Past events
Selected seminars, conferences, lectures, film screenings, exhibitions, and workshops in European Languages and Cultures (2015 -).
DELC Research Seminar Series (DRSS)
The DELC Research Seminar Series (DRSS) encourages collaboration and co-production between staff and students across European Languages and Cultures and beyond.
Each series is designed on a transversal exploration of a common theme, for example Decolonising Minds and Methods (2021 to 2022).
Typically, each event consists of:
- a workshop co-produced by staff and students
- a seminar presented by a guest speaker
- a roundtable discussion led by respondents
Please note that speaker titles and universities, as listed, date from the time of the event and may have changed.
| Date(s) | Title | Guest speaker(s) | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 April 2021 | Performing Latin Americanism: Body, Technology, Activism | Professor Fernando Degiovanni (The Graduate Center, CUNY) | Jessica Gordon-Burroughs; Julie Gibbings |
| 6 November 2020 | Multimedia Urban Politics in Agnès Varda's Daguerréotypes | Rebecca DeRoo (Rochester Institute of Technology) |
|
| 3 February 2020 |
|
Professor Benoît Peeters (Lancaster University) | Edouard Notte; Dr Claire Boyle |
| 4 and 5 December 2019 |
|
Dr James Hawkey (University of Bristol) |
Students and staff from the Schools of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) and Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences (PPLS)
|
| 4 November 2019 |
|
Professor Giuliana Pieri (Royal Holloway, University of London) |
Students and staff from the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) and Edinburgh College of Art (ECA)
|
Prior to 2019, seminars were organised along subject lines.
Please note that speaker titles and universities, as listed, date from the time of the event and may have changed.
| French and Francophone Studies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Title | Speaker(s) |
| 12 March 2019 | Estranging the Mother Tongue | Dr Anne-Isabelle François (Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle Paris 3) |
| 24 January 2019 | Killing Time: Death, Feminism, and the Future in Leïla Slimani's Chanson douce | Dr Sarah Arens (University of Edinburgh) |
| 22 November 2017 |
Settlement, treatment and employment of French-speaking Belgian refugees in France, the Netherlands, England and Scotland. [also part of the ‘Uncovering civilian war trauma among female Belgian refugees in Scotland during the First World War’ workshop series] |
Dr Christophe Declercq (University College London) |
| 7 November 2017 | Civil Disobedience and Democracy | Professor Sandra Laugier (Paris Sorbonne) |
| 20 March 2017 | Bernard Stiegler’s Automatic Politics | Professor Martin Crowley (University of Cambridge) |
| 8 March 2017 | 'Tot ot escrit an la cortine': Reconstructing Female Voice and Identity from the Literary Clothwork of Old French Romance | Morgan Boharski (University of Edinburgh) |
| 15 February 2017 | La campagne référendaire de 2014 vue de la France | Professor Didier Revest (Université Côte d'Azur) |
| 17 May 2016 | Narrating Trauma in French Women’s Writing of the Extreme Contemporary | Professor Barbara Havercroft (University of Toronto) |
| 24 February 2016 | Imagining Brussels: Diasporic Writing and the Transnational Urban Space | Sarah Arens (University of Edinburgh) |
| 20 January 2016 | Elles ne savent pas ce qu'elles disent, c'est toute la différence entre elles et moi: Lacan et les féministes | Professor Benedicte Coste (Université de Bourgogne) |
| German | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Title | Speaker(s) |
| 27 March 2019 | Drama in the World: A.W. Schlegel, Walter Scott, and Two Takes on Theatre History | Dr Michael Wood (University of Edinburgh) |
| 28 February 2019 | Die Waffen nieder!: Bertha von Suttner as Novelist and Peace Activist | Dr Barbara Burns (University of Glasgow) |
| 30 January 2019 | German “Provincialism”, the World and Saša Stanišić’s Vor dem Fest | Dr Frauke Matthes (University of Edinburgh) |
| 21 November 2018 | How German philosophy won the First World War: An Introduction to Viscount Haldane | Richard McLauchlan |
| 2 November 2018 | Racing Back to the Future: Rosmer/Bernstein’s Neo-Classical Tragedies | Dr Robert Gillett (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| 5 October 2018 | Cultural Learning in Interaction: Researching meaning-making processes in the foreign language classroom | Julia Feike (University of Edinburgh) |
| 23 March 2018 | Emil Nolde: Landscapes of Loss | Frances Blythe (University of Edinburgh) |
| 2 February 2018 |
The history of learning and teaching German (and other modern languages) in Britain, 1500-2000 [hosted in collaboration with Cultural Encounters/Cultural Dialogues] |
Professor Nicola McClelland (University of Nottingham) |
| 1 December 2017 |
The Disappearance of the Subject in Writing: The Essay Film Beyond Auteurism [hosted in collaboration with Film and the Other Arts] |
