Lecture

Presented by The Matthew B. Ridgway Center and The Center for Governance and Markets. The event will also be livestreamed on Youtube – please check the Center for Governance and Market's twitter account on the day of the event to watch remotely.

After State Collapse: Afghanistan Following the Taliban’s Return to Power
William Pitt Union – Lower Level Room
November 1, 2021
1:30pm

Join Irina Roldugina on a discussion as part of the Global Studies Center Mini Pop-Up Course offerings: St. Petersburg as the queer capital of Russia: from the late imperial time up to the 1990s

Join Hungarian Fulbright Visiting Professor Dr. Attila Kenyeres for a spooky evening to explore the myth and history behind famous vampires in Central Europe. Learn about state policies to contain vampirism in the Habsburg empire and ask how world press coverage of vampires influenced imaginaries of Central Europe while shaping our modern culture.

This is a hybrid event. In-person attendance is limited. Please indicate your preferred method of attendance by registering.

In a demonstration sponsored by the Carpatho-Rusyn Society, engineer and linguist Petro Orynycz unveils hybrid artificial intelligence technology that empowers new speakers of Lemko to read in the language immediately. Implications for endangered, low-resource language revitalization are discussed.

Please, join us for an exciting conversation with Chad Gracia, the film director of an award-winning documentary about Chernobyl--The Russian Woodpecker --on Wednesday, October 20 at 1-2pm EST! Follow the Zoom link to join us: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/98152409214

Presenting Bulgaria’s cultural engagements with multiple actors in the Third World, this talk by Dr. Theodora Dragostinova (Ohio State University) highlights the global reach of state socialism, demonstrates the existence of vibrant partnerships along an East-South axis during the 1970s, and challenges notions of late socialism as the prelude to communist collapse in eastern Europe.

Zoom registration: https://osu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tXaeNufPSGKoJM2a3-WIXQ

Presenters: Sean Cotter (University of Texas, Dallas), Emanuela Grama (Carnegie Mellon University) and Bogdan Suceava (California State, Fullerton)

Moderated by Adreea Ritivoi (Carnegie Mellon University)

In the summer of 2019, Hong Kong-- former British colony, current special administrative region of the People's Republic of China-- was swept up by a large, sustained protest movement. The spark that lit this "revolution of our time" as protestors have deemed it was an extradition treaty with China, but quickly evolved into a broader movement for a more democratically representative government and autonomy from the People's Republic of China.

The 1960s and 1970s were a boon for Soviet film. After decades of fits and starts film production. Moviegoers flocked to the theaters. True, Soviet filmmakers leapt over hurdles to make art in an authoritarian society. But while the Brezhnev era of Soviet filmmaking is often depicted as a period of great repression, the films out of the prestigious Lenfilm studio were far more imaginative than assumed. How did a new generation of Soviet filmmakers reconcile contradictory demands to make sophisticated and highly original movies?

What made Soviet people "soviet"? This question has dogged scholars for decades. But one innovative approach to digging into the "soviet" of Soviet life is through material objects and spaces during the late socialist era. Soviet things influenced Soviet people's gender roles, habitual choices, social trajectories, and imaginary aspirations. And, in turn, Soviet people used objects to shape their sense of self as part of a global experience of modernity that went beyond communist propaganda. How did objects make Soviet people and society "Soviet"?