Upcoming Events

Soviet ideology treated religion as an enemy, a tool of oppression and an expression of backwardness. Militant atheism, the prohibition of religious rituals, and the repression of religious communities aimed to create a secular, rational, and scientific society. Yet, religion mattered in Soviet people’s lives. And with institutional religion restricted, many people expressed their spirituality through “lived religion” - the practice of religion and spirituality in everyday lives. What were the practices of lived religion in the context of state socialism? And how did it converge and diverge with the return of institutionalised religion and spiritual lift after the collapse of communism? REEES Spring 2023 Series, Religion in (Post-Socialism) Societies, will explore the role of religion in socialist and post-socialist societies in eight online discussions on religion and its relations to repression, nation-building, indigenous cultures, and memory. This is a part of REEES’s Spring 2023 lecture series.

The Future of SEEES Expertise: How Can We Anticipate Tomorrow’s Differences? is the sixth and the last panel of the Decolonization in Focus Series. The Russian war in Ukraine has had innumerable impacts, from personal to political, local, national, and global. One of the many sea changes wrought by the war has been the reckoning within Slavic/Russian & Eurasian Studies over the outsized role Russia has played and continues to play in the field and what could and should be done about it. The invited panelists in this series will consider the relationships of power that have long dominated the region, how they have impacted the field of study, and what, if anything, could and should be done about it. The series has six wide-ranging panels featuring speakers from various disciplines and institutions. Panelists and participants will be encouraged to consider why decolonizing Russian & Eurasian studies matters, how to implement concrete change in their classrooms, and how to conceive of the future of expertise within the field. All sessions will be convened using Zoom, live-streamed via YouTube, and recorded to be made available for later viewing.

With the recent developments in Ukraine and Putin's talk on restoring the Soviet aor the Russian Empire, newly independent territories and cities at the former imperial periphery are again in focus. Riga, today's capital of Latvia, belonged to the Russian Empire (1710-1917) and used to be one of imperial Russia's main ports. In the decade before World War I, Riga was the port with the highest turnover, surpassing both Odessa and the capital St. Petersburg. But Riga was never really a "Russian" city: before World War I, only 18 percent of its inhabitance were native Russian speakers. More important for its economic viability were its Latvian, German, and Jewish residents. This talk will map Riga as a port city and trading metropolis using research results obtained through GIS and archival research. It will also highlight the diversity of the people behind Riga's economic success.

Soviet ideology treated religion as an enemy, a tool of oppression and an expression of backwardness. Militant atheism, the prohibition of religious rituals, and the repression of religious communities aimed to create a secular, rational, and scientific society. Yet, religion mattered in Soviet people’s lives. And with institutional religion restricted, many people expressed their spirituality through “lived religion” - the practice of religion and spirituality in everyday lives. What were the practices of lived religion in the context of state socialism? And how did it converge and diverge with the return of institutionalised religion and spiritual lift after the collapse of communism? REEES Spring 2023 Series, Religion in (Post-Socialism) Societies, will explore the role of religion in socialist and post-socialist societies in eight online discussions on religion and its relations to repression, nation-building, indigenous cultures, and memory. This is a part of REEES’s Spring 2023 lecture series.

The University of Pittsburgh and the International Studies Consortium of Georgia (ISCOG) invite you to join the introductory session in an ongoing series focused on development, conservation, and sustainability contrasting dynamics and processes in different world regions. The sessions have been designed to help educators develop and enhance global content complementing their curricula. In addition to learning about thematic local/global intersections, educators will also explore Pitt’s Historical context, Ethics, Language proficiency, Media literacy, Social science methodologies (HELMS) framework for the area, and global studies. This series engages and promotes critical thinking about Amazonia’s current and future sustainability. We will work through approaches to the region’s role in water and food security, clean energy supplies, climate change, art, music, and cultural expressions. This collaborative series is funded through U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center grants. Participants will be able to learn about issues related to Amazonia, particularly related to development, sustainability, and conservation. Improve understanding of diversely different and clearly interconnected dynamics that affect daily lives all over the planet. This will allow educators to have resources at hand to teach in their classroom as well as satisfy the requirement of teaching to the standards. For questions, please email lavst12@pitt.edu

This working group will meet in person every three weeks for the 2022-2023 academic year to discuss new scholarship about Eurasian borderlands. Faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates are welcome to join. No prior expertise in Eurasia is necessary.