Dr Angelos Koutsourakis (University of Leeds) |
| 3 November 2017 | Digitally Distributing Liveness: Three case studies from the Berliner Theatertreffen (2017) | Katie Hawthorne (University of Edinburgh) |
| Russian Studies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Title | Speaker(s) |
| 4 November 2012 | Russian Film Festival 2012 | -- |
| 24 to 25 January 2013 | Global Russian: Exploring New Research Perspectives | |
| 1 February 2013 | Word and Image in Russian Contexts | |
| 17 May 2017 | Robert Burness - Vladimir Nabokov’s English Tutor | Gavriel Shapiro (Cornell University) |
| 27 November 2017 | The Pavlovian discourse of species in Soviet literature and film in the 1930s | Professor Henrietta Mondry (University of Canterbury) |
| 22 January 2018 | Translations of Robert Burns into Russian: from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century | Dr Natalia Kaloh Vid (University of Maribor) |
| 24 January 2018 | Retranslations of Literature: the Case Study of six English translations of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita | Dr Natalia Kaloh Vid (University of Maribor) |
| 18 March 2018 | The Russian Play 2018: The Woman Question | |
| 30 May 2019 | Russia and Europe: Linguistic and Cultural Encounters | Alexandra Smith and Angelos Theocharis (University of Edinburgh) |
| 25 September 2019 | Inaugural Lectures: Liquid Russian | Lara Ryazanova-Clarke (Institute of Linguists) |
|
Dashkova Research Seminars |
||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Title | Speaker(s) |
| 5 February 2015 |
An Aesopian interpretation of Zoshchenko's Retribution |
Dr Rose France (University of Edinburgh) |
| 5 March 2015 |
The Urals - Russia's Crucible |
Professor Paul Dukes (University of Aberdeen) |
| 7 May 2015 |
The Formalist Image of War |
Professor Jan Levtchenko (Moscow Higher School of Economics) |
| 14 May 2015 |
Russian Cosmism in the Depths of the Soviet Cosmos |
Dr Ilia Kalinin (Saint Petersburg State University) |
| 21 May 2015 |
Humpty Dumpty and the Troll Factory |
Professor Michael Gorham (University of Florida) |
| Scandinavian Studies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Title | Speaker(s) |
| 30 April 2018 |
Natural Disasters as Triggers: The Danish Assault on Frisia in AD 810 |
Dan Haycraft (University of Edinburgh) |
| 23 April 2018 |
Swords from the Pagan Norse Graves of Scotland |
Dr Caroline Paterson (University of Stirling) |
|
14 February 2018 |
Prickly Puffins: Translating (pseudo-)profanities and other emotive language in Norwegian children’s literature |
Dr Guy Puzey (University of Edinburgh) |
| 7 February 2018 |
Dalastugor: Creating Images of Belonging through Diasporic Touch in Nordic Art |
Dr Sara Davies (University of Manchester) |
| 30 January 2018 |
Screening Privilege: Global Injustice and Responsibility in 21st Century Scandinavian Film and Media |
Julianne Yang (University of Oslo) |
|
23 January 2018 |
Migrants in Scandinavian literature |
Anja Tröger (University of Edinburgh) |
| 25 January 2017 | The Finnish Workplace - How Finnish Employees Are Led | Saku Tihveräinen (University of Helsinki / University of Edinburgh) |
| 7 December 2016 | The Topography of Salvation and Damnation - Heaven and Hell - in Old Norse Literature | Dr Haki Antonsson (University College London) |
| 30 November 2016 | Playing Devil's Advocate? Ruben Östlund's "Play" (2011) and the Politics of Multiculturalism in Contemporary Sweden | Kate Moffat (University of Stirling) |
| 23 November 2016 | At the Crossroads: The Eastern Baltic in Viking-Age Long-Distance Communication | Dr Marika Mägi (Tallinn University) |
| 16 November 2016 |
The Forbes Family in Swedish Service during the First Half of the Seventeenth Century |
Dr Kathrin Zickermann (University of the Highlands and Islands) |
| 9 November 2016 | Nordic Italies: Representations of Italy in Nordic Literatures between the 1830s and the 1910s | Dr Elettra Carbone (University College London) |
| 2 November 2016 | Decadence and the North: Symbolist Art in the Nordic Countries | Dr Marja Lahelma (University of Helsinki) |
| 19 October 2016 |
Analogical Place-names in Western Iceland and Eastern Lewis; Connection or Coincidence? |
Geir Eysteinsson |
Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
- 16th November 2019 - 'Jornadas de Español en Edimburgo: Español en Andalucía'. A professional development event for Spanish teachers.
- 8th October 2019 - '“Teatro político y comprometido en Argentina” by Professor Fernando Operé'. Professor Fernando Operé (University of Virginia, USA).
- 21st October 2019 - '"Nation Through Landscape: Rodrigo Rey Rosa's Use of Environmental Themes in Lo que soñó Sebastián" by Professor Stephen Henighan'. Professor Stephen Henighan (University of Guelph, Canada).
- 4th - 12th October 2019 - 'Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival 2019'.
- 1st June 2019 - '¡Viva Chile!'. ESFF's second fundraiser of 2019.
