Blog Archives

Autumn Schedule for the Russian Studies Workshop

Published on September 23, 2011 by Dana Immertreu No comments

The new, interdisciplinary Russian Studies Workshop is pleased to announce its Autumn Quarter schedule!

Oct 4: Brian Horne
Oct 11: Katerina Clark (Social Sciences Tea Room, 2nd floor of SSRB)
Oct 18: Kristy Ironside
Nov 1: Rachel Applebaum
Nov 15: Kathryn Duda
Nov 29: Leah Goldman

All meetings will be held in the John Hope Franklin Room (224) on the second floor of the Social Sciences Research Building at the University of Chicago (except Oct. 11), from 4:30-6:00pm, with snacks and socializing beginning at 4:15.

Workshop participants are asked to commit to regular attendance at all meetings during the quarter, to foster a supportive and cohesive intellectual atmosphere. Papers will be pre-circulated through the workshop’s Chalk site. If you would like to be added to the Chalk site or or the listserv, please email me (ldgoldman@uchicago.edu). If you don’t have a U of C email address and thus cannot access Chalk, please email me a request before each meeting, and I’ll send you the current paper individually. If you have any comments or questions, please email me! I look forward to meeting old friends and new at our first meeting on Oct. 4.

Posted in: Calls for Papers and Upcoming Conferences, CEERES Events/News, University of Chicago Events

Event Listings for Vision and Communism at the Smart Museum

Published on September 23, 2011 by Dana Immertreu No comments

The Exhibition
Vision and Communism draws on an extensive private collection of Soviet art and propaganda, presenting nearly 90 captivating and emotionally gripping images by Soviet artist Viktor Koretsky (1909-1998). In contrast to more conventional Soviet propaganda, Koretsky created striking scenes of survival and suffering that were designed to connect Soviet citizens with others struggling for civil rights and independence around the globe. This vision of a multicultural world of shared sacrifice offered a dynamic alternative to the sleek consumerism of Madison Avenue and the West and, according to the curators, can be thought of “as a kind of Communist advertising for a future that never quite arrived.”
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/exhibitions/vision-and-communism/

Opening Reception
Join us Thursday, September 29, from 5:30-7:30 pm for a panel discussion featuring curators Christopher Heuer (Princeton University), Matthew Jesse Jackson (University of Chicago), Tumelo Mosaka (Krannert Art Museum), and Stephanie Smith (Smart Museum of Art). The discussion will be followed by an exhibition viewing and reception with free food and refreshments.

Notable Events
Film Series: Medvedkin and Marker, Wednesdays, October 12, 19 and November 2, 7 pm, Film Studies Center
The exhibition’s themes are extended to cinema through screenings of the militant films of Aleksandr Medvedkin and Chris Marker at the Film Studies Center. For a complete list of films and synopses, and to make reservations, visit filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu or call 773.702.8596.

Agitation! a Symposium, Friday October 14, 9 am – 6:30 pm, Special Collections Research Center, Joseph Regenstein Library
Join leading scholars for a public symposium that examines art and political agitation. The day-long event includes panel discussions and keynote addresses from Catriona Kelly (University of Oxford), William Ayers (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Bernadine Dorn (Northwestern University). Register to attend and find a full schedule of topics and speakers at smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/symposium

Lunch-hour Talk: “Envisioning Another World and Taking on Big Enemies,” Friday, October 21, 12 pm
Prexy Nesbitt, professor of African History at Columbia College, discusses the triumphs and failings of African liberation struggles during the Cold War. Space is limited. Please register in advance. http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/calendar/register/

Lunch-hour Talk: “Empire of Liberation? The Soviet Union, U.S. Race Relations, and the Cold War,” Wednesday, November 2, 12 pm
Examine the historical record behind the events depicted in Viktor Koretsky’s propaganda posters during this lunch-hour talk by Rachel Appelbaum. Space is limited. Please register in advance. http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/calendar/register/

Posted in: CEERES Events/News, Chicago Events, Soviet Arts Experience, University of Chicago Events

Global Comrades–films by Aleksandr Medvedkin and Chris Marker at the UChicago Film Studies Center

Published on September 14, 2011 by Dana Immertreu No comments

Global Comrades
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 – 7:00pm
Part of the Film Series “Vision and Communism: The Films of Aleksandr Medvedkin and Chris Marker”
Film Studies Center
5811 South Ellis Ave.
Cobb Hall 306
Chicago, IL 60637

Introduction by Robert Bird, Associate Professor, Departments of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Cinema and Media Studies.

In 1967 Chris Marker happened upon Aleksandr Medvedkin’s 1935 film satire Happiness and discovered for the world a lost giant of the Soviet cinema. Further research into Medvedkin’s work led Marker to the “film-train” that Medvedkin had conducted for a time in 1933-1934, in the heady days of the rapid industrialization and collectivization. The thoughtful, inventive and humorous political films of Medvedkin and his comrades not only proved consonant to Marker’s own practice as a film-essayist, but also provided a powerful impulse for Marker’s efforts to encourage insurgent filmmaking at the grass-roots level. Featuring several films that have rarely, if ever, been shown in the United States, this screening series explores a friendship between filmmakers, exemplifying the powerful yet tenuous intimacy that becomes possible when technological media are adopted for the international struggle for social justice.

Part II of the film series documents both filmmakers’ turn to international topics, particularly the effects of Cold War politics on Africa, Vietnam and other developing countries.

For more info and to see the list of individual films that will be shown visit http://filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu/events/2011/vision-and-communism-films-aleksandr-medvedkin-and-chris-marker-0

Posted in: CEERES Events/News, Chicago Events, Soviet Arts Experience

Agitation!: A Symposium, October 14

Published on August 25, 2011 by Dana Immertreu No comments

October 14 from 9am-6:30pm at the Smart Museum of Art

Join leading scholars for a daylong public symposium that examines art and political agitation.

The symposium is presented in connection with the exhibitions Vision and Communism at the Smart Museum of Art and Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary at the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago Library. It is part of a series of academic programs in Chicago devoted to discussing Soviet graphic arts, including a session on October 13 at Northwestern University and one on October 15 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The full schedule for Agitation!:A Symposium is now available online at http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/symposium/.

The Symposium is presented the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies, Center for International Studies, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Franke Institute for the Humanities, Special Collections Research Center, and University of Chicago Presents.

Posted in: CEERES Events/News, Chicago Events, Soviet Arts Experience

Discussion: “Shostakovich, Prokofiev and their Audiences, East and West,” Gerard McBurney (Director of CSO’s Beyond the Score), Prof. Sheila Fitzpatrick (History), Prof. Robert Bird (Slavic), May 9

Published on May 7, 2011 by Sasha Belyi No comments

CENTER FOR EAST EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN/EURASIAN STUDIES (UCHICAGO)

Gerard McBurney on Shostakovich and Prokofiev

Monday, May 09, 2011 at 04:30 PM
Franke Institute for the Humanities at Regenstein Library, 1100 E. 57th Street; Chicago, IL 60637
franke.uchicago.edu
773-702-8274

“Shostakovich, Prokofiev and their Audiences, East and West”
A Conversation with Gerard McBurney (Director of CSO’s Beyond the Score), featuring Prof. Sheila Fitzpatrick (History) and Prof. Robert Bird (Slavic).

Monday
May 9, 2011
4:30 pm – 6pm

Franke Institute for the Humanities
At Regenstein Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

This event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Soviet Arts Experience, the Department of History, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies.

For more information, or if you feel you need assistance to attend, please contact CEERES atceeres@uchicago.edu or 773-702-0875.