Fascism’s Global Moments: New Perspectives on Entanglements and Tensions between Fascist Regimes in the 1930s and 1940s

Lecture | April 2 | 5-6:30 p.m. | 201 Moses Hall

Speaker/Performer: Sven Reichard, University of Konstanz, Germany

Sponsors: GHI West - Pacific Regional Office of the German Historical Institute Washington DC, Center for German and European Studies, Department of History

In his talk, Professor Reichardt will discuss how a global perspective can help us understand the nature of different fascist empires and the general character of fascism up to the end of World War II. He will focus on cooperation as well as competition between different fascist regimes, especially with regard to their imperial and colonial aspirations during the 1930s and 1940s. While a transfer...   More >

Herta Müller, the Aktionsgruppe Banat, and Literary Cartographies in Late 20th-Century Romanian Literature

Lecture | April 5 | 12-1:30 p.m. | 270 Stephens Hall

Speakers: Dana Bizuleanu, Lecturer, Department of Applied Languages, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Marius Conkan, Research Assistant, Department of Comparative Literature, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Sponsors: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), Center for German and European Studies

In Communist Romania one had freedom, as long as one took freedom. This is what the members of the Aktionsgruppe Banat believed when they started a literary circle in the 1970s and gradually broke with the tradition of Rumäniendeutsche Literatur. Protest, experiment, and the German village stand at the core of their literature. Having come into contact with members of the group,...   More >

Authoritarianism Accepted: Contextualizing EU and Russian Involvement in the Balkans

Lecture | April 8 | 12-1:30 p.m. | 201 Moses Hall

Speaker: Branislav Radeljic, Reader in International Relations, University of East London

Sponsors: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), Institute of European Studies

The EU and Russia have each sought to consolidate their influence in the Balkans and the relationship between Brussels, Moscow and Belgrade has never been straightforward. Back in the 1990s, the Brussels authorities helped the Milosevic regime stay in power and only decided to oust it when such a move appeared suitable, whereas the Russians have sided with their fellow Serbs throughout. More...   More >

The Key to Shambhala: The Mystifier as a Cultural Problem

Lecture | April 8 | 4-6 p.m. | B-4 Dwinelle Hall

Speaker: Ilya Vinitsky, Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University

Sponsors: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Slavic Graduate Colloquium Spring 2019 Series

The Economic and Political Impact of Migration in Romania

Lecture | April 9 | 5:15-6:45 p.m. | 270 Stephens Hall

Speaker: Gabriel Badescu, Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration, Babes-Bolyai University

Sponsor: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)

Eastern Europe has the largest population loss in modern history and emigration is one of the main reasons behind the decline. Romania suffered one of the most severe population declines, with a 10 per cent loss in the fifteen years to 2007- the year in which Romania joined the EU.
I will discuss Romania’s case in a comparative perspective and analyze the likely outcomes of migration on short...   More >

International Status Anxiety and Higher Education: The Soviet Legacy in China and Russia [Book Presentation and Discussion]

Presentation | April 15 | 3-4 p.m. | Barrows Hall, Social Science Matrix, 8th Floor

Sponsor: Center for Studies in Higher Education

This book investigates how the political underpinnings of global power shifts, caused by hierarchically concerned knowledge makers, have evolved on the post-Soviet periphery of higher education and have been anxious to move to the top of the global knowledge hierarchy. This volume engages distant and recent histories of two global superpowers – the People’s Republic of China (hereafter, China)...   More >

The Great Chernobyl Acceleration

Lecture | April 17 | 6-7:30 p.m. | 3335 Dwinelle Hall

Speaker: Kate Brown, Professor of History in the Science, Technology and Society Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sponsor: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)

In April 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded and sent upwards of 50 million curies into the surrounding environment. Brown argues that to call this event an “accident” is to sweep aside radioactive incidents in the region that occurred before and after the accident. In the 1960s, Soviet researchers learned that the people living in the Pripyat Marshes surrounding the Chernobyl Plant...   More >