- 5th - 6th September 2019 - 'Transnational Perspectives on the Study of Spanish in Society'. The IX International Conference of Hispanic Linguistics and VII Biennial Meeting of the International Association for the Study of Spanish in Society.
- 13th - 14th June 2019 - 'ELE-UK 2019: Research and Practice in Spanish Language Teaching'.
- 23rd April 2019 - 'SPLAS Seminar Series: María Ángeles Pérez López'. Professor María Ángeles Pérez López (Universidad de Salamanca).
- 5th April - 29th June 2019 - 'Conectando: Scottish Encounters with Spanish & Portuguese'. An exhibition celebrating 100 years of the Spanish Degree at the University of Edinburgh.
- 27th March 2019 - 'SPLAS Seminar Series: Bárbara Fernández Melleda'. Dr Bárbara Fernández Melleda (University of Edinburgh).
- 4th March 2019 - 'Are you ready to catch the Basque wave?'. Basque taster session.
- 12th February 2019 - 'SPLAS Seminar Series: Cinema of/as Garbage workshop with Luz Horne'. Instituto Camões and CCLAS in conjunction with Film Studies.
- 28th November 2018 - 'The Cunninghame Graham Lecture 2017: Carlos Zanón'.
- 28th November 2018 - 'Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (SPLAS) Christmas get together'. DELC Festive Showcase.
- 13th November 2018 - 'SPLAS Seminar Series: Maite Conde'. Dr Maite Conde (University of Cambridge).
- 20th November 2018 - 'SPLAS Seminar Series: Beatriz Caballero Rodriguez'. Dr Beatriz Caballero Rodriguez (University of Strathclyde).
- 31st October 2017 - 'The Cunninghame Graham Lecture 2017: Carlos Zanón'. Carlos Zanón (poet).
- 30th October 2017 - 'Dos renovadores de la escritura del ‘yo’: Carmen Martín Gaite y Rosa Montero'. Professor José María Pozuelo Yvancos (University of Murcia).
- 27th January 2017 - 'I Am Tango. Biography of María Nieves'. Elaine Newton-Bruzza (screening).
- 18th October 2016 - 'Diálogo entre escritores'. Paula Varsavsky and Carlos Gamerro (writers).
- 30th September 2016 - 'Tango Negro - The African roots of Tango'. (screening).
- 7th - 11th March 2016 - 'Spanish Play: 'Maribel y la extraña familia'. Various students.
- 18th - 20th March 2015 - 'Spanish play 2015 - Enseñar a un ERASMUS'. Various students.
- 23rd May 2013 - 'La defensa de los indios en dos filósofos novohispanos'. Caribbean and Latin American Research at Edinburgh (CLARE).
- 6th - 8th March 2013 - 'El Florido Pensil'. Basque group Tanttaka.
- 2013 series - 'One Region, Many Peoples'. Various events on race in Latin America.
- 30th January 2013 - 'Seminar: An Early American Diaspora'. Dr Dodds Pennock.
- 2013 - 'Spanish play 2013 - El Florido Pensil'.
- 2012 - 'Spanish play 2012 - Bajarse al moro'.
Conferences and symposia
Dates: 20 September 2019
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
In brief: A one-day workshop organised by the Association of University Professors and Heads of French (AUPHF), co-sponsored by the Society for French Studies and the French Embassy. Focusing on changing mindsets and rethinking the value of languages in a time of crisis, the event brought together stakeholders from Universities, Schools and Cultural Institutes to celebrate and share positive examples of French and Francophone teaching of language and culture. The event culminated with a roundtable discussion on advocacy, lobbying and policy making.
Dates: 13 and 14 December 2018
Venues: 7 George Square, University of Edinburgh; L’Institut français d’Ecosse
Keynote speakers: Professor Nobuko Akiyama (Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo); Professor Nobuko Anan (Kansai University); Professor Fuhito Endo (Seikei University, Tokyo)
Organisers: Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce (University of Edinburgh); Dr Akihiko Shimizu (Cardiff University)
In brief: A two-day international conference in comparative literature on representations of the face in Japanese and Western European art, literature and theatre from the Early Modern period to the present. Comprising 13 papers over five sessions, and three keynote lectures, the event was supported by the DAIWA Foundation (UK), L'Institut Français Écosse and LLC.
Dates: 28 and 29 June 2018
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
In brief: A two-day research meeting of the Dariah-EU Working Group on Women Writers in History. Bringing together an international group of 15 researchers, the event comprised panel sessions, a film screening, workshops and working group discussions.
Related research: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues; Learning to see the power of women
Date: 15 June 2018
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organisers: Dr María Alonso Alonso, Dr Charlotte Bosseaux, Dr Véronique Desnain and Dr Fiona Mackintosh
In brief: A one-day symposium on the evolution of narrative techniques towards noir aesthetics in world literatures. Combining panel sessions involving nine selected researchers, and a facilitated conversation with author Christopher Brookmyre, the event looked at texts which favour the adoption of a new consciousness towards cultural politics, as they reinforce the connection between literature and public affairs.
