Seminars
Browse the Dashkova Centre's regular podcasts on a range of topics.
Art, Royalty and the Romanovs - The Exhibition through Curators' Eyes
Caroline de Guitaut and Stephen Patterson provide an informative preview of the exhibition due to open at the Queen's Gallery at Palace of Holyroodhouse on 21 June 2019.
21 Jun 2019 (English)
Putin V. the People – Book Presentation by Samuel Greene and Graeme Robertson
Samuel Greene (King's College London) and Graeme Robertson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) discuss their newly published book, Putin V. the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2019)
16 May 2019 (English)
From Eurasian Steppes to the Atlantic Shores: Post-Soviet Migration to Portugal
Elena Bulakh and Antonio Eduardo Mendonca speak on how Portugal, historically a country of emigration, welcomed several hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the 1990s and early 2000s, after the EU accession – the largest wave being Russian-speaking migrants coming from the post-Soviet countries.
25 Apr 2019 (English)
The Russian-Speaking International Media Today: Challenges and Dilemmas
Famil Ismailov speaks on today's Russian-speaking international media. The presentation was a part of the ‘Transnational and Diasporic Russophone Media in the UK and Beyond’ international workshop, supported by the AHRC OWRI research project 'Global Russians: Transnational Russophone Networks in the UK' (PI Prof Lara Ryazanova-Clarke).
28 Mar 2019 (English)
International Workshop: Urban Multilingualism in Contemporary Moscow and Dushanbe
Julia Mazurova, Polina Kliuchnikova, Denis Zubalov and Marina Raskladkina speak on the theme of language, its uses and presentation, in today's Moscow and Dushanbe.
28 Feb 2019 (English)
On Love, Lacuna, and Loss: An Episode in the Post-War Restoration of Leningrad's Palaces
Irina Sandomirskaja speaks on the socio-cultural restoration of Leningrad's palaces in the post-war Soviet period.
7 Feb 2019 (English)
Moral exemplarity in post-Soviet Russia
Victoria Fomina (Central European University Budapest) speaks about the cult of the new martyr Evgenii Rodionov in Russia. Fomina charts how the fate of Rodionov, a Russian soldier killed in Chechnya, allegedly for refusing to take off his cross, has contributed to entangled discourses of religion, nationality and moral conservatism.
4 Oct 2018 (English)
Roads Not Taken, an intellectual biography of William C. Bullitt
Alexander Etkind presents his book on journalist, diplomat and writer William C. Bullitt who negotiated with Lenin and Stalin.
5 Jun 2018 (English)
An evening with Shamil Idiatullin
Award-winning author Shamil Idiatullin reads from his book Brezhnev City and talks about contemporary Russian literature.
17 Apr 2018 (Russian)
Memes: What they are and how to study them
Ivan Fomin, in Edinburgh as part of an Erasmus staff exchange delegation hosted by the Dashkova Centre, speaks about memes.
19 Feb 2018 (English)
War, Peace, and Poetry: Konstantin Batyushkov
Peter France (Edinburgh) launches his recently published book Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry.
8 Feb 2018 (English)
The Politics of Unfree Labour in Russia
Mary Buckley (Cambridge) speaks on how Russia deals with the global problem of unfree labour.
25 Jan 2018 (English)
Language and violence in Russian theatre and literature
A roundtable event with playwrights Mikhail and Viacheslav Durnenkov, arts producer and translator Maria Kroupnik and writer Irina Lukyanova.
22 Nov 2017 (English)
Artistic representations of history
A round table discussion with author Vladimir Sharov, film historian Peter Bagrov and theatre critic and practitioner Kristina Matvienko.
24 Oct 2017 (Russian)
Neomedievalism as Social Project in Putin’s Russia
Dina Khapaeva from the Georgia Institute of Technology speaks about the appropriations of medievalism by contemporary culture and politics, applying the concept of neo-medievalism to Russia.
