attitudes and tastes have evolved and changed over the years and understand what aspects of Russian culture are most interesting to Americans.
About the Moderator and Series Curator, Michael Beckelhimer:
Michael Beckelhimer is a graduate of Russian studies programs at American University and Harvard. He lived in Moscow and Tallinn before, during, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, and traveled there often to shoot his documentary film “Pushkin Is Our Everything.” He lives in Alexandria, VA, where he is working on a documentary film about Russia’s relationship with the U.S.
Series Timeline:
Wednesday, November 13, 19:00 MSK: “Russian Culture at the Turn of the 20th Century”
Description: Fin de siècle Russia was a rich and explosive time for Russian culture. With the shift to the Soviet system, Russians adapted their cultural heritage to create a new cultural foundation. In this conversation we will discuss the many forms of Russian culture – from large festivals to puppet theater to literature were used by Russians to push their society forward.
Speaker: Thomas Seifrid
Bio: Professor Seifrid studies twentieth-century Russian literature and culture, particularly that of the Soviet 1920s and 1930s; Russian philosophy of language of the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries; the life and works of Vladimir Nabokov; and Polish language and culture. His current research examines connections among ideology, literary genre (including theater), and urban space in early Soviet culture.
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Wednesday, November 20, 21:00 MSK: “Crime and Other Tsarist-Era Influences on Early Soviet Literature and Art”
Description: In the early 1900s Russia broke with the past, but the dialogue between writers before and after the revolution continued in the most magical and unexpected ways! In this conversation we will discuss the connections between Chekhov and Nabokov, Gogol and Bulgakov, Dostoevsky and Ilf & Petrov. We’ll also talk about electrification, light and glass, from Lenin’s little lamps to the red stars of the Kremlin.
Speaker: Julia Chadaga
Bio: Julia Chadaga is an Associate Professor of Russian Studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. Her research and teaching interests include Russian literature, material and visual culture, and the relationship between art and crime in Russian cultural history. She teaches courses on Russian language, Russian literature, Russian history through film, and the theory and practice of translation. Her courses frequently include projects that connect students with the Russian-speaking communities of the Twin Cities. She has published articles in the journals Russian Review, Slavic Review, Slavic and East European Journal, Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature, and Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie (New Literary Review). She has an essay in the edited volume Rites of Place: Public Commemoration in Russia and Eastern Europe and in the forthcoming Oxford University Press Handbook of the Russian Novel. Her book Optical Play: Glass, Vision, and Spectacle in Russian Culture (Northwestern University Press, 2014) was shortlisted for the Historia Nova Prize for Best Book on Russian Intellectual and Cultural History. She is currently working with a colleague at Harvard University to develop a website that uses a virtual exhibition of objects from a marketplace in Moscow to teach visitors about Russian history and culture.
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Tuesday, November 26, 19:00 MSK: TBD
Speaker: Laura Olson Osterman
Bio:
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Thursday, December 12, 21:00 MSK: TBD
Speaker: Lisa Kirschenbaum
Bio:
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Thursday, December 17, 21:00 MSK: TBD
Speaker: Bob Efird
Bio:
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ALL AMERICAN CENTER IN MOSCOW EVENTS ARE FREE OF CHARGE / ALL EVENTS OF THE AMERICAN CENTER IN MOSCOW ARE FREE OF CHARGE
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To watch this event live, tune in to the American Center in Moscows YouTube channel and VK page. You can also watch the recording of this event on the same platforms after the events end.
You can register below and leave your valid email address to receive a reminder 30 minutes before the online event begins.
To join other AMC Online programs, please check the American Centers website and TimePad calendars.
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