Related research: Language and Violence
Date: 8 March 2018
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organisers: Professor Rob Dunbar and Dr María Alonso Alonso
In brief: A one-day symposium bringing together established and early-career researchers working on issues related to Galician Studies. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the panel sessions shed light on how Galician Studies engage with the most diverse avenues of research, with particular emphasis on new approaches within the Humanities.
Dates: 2 and 3 November 2017
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Keynote speakers: Professor Juliet Hooker; Professor Peter Wade
Organisers: Dr Julie Cupples and Dr Charlotte Gleghorn
In brief: A two-day gathering on Afrodescendant film and media from Latin America organised as part of the AHRC-funded International Network, ‘Afro-Latin (in)visibility and the UN Decade’. Comprising a keynote address, three panel sessions and a roundtable discussion, the event included the screening of a selection of films curated by the Network steering committee and the Africa in Motion film festival.
Events series: The World After Fukushima
Date: 15 September 2017
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh; Summerhall
Organiser: Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce
In brief: The third in a series of events on the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 and the future of nuclear energy. This international one-day conference, in English, focused on Post-Fukushima Art and Literature in Japan and the West. Comprising five panel sessions and a roundtable discussion, it culminated with a screening of 'The World after Fukushima' and a Q&A with its director Kenichi Watanabe and scriptwriter Michaël Ferrier. Generously supported by the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee.
Events series: The World After Fukushima
Date: 14 September 2017
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce
In brief: The second in a series of events on the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 and the future of nuclear energy. This international one-day conference, in French, focused on the Tokyo-based writer Michaël Ferrier, author of the 2012 book 'Fukushima: Récit d'un désastre'. Generously supported by the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee, it comprised three panel sessions and a talk with Michaël Ferrier.
Dates: 11 and 12 May 2017
Venues: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh; Scottish Parliament; and Italian Cultural Institute
Format: Six panel sessions; exhibition; parliamentary debate; in-conversation event
Organisers: Cristina Savettieri and Federica Pedriali, with assistance from Eugenio Cannovale, Domenico Crea and Carolina Rossi
In brief: A two-day interdisciplinary conference exploring to what extent and how the First World War, its representations and contemporary memory can be considered as a laboratory for testing identities at large.
Generously funded by the European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions), the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Department of European Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh.
The event included an exhibition on WWI landscapes by masters students at Edinburgh College of Art, a parliamentary debate on Nationhood and Nationalism Today, and a public, in-conversation event with writer Paolo Rumiz.
Dates: 8 to 10 September 2016
Venue: Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (Days 1 & 2); L’Institut français d’Ecosse (Day 3)
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
In brief: A three-day conference bringing together 35 international experts to explore the power of women in Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present in panel sessions, exhibitions, a documentary screening, public talks and discussions. The first in an ongoing series of ‘cultural encounters’ between past and present, the event unlocked disciplinary differences and opened a new field of cross-cultural and transmedial investigation between playwrights, artists, filmmakers and others.
Related research: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues; Learning to see the power of women
Lectures, talks, discussions and readings
¡Hecho en México! Teaching Spanish the Mexican Way.
Connecting Memories - First Annual Symposium
Inaugural Lectures: Alexis Grohmann
Moscow Higher School of Economics Lectures
From 19 to 23 February 2018, the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre hosted a series of lectures by scholars from the Higher School of Economics, Moscow. Their visit to the University of Edinburgh took place under the auspices of the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility Scheme. All lectures took place at the Dashkova Centre.
| Date | Speaker | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 19 February 2018 | Ivan Fomin | Memes: What they are and how to study them |
| 20 February 2018 | Varvara Vasileva | Gender equality in Russian politics |
| 21 February 2018 | Anastasia Poretskova | Civil society in Russia—internal observers at Moscow City Council elections |
| 22 February 2018 | Mikhail Ilyin | Morphology in different fields of study—history and potential |
| 22 February 2018 | Christian Fröhlich | Populism and political culture in Russia |
Date: 8 February 2018
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker: Professor Peter France (former University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A talk by Professor Peter France to celebrate the launch of his latest publication, 'Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry' (Columbia University Press). Professor France discussed one of the creators of modern Russian poetry, Konstantin Batyushkov, and illustrated his points by readings in Russian and English. The event was followed by an informal reception.
Date: 25 January 2018
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker: Professor Mary Buckley (University of Cambridge)
In brief: A book launch for Professor Buckley's latest publication, 'The Politics of Unfree Labour in Russia: Human Trafficking and Labour Migration'. The talk (and the book) focused on human trafficking out of the Russian Federation since the collapse of the Soviet state, as well as labour migration into it from Central Asia, and some internal movement.
Date: 18 January 2018
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre
Guest speaker: Dr Andrea Liebschner (Ural Federal University)
In brief: A talk by Dr Liebschner that examined words for food and drinks in the menu of nine coffee houses and fast-food chains in Russia. Using her most recent research, Dr Liebschner analysed formation of the lexical units, orthography and grammatical adaption to the system of the Russian language.