12 Oct 2017 (English)
Ilya Kalinin - Energy and Socialism: from the avant-garde to Stalinist culture
Ilya Kalinin from St Petersburg State University speaks about the drive to harvest and create energy in the early Soviet decades.
30 May 2017 (English)
Kataryna Wolczuk - Ukraine, EU and Russia: shifting boundaries of order
Kataryna Wolczuk speaks on shifting boundaries of order - geographical, political, economical, cultural - between Ukraine, the EU and Russia.
9 Mar 2017 (English)
Derek Averre - Deconstructing Russia’s policies in Ukraine and Syria
Dr Derek Averre offers a closer examination of recent developments and analyses the opportunities and constraints Moscow faces in its foreign policy.
9 Feb 2017 (English)
Ilya Yablokov - Russian media and conspiracy theories
Dr Ilya Yablokov investigates the phenomenon of conspiracy theories in Russia as a populist tool of power relations which helps relocate legitimacy and power among different political actors.
25 Jan 2017 (English)
Marianna Shakhnovich – Semyon Desnitsky
Marianna Shakhnovich is the Chair of the Philosophy of Religion and Religious Studies Department at Saint-Petersburg State University. In her presentation Prof Shakhnovich will contextualize Semyon Desnitsky’s (1740-1789) activity in the early history of religious studies in Russia.
3 May 2016 (English)
Sergei Zenkin – Russian Formalism
Sergei Zenkin is a Russian humanities educator and prominent researcher. In his presentationProf Zenkin will explore four aspects of the formalist externalism – the formal, the mimetic, the nomothetic and the historical.
24 March 2016 (English)
Andrea Gullotta - Towards a New Understanding of the Gulag
Description: Andrea Gullotta is a lecturer in Russian at the University of Glasgow. In his paper Dr Gullotta will explore a new understanding of the Gulag and its literature through the prism of auto-biographical studies.
17 March 2016 (English)
Mark Nash - Red Africa Festival: ‘Things Fall Apart’ Exhibition
Mark Nash will present "Things Fall Apart" Exhibition, which gathers the responses of contemporary artists to different aspects of Soviet and related nations’ interests in Africa, particularly focused on ambitions to influence the development of political structures through film and art.
04 March 2016 (English)
Nancy Ries - Voices of Apocalypse
Nancy Ries is a Professor of Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University in New York. In her lecture Professor Ries analyses a collection of Russian military news and entertainment videos.
18 February 2016 (English)
Mika Lähteenmäki - The Construction of National Unity
Mika Lähteenmäki is a Professor of Russian Language and Culture at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In his talk Prof Lähteenmäki discusses language ideological discourse in contemporary Russia and its role in the promotion of national unity.
28 January 2016 (English)
Billy Kay - The Scots in Russia
Billy Kay is a writer, researcher and BBC producer. He is an active member of the Cross Party Group on the Scots Language at the Scottish Parliament. In his presentation, Billy Kay will talk about the substantial contribution to Russia made by Scots from the 17th century to the time of the Revolution.
21 January 2016 (English)
Alexander Nakhimosvky - Habitus in revolutionary times
Alexander Nakhimovsky is an Associate Professor and Director of Linguistics at the Colgate University. In his talk he investigates how class struggle and interpersonal relationships are represented in dialects of characters of Lydia Seifullina's novella ‘Перегной’ (Humus).
8 December 2015 (English)
Sergei Parkhomenko - The Last Address
Sergei Parkhomenko is an acclaimed Russian journalist, broadcaster, publisher and founder of several initiatives aimed at promoting civic activism in Russia. He is one of the founders of ‘The Last Address’ civil campaign that helps individuals create a collective memorial dedicated to victims of political repression. In his presentation Parkhomenko explains how the idea of the public memorial becomes the basis to civil movement.