Russia 2018: The Global Potemkin Village | A Lecture by David Goldblatt

Lecture | April 18 | 4-6 p.m. |  Durham Studio Theater (Dwinelle Hall)

Speaker: David Goldblatt, Sports Writer, Broadcaster, Sociologist, Journalist and Author

Moderator: Prof. Martha Saavedra, Center for African Studies, UC Berkeley

Sponsors: Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, Department of History, Center for British Studies

David Goldblatt is a sports writer, broadcaster, sociologist, journalist and author. Among his books are The Games: A Global History of the Olympics, The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football, Futebol Nation: A Footballing History of Brazil, and The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football.

Open to audience: All Audiences

RSVP not required

The Little Comrade

Film - Feature | April 18 | 8:30 p.m. |  Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Sponsor: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

In 1950 Estonia, the Soviets are working to suppress a fledgling resistance movement that has arisen in the countryside. Six-year-old Leelo can’t quite understand exactly why her mom has been arrested or why her father is disappointed to hear her championing the “young pioneers” she sees marching at school. With a deft balance of humor, tension, and empathy, Siimets’s debut shows how the evils of...   More >

China's Growing Sharp Power: Western, Asian, and African Perspectives

Conference/Symposium | April 19 | 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. |  David Brower Center

Location: 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

Sponsors: Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS), Center for Chinese Studies (CCS), Center for Japanese Studies (CJS), Center for Korean Studies (CKS), Canadian Studies Program (CAN)), Institute for South Asia Studies, Institute of European Studies, Center for African Studies, Center for Southeast Asia Studies, Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)

A group of leading experts on China and American foreign policy recently released “Chinese Influence and American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance,” a report documenting Chinese efforts to influence American society. The report examines China's efforts to influence American institutions, including state and local governments, universities, think tanks, media, corporations, and the...   More >

Target audiences: All Audiences, Faculty, Friends of the University, General Public, Staff, Students - Graduate, Students - Prospective, Students - Undergraduate

Open to audiences: All Audiences, Faculty, Friends of the University, General Public, Staff, Students - Graduate, Students - Prospective, Students - Undergraduate

Debating the Origins, Development, and Impact of the Armenian Genocide (1850s-1938)

Conference/Symposium | April 20 | 9:45 a.m.-5 p.m. | 370 Dwinelle Hall

Speakers: Taner Akcam, Clark University; Stephan Astourian, UC Berkeley; Hamit Bozarslan, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris; Etienne Copeaux, Retired Historian, Paris; Raymond Kévorkian, Emeritus, Université Paris 8 : Vincennes-Saint-Denis; Hans-Lukas Kieser, University of Newcastle, Australia, and University of Zürich; Mehmet Polatel, 2018-2019 Manoogian Post-doctoral fellow, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Ronald Suny, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Sponsors: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), Armenian Studies Program

The unusually broad focus of this conference aims at assessing various historiographical aspects of the Armenian Genocide and its aftermath. Some of the issues that deserve to be discussed include, among others, the following:
-The Tanzimat reforms and ethnoreligious polarization.
-The continuity or discontinuity between the Armenian Genocide and the cases of mass violence that preceded it,...   More >

Honeyland

Film - Feature | April 20 | 1:30 p.m. |  Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Sponsor: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of Macedonia, making a living cultivating honey using ancient beekeeping traditions. When an unruly family moves in next door, what at first seems like a balm for her solitude becomes a source of tension as they, too, want to practice beekeeping, while disregarding her advice. A buzzworthy hit at Sundance, where it won three awards, including...   More >

The Load

Film - Feature | April 21 | 6 p.m. |  Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Sponsor: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Though rarely spoken of, the unseen contents of a plain white cargo van are at the center of Ognjen Glavonić’s tense and moving political drama about moral responsibility during times of war and conflict. Leon Lučev plays Vlada, a driver for hire for the Serbian government, transporting a vehicle from Kosovo to Belgrade. His