Date: 22 November 2017
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre
Guest speakers: Mikhail and Viacheslav Durnenkov (playwrights), Maria Kroupnik (arts producer and translator) and Irina Lukyanova (writer)
Organisers: School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures; Department of European Languages and Cultures' Language and Violence research strand; Nicola McCartney and the Class Act project
In brief: A roundtable discussion with the four participants, pulling on their various areas of expertise to explore language and violence in Russian theatre and literature.
Date: 24 October 2017
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 19 Buccleuch Place
Guest speakers: Vladimir Sharov (author), Peter Bagrov (film historian) and Kristina Matvienko (theatre critic and practitioner)
In brief: A roundtable discussion with the three participants in Russian as part of the Dashkova Centre's series of events marking the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Co-organised with the Moscow Institute of Translation, this event saw the audience hearing extracts from Sharov's work read by himself, and watching archival film footage.
Date: 12 October 2017
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 19 Buccleuch Place
Guest speaker: Dr Dina Khapaeva (Georgia Institute of Technology)
In brief: A lecture by Dr Khapaeva that examined the appropriations of medievalism by contemporary culture and politics, applying the concept of neo-medievalism to Russia.
Date: 18 September 2017
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker: Ludmila Ulitskaya
In brief: A talk in Russian with Ludmila Ulitskaya concerning contemporary Russian literature and her own work. It was organised by the Princess Dashkova Centre and the Moscow Institute of Translation.
Date: 17 June 2017
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker: Roman Borisovich
In brief: A talk with Roman Borisovich, an actor, political campaigner and anti-corruption activist who starred in the Channel 4 documentary ‘From Russia With Cash’. Mr Borisovich discussed the film and the perception of corruption in Russia and London.
Date: 16 June 2017
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker: Alexander Kan
In brief: A lecture by Alexander Kan, BBC World Service Arts and Culture Correspondent, on the growing community of Russians and Russian speakers in the UK capital. The talk explored the ever-changing Russian cultural landscape in London, and attempted to project its evolution into the future.
Date: 30 May 2017
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Guest speaker: Dr Ilya Kalinin (St Petersburg State University)
In brief: A lecture by Dr Kalinin on the subject of energy resources in the Soviet Union, how they were used to advance the socialist cause, and how to to reveal some interconnections and correlation, as well as some mutual translatability, between Soviet power and electric power.
Date: 24 May 2017
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Guest speaker: Dr Katya Rogatchevskaia (Lead Curator, East European Collections at the British Library)
In brief: A lecture and virtual tour by Dr Rogatchevskaia concerning a new major multimedia exhibition by the British Library. The exhibition re-examined the Russian Revolution in light of recent research, using physical tools such as posters, maps, postcards, letters, newspapers, and ephemera.
Date: 9 May 2017
Venue: Scottish Parliament
Guest speakers: Floriana Fossato (Centre for Media and Society, Russia and Oxford); Jakub Kalensky (East StratCom Task Force, EU) Professor Luke March (University of Edinburgh); Ben Nimmo (Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab); Andras Racz (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest); Dr Lara Ryazanova-Clarke (University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A panel discussion between selected academics and professionals. In it, they examined the origin, transmission and promotion of narratives directed at the international community by Russia. This event was hosted by the Cross-Party Group on Russia, based in the Scottish Parliament.
Date: 28 March 2017
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker:
Tolstaya
In brief: An in-conversation event with Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian contemporary writer and public intellectual. She discussed her work, shared memories of life under the Soviet regime, and answered audience questions. This event was organised in partnership with the University of Glasgow Russian Speaking Society.
Date: 9 March 2017
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker: Professor
Wolczuk (University of Birmingham)
In brief: A lecture by Professor Wolczuk, organised in collaboration with the Edinburgh Europa Institute. This talk analysed EU-Ukraine relations by looking at different types of boundaries of order.
Date: 9 February 2017
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker: Dr Derek Averre (University of Birmingham)
In brief: A lecture by Dr Averre that examined recent international developments and analysed the opportunities and constraints Moscow faces in its foreign policy.
Date: 25 January 2017
Venue: Appleton Tower
Guest speaker: Dr. Ilya Yablokov (University of Leeds)
In brief: A joint lecture between LLC and the School of Social and Political Science, this event saw Dr. Ilya Yablokov (University of Leeds) investigate the phenomenon of conspiracy theories, and demonstrate how journalists became one of the main drivers to their popularity in contemporary Russia.
Date: 17 October 2016
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Guest speaker: Nina Dashevskaya
In brief: An informal discussion and book reading event with writer and musician, Nina Dashevskaya, particularly aimed at children. Nina read extracts from her books in Russian, and answered questions.
Date: 14 September 2016
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Guest speaker: Alicia Kozameh (Chapman University)
In brief: A bilingual reading in Spanish and English by Alicia Kozameh (Chapman University) from one of her books. An author, editor and Creative Writing teacher, Alicia discussed the fictionalisation of her experience as a political prisoner, and as a political exile.
Date: 10 September 2016
Venue: Institut français d’Écosse, Edinburgh
Speakers: Professor Gina Luria Walker (USA; Chair); Professor Suzan Broomhall (Australia); Professor Mary Spongberg (Australia); Dr Elena Woodacre (UK); Dr Armel Duboit-Nayt (France); Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk (UK)
In brief: Part of the Recovering Women’s Past conference, this public event discussed the representation in historiography and films of Catherine de Medici, Joan of Navarre, Marie Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots), Queen Margot, and Christina of Sweden.
Related research: Learning to see the power of women
Date: 10 September 2016
Venue: Institut français d’Écosse, Edinburgh
In brief: Part of the Recovering Women’s Past conference, this public event brought together four theatre practitioners to discuss their work. With the participation of Anna Birch (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland):
- Belgian playwrights and actresses Barbara Sylvain and Lula Bery talked about their play on Marie Suart and Elizabeth I, It’s so nice (2011)
-
Alexandria Patience talked about her co-authored play on seventeenth-century playwright Aphra Behn, APHRA (1997) and gender equity in theatre
-
Clarissa Palmer talked about her co-authored play Olympe de Gouges, porteuse d’espoir/ A Beacon of hope (L’Harmattan, 2012).
Related research: Learning to see the power of women
Date: 3 May 2016
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Guest speaker: Professor Marianna Shakhnovich (Saint-Petersburg State University)
In brief: A presentation by Professor Marianna Shakhnovich (Saint-Petersburg State University) that aimed to contextualise the activity of Semyon Desnitsky, a prominent figure in the philosophical circle formed in Moscow in the late 1760s, in the early history of religious studies in Russia. Professor Shakhnovich was invited to the University by The Princess Dashkova Centre as a Visiting Dashkova Fellow in May 2016.
Date: 30 March 2016
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest speaker: Alexei Kudrin (Honorary Professor, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures)
In brief: A public lecture by Alexei Kudrin (Honorary Professor, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures) organised by The Princess Dashkova Centre, entitled ‘The Russian Economy: Structural Problems and Perspectives on Economic Growth’.
Date: 24 March 2016
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Guest speaker: Professor Sergei Zenkin (Russian State University for the Humanities)
In brief: A presentation by Professor Sergei Zenkin (Russian State University for the Humanities) that explored four aspects of the formalist externalism – the formal, the mimetic, the nomothetic and the historical. It demonstrated that the ideas of Russian theorists converged with some aspects of 20th century European philosophy, but in a different intellectual context.
Date: 18 March 2016
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Participants: Peter Davies (German); Kate Dunn (Hispanic Studies); Barbara Fernandez (Hispanic Studies); Rose France (Russian); Andrea Gullotta (University of Glasgow); Lara Ryazanova-Clarke (Russian)
Organiser: The Dashkova Centre
In brief: A roundtable discussion, as part of the Language and Violence research stream. Topics included defining 'prison/camp', spaces and boundaries, aestheticisation, and voice.
Date: 17 March 2016
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Title: Towards a New Understanding of the Gulag and of its Literature through the Prism of Auto-Biographical Studies
Speaker: Dr Andrea Gullotta (The University of Glasgow)
In brief: A research seminar from Dr Andrea Gullotta on finding a new understanding of the literature of the Gulag by considering a wide corpus of texts, including those which have been less studied to date (e.g. oral poems composed within the camps). In this event, hosted by the Dashkova Centre, Dr Gullotta discussed some of the features he has identified over the years in this corpus, and towards the end he also highlighted other aspects related to non-literary texts.
Date: 4 March 2016
Venue: 50 George Square
Organisers: The Dashkova Centre and the Calvert 22 Foundation
In brief: A presentation of Calvert 22’s London-based exhibition "Things Fall Apart", curated by scholar of art and film Mark Nash. The exhibition was named after Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic of post-colonial fiction, and used the association to focus on a similar loss of utopian perspective following the end of the cold war and collapse of the Soviet Union and eastern bloc. Mark Nash’s presentation was accompanied by screening of Abderrahmane Sissako’s “October” (1993).
Date: 2 March 2016
Venue: 40 George Square Lecture Theatre B
Speaker: Yelena Khanga
Organisers: The Dashkova Centre and the Calvert 22 Foundation
In brief: A conversation with popular chat show host and possibly the most recognisable face of black Russia, Yelena Khanga. She discussed her life and career as a black journalist in the Soviet Union, the United States and modern Russia. This was one of a series of joint events between the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre and Calvert 22 Foundation.
Date: 18 February 2016
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Speaker: Professor Nancy Ries (Colgate University)
Organiser: The Dashkova Centre in collaboration with Language and Violence Research strand (DELC)
In brief: A public lecture from Professor Nancy Ries (Colgate University) based off her anthropological field research in Russia. The talk used Guy Debord's concept of 'the spectacle' to analyse a collection of military news and entertainment videos, some of which highlight contemporary tools and forces (Tupolev bombers over Europe, opolchentsy in Ukraine, bombing in Syria, Russian nuclear modernisation) and some of which warn of the coming 'Third World War' started by the US and NATO.
Date: 28 January 2016
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Speaker: Professor Mika Lähteenmäki (University of Jyväskylä)
In brief: A public seminar by Professor Mika Lähteenmäki, organised by the Dashkova Centre. In this talk, Professor Lähteenmäki discussed language ideological discourse in contemporary Russia and its role in the promotion of national unity.
Date: 21 January 2016
Venue: 50 George Square
Speaker: Billy Kay
Organiser: Dashkova Centre
In brief: Scottish writer and broadcaster Billy Kay presented and discussed his new BBC Radio Scotland series “The Scots in Russia”. He discussed the substantial contribution to Russia made by Scots from the 17th century to the time of the Revolution, and illustrated his talk with clips from the series.
Date: 8 December 2015
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Speaker: Professor Alexander Nakhimovsky (Colgate University)
In brief: A lecture organised by the Dashkova Centre, given by Professor Alexander Nakhimovsky (Colgate University). It investigated how class struggle and interpersonal relationships are represented in dialects of characters of Lydia Seifullina's novella ‘Перегной’ (Humus).
Date: 28 November 2015
Venue: 50 George Square
Title: The "Last address": how the idea of the public memorial becomes the basis to civil movement
Speaker: Sergei Parkhomenko
In brief: A public lecture organised by the Dashkova Centre from acclaimed Russian journalist, broadcaster, publisher and founder of several initiatives aimed at promoting civic activism in Russia. The lecture was given in Russian.
Dates: 26 November 2015
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Research strand: Global Russians: Transnational russophone networks in the UK
Keynote speaker: Diane Koenker (University of Illinois)
In brief: Part of a two-day workshop entitled 'The Global Russian: International Travel as Cultural and Linguistic Practices', which itself is part of the research project ‘Travelling Cultures: Discourses of Russian Tourism in Scotland’ within the Dashkova Centre's Global Russians research strand. This lecture was given by Professor Diane Koenker, who was at the time Professor of History at the University of Illinois, specialising in modern Russian and Soviet history.
Date: 25 November 2015
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Speaker: Dr Alan Macniven (University of Edinburgh)
In brief: A public lecture, drinks reception and book signing to celebrate the launch of The Vikings in Islay, a systematic review of around 300 of Islay's farm and nature names, turning traditional assumptions about the history of the Scottish island on their head.
Related research: Islay Life Explorer (ÌLE)
Film screenings and festivals
Russian Film Week
Russian Film Week was co-organised by the Princess Dashkova Centre and Russian Film Week London, with informational support from Scotland-Russia Forum. It ran annually between 2017 and 2019. All films were shown in Russian with English subtitles.
| Date | Venue | Film |
|---|---|---|
| 21 November 2017 | 50 George Square | Kharms (2017, dir. Ivan Bolotnikov) |
| 23 November 2017 | 50 George Square | All Will End Soon (2017, dir. Alexey Rybin) |
| 24 November 2017 | 50 George Square | Pagans (2017, dir. Lera Surkova) |
| 25 November 2017 | 50 George Square | The Seagull (2017, dir. Yury Butusov) |
| 28 November 2018 | 50 George Square | Vmayakovsky (2018, dir. Alexander Shein) |
| 30 November 2018 | 50 George Square | The Story of One Appointment (2018, dir. Avdotya Smirnova) |
| 26 November 2019 | 50 George Square | Above the Sky (2019, dir. Oksana Karas) |
| 28 November 2019 | 50 George Square | Great Poetry (2019, dir. Alexander Lungin) |
Date: 30 June 2017
Venue: 50 George Square
In brief: A screening of 'Chitai, chitai', the debut film from Evgenii Koriakovskii, prolific Russian actor. The film was shown in Russian, and was followed by a Q&A session.
Date: 27 June 2018
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
In brief: A public screening of Bertrand Tavernier's 2010 film La Princesse de Montpensier [The Princess of Montpensier] shown in collaboration with The French Institute as part of the two-day event, Cultural Encounters Between North, South, West And East. Inspired by a novel by an iconic seventeenth-century French woman writer, the film was introduced by Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk based on her research ‘Women of the past, Reception of women writers: Madame de La Fayette as a case study’.
Related research: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues; Learning to see the power of women
Events series: The World After Fukushima
Date: 13 September 2017
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce
In brief: The first in a series of events on the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 and the future of nuclear energy. A screening of the 2015 documentary 'Nuclear Lands' (Kami Productions, Arte France), followed by a Q&A with director, Kenichi Watanabe, and scriptwriter, Michaël Ferrier. Generously supported by the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee.
Date: 24 September 2016
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Guest speaker: Ekaterina Eremenko
In brief: A screening of the new film 'The Discrete Charm of Geometry' (2015) by Ekaterina Eremenko, a Russian film director. The event began with an introduction from Ekaterina, and ended with a Q&A session.
Date: 9 September 2016
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
In brief: MARCH (2015, 40 minutes) documents March of Women, a large-scale public art event in Bridgeton, Glasgow held on the eve of International Women’s Day 2015. Through a series of interviews with a wide variety of the participating women, the film considers the gap in documenting women’s history, and points to the resounding importance of having a female generation to both honour and draw inspiration from. A screening of the film was included in the programme of the Recovering Women’s Past conference in September 2016. It was introduced by Professor Anna Birch, Artistic Director of March of Women, and followed by a debate moderated by Professor Gina Luria Walker (New School, New York).
Related research: Learning to see the power of women
Exhibitions, workshops and performances
Date: 2 November 2017
Venue: City of Edinburgh Methodist Church
Guest performer: Vera Pavlova
In brief: An evening of music and performance with Russian poet and pianist Vera Pavlova, who played Tchaikovsky's 'Childhood' cycle. This was interspersed with readings from her poetry which she read in Russian, but English translations of her poetry was provided on a screen.
Date: 31 May 2018
Venue: L’Institut français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
In brief: The second in a series of workshops examining the lives and literature of female writers from the early modern period (16th to 18th centuries). Held in French, this event centred on the novels of Madame de La Fayette, with a particular focus on La Princesse de Montpensier.
Related research: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues; Learning to see the power of women
Date: 17 May 2018
Venue: L’Institut français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh
Format: Workshop
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
In brief: The first in a series of workshops examining the lives and literature of female writers from the early modern period (16th to 18th centuries). Held in French, this event centred on the work of seventeenth-century playwright and novelist, Mme de Villedieu, with a focus on her play, Le Favori (1665) (H. Goldwyn and A. Evain (eds.), Théâtre de femmes de l’Ancien Régime, XVIIes, 2008).
Related research: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues; Learning to see the power of women
BABBLE launch
Londongrad and Londongradians: Identities, Imaginaries, and Cultural Practices of Russians in the UK
Dates: 16 to 17 June 2017
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Research strand: Global Russians: Transnational Russophone Networks in the UK
In brief: Part of the AHRC-funded research project, 'Global Russians', this two-day workshop concerned the imaginaries of 'Londongrad' - the British spaces populated and inflected by Russians, with a particular focus on cultural and media productions on the Russian presence in the UK.
Date: 14 March 2017
Venue: 50 George Square
Guest performers: Grigory Kruzhkov; Lev Oborin; Marina Boroditskaya; Christine De Luca; Jen Hadfield; Stewart Sanderson
In brief: A reading of poetry by three of Russia's leading contemporary poets, as well as three of Scotland's. The poems used Shakespeare's sonnets as a stepping-off point, and the Scottish poets translated the work of their Russian counterparts into Scottish and Shetlandic. Guests received a complimentary copy of a pamphlet of the poems and translations produced by the project. The exchange was organised by the British Council in co-operation with The Scottish Poetry Library, and supported by the Edwin Morgan Trust.
Dates: 29 July to 8 October 2016
Venue: Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh
In brief: Associating with Andy Warhol and the Beat Generation, Alice Neel (1900-1984) tended to exist on the peripheries of society. Telling the story of the turbulent events that shaped Neel’s life, The Subject and Me was the first solo exhibition of her work in Scotland. It was the latest in a series of exhibitions at Talbot Rice Gallery promoting the work of leading women artists, previously including Jane and Louise Wilson, Hanne Darboven, Jenny Holzer and Rosemarie Trockel. A guided tour of the exhibition with Principal Curator, Pat Fisher, was included in the programme of the Recovering Women’s Past conference in September 2016.
Related research: Learning to see the power of women
Date: 8 September 2016
Venue: Centre for Research Collections, Main University Library
In brief: An exhibition of artefacts from the University of Edinburgh's Special Collections. A guided tour of the exhibition was included in the programme of the Recovering Women’s Past conference in September 2016.
Related research: Learning to see the power of women
Date: 29 February 2016
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Speaker: Dmity Vodennikov
In brief: An evening of poetry and performances from Dmity Vodennikov, an acclaimed Russian poet and essayist. This event took place in Russian.
Date: 23 February 2016
Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Organisers: The Russian department and Princess Dashkova Russian Centre
In brief: A performance of Anton Chekhov's 'The Marriage Proposal' by three undergraduate Russian Studies students: Deana Davis, Anastasia Lopoukhine and Robin Veale. This 30-minute sketch was one of Chekhov's famous 'Шутки' (Jokes), and was performed in Russian.
Date: 27 November 2015
Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place
Research strand: Global Russians: Transnational russophone networks in the UK
In brief: This workshop developed the Dashkova Centre's ‘Global Russian’ research strand and is part of the research project ‘Travelling Cultures: Discourses of Russian Tourism in Scotland’. It brought together international scholars examining tourism from the linguistic, historical and cultural perspectives, and the practitioners who produce tourist discourses. The workshop explored tourist narratives as a product of cross-cultural interaction, and addressed the questions of how globalisation affects the narratives produced for and by Russian tourists, and what meanings are attached to the newly emerged phenomenon of the Russian globe-trotter.
It also featured an evening with Dmitry Krylov, a travel journalist and author of ‘Neputevye Zametki’, chaired by Lara Ryazanova-Clarke and Vera Zvereva (University of Edinburgh).