28 November 2015 (Russian)
Dmitry Krylov – Neputevie zametki
Dmitry Krylov is an author, director, and host of the cycle of TV programmes on travel. In 1991 he visited the USA and Great Britain. He will talk about his documentary TV series entitled ‘NeputevyeZametki’ describing the life of the citizens in the countries he visited.
27 November 2015 (Russian)
Diane Koenker - Vacations, Tourism, and Socialist Consumption in the Post-Stalin USSR
Diane Koenker is a Professor of History and a Professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Centre at the University of Illinois. In her lecture Prof Koenker will tell about holiday making and tourism in the post-Stalin Soviet culture.
26 November 2015 (English)
Vadim Golubev - British and Russian media language
Dr Vadim Golubev is a Reader and Head of the Department of English for the Faculty of Journalism, St Petersburg State University. In his talk Dr Golubev discusses the Russian translations of British newspaper articles published on the inoSMI.ru website.
12 November 2015 (English)
Mark Beissinger - The Changing Face of Revolution, 1900-2014
Mark Beissinger is a Professor in the Department of Politics at Princeton University and Director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. In his presentation Prof Beissinger explores the changing character of revolution as a mode of regime-change using a new dataset on revolutionary episodes from 1900 to 2014.
6 November 2015 (English)
Margaret Beissinger - Pentecostal Faith and Identity in Contemporary Romania
Margaret Beissinger is a Research Scholar and Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Princeton University. In her presentation she explores a trend among some Romani professional traditional musicians to adopt the Pentecostal faith, a transformation that radically alters their lives.
5 November 2015 (English)
Peter France – Poetry Evening
Peter France is a Professor of French at the University of Edinburgh from 1980 to 2000. He has written many studies of French and Russian literature and is the editor of the Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation and general editor of the five-volume Oxford History of Literary Translation in English. In this talk Prof France presents his new book ‘Yevgeny Baratynsky. Half-Light and Other Poems’.
29 October 2015 (English)
Derek Offord - French and Russian in Imperial Russia
Professor Derek Offord (Bristol University) talks about the two volume set of books ‘French and Russian in Imperial Russia’ (D. Offord, L. Ryazanova-Clarke, V. Rjéoutski and G. Argent (eds), Edinburgh University Press 2015) which explores the profound impact of the French language and culture on Russian high society and consciousness in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
20 October 2015 (English)
Diana Izmailyan - Representing Russian Economic Crisis in the UK National Press
Dr Izmailyan is a Lecturer at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow. In her seminar DrIzmailyan explores ideologies and politics of discursive representations of the Russian economy in the British printed media.
1 October 2015 (English)
Round Table Discussion - New Visions of Tolstoy in the 21st Century
The Round Table Discussion explores the continued influence of one of the greatest world’s novelists of all time, and discuss the new visions of Tolstoy for the 21st Century. The discussion is moderated by Dr Sarah Hudspith (University of Leeds). Leading speakers Pavel Basinskiy (Writer, literary critic, Moscow) and Andrey Baldin (Essayist, Moscow).
22 September 2015 (English)
David MacFadyen - Russian Popular Music and Song Today
David MacFadyen is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles.In his talk Professor MacFadyen offers a quick guide to the Russian web, in terms of song and music.
11 September 2015 (English)
Michael Gorham - Humpty Dumpty and the Troll Factory
Michael Gorham is an Associate Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Florida, and Associate Editor of Russian Review and Russian Language. He researches internet regulations and attempts of Russian authorities to bring the internet under State control. 21 May 2015 (English)
Ilia Kalinin - Russian Cosmism in the Depths of the Soviet Cosmos
Dr Kalinin is Associate Professor at the Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Smolny College) at St- Petersburg State University. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neprikosnovennyi Zapas: Debaty o politike i kul'ture (NZ: Debates on Politics and Culture). In his talk Dr Kalinin analyses one of the most important tropes in Soviet culture, outer space constituted a complex topological arena in which the technological conquest of nature acquired a new dimension of meaning.
14 May 2015 (English)
Jan Levtchenko - The Formalist Image of War
Jan Levtchenko is a Professor of Arts and Visual Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). His presentation aims to retrace both theoretic and poetic paths in literature that Victor Shklovsky, the famous Russian literary theorist, and the founder of Russian Formalist School, was able to pioneer thanks to his war experience.
7 May 2015 (English)
Charles Hendry - Britain's Relations with Russia and the CIS
Charles Hendry has been Member of Parliament for Wealden since 2001. He served as Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2010-2012. His previous posts included Shadow Energy Minister (2005-2010), Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party (2003-2005) and Shadow Minister for Young People. He has also been appointed as Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh, associated with both the Business School and the Academy of Government.
19 March 2015 (English)
Rose France - An Aesopian interpretation of Zoshchenko's "Retribution"
Dr Rose France is a tutor in Russian language and literature at the University of Edinburgh and a freelance interpreter and translator. Her research interests include the works of Mikhail Zoshchenko, literary translation and 19th and 20th century Russian literature. This talk is an attempt at an ‘Aesopian’ interpretation of generally neglected work by the writer Mikhail Zoshchenko, a fictional Civil War memoir, 'Retribution'.
5 February 2015 (English)
Svetlana Adonieva - Remembering Rituals Social Cohesion : Russian Traditions 20-21st centuries
Svetlana Adonieva is a Folklorist and Anthropologist, Professor at the Department of the History of Russian Literature of Saint Petersburg State University. In her talk professor Adonieva discusses the act of remembering the dead as one of the main rituals that creates social cohesion in the rural community.
27 November 2014 (English)
Avril Pyman - The Concept of Tragedy in Russian Silver Age Thought
Prof Avril Pyman is a leading translator of Russian poetry into English and a biographer of Aleksandr Blok and Pavel Florensky. She is a fellow of the British Academy. Her lecture accompanied a Premiere Screening of a documentary about the artist Kirill Sokolov (1930-2004) by Benjamin Sadd, organised by the Dashkova Centre in partnership with the Sutton Gallery.
11 February 2015 (English)
Varia Christie - Тэнгэр хуйсрах
Varia Christie was awarded a doctoral degree from Edinburgh University in 2013. In her talk on the legislative attempts to control the use of obscenities in works of literature she discusses the most recent set of amendments to the Law on State Language in Russia.
13th November 2014 (English)
Robert Saunders : Laughable Nations: Parodying the Post-Soviet Republics
Robert Saunders, Professor in the Department of History and Political Science at State University of New York-Farmingdale, discusses a part of his new research project ‘Laughable Nations: Parodying the Post-Soviet Republics’.
30 October 2014 (English)
Denis Akhapkin : Ambiguity as a rhetorical device in literary and political discourse
Denis Akhapkin, Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of Academics at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of Saint Petersburg State University (Smolny College), discusses ‘Ambiguity as a rhetorical device in literary and political discourse’.
16 October 2014 (English)
Alexander Etkind : Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience
Alexander Etkind, Professor of Russian Literature and Cultural History at the University of Cambridge, discusses the themes of his new book, "Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience".
7 February 2013 (English)
Victor Shnirelman : The Politics of a Name: Between Consolidation and Separation in the Northern Caucasus
Victor Shnirelman is of Russia's leading anthropologists, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Moscow Academy of Sciences. In this podcast he discusses 'The Politics of a Name: Between Consolidation and Separation in the Northern Caucasus'.
22 October 2012 (English)
Dr Petre Petrov : The Generic Present in Stalinist Discourse
Dr Petre Petrov, of Princeton University, examines "gnomic expressions", statements that convey the kind of "timeless wisdom" often found in proverbs, which acquired a salient presence in Stalinist political discourse of the 1930s, and shows how their semantic peculiarities illuminate the character of early Soviet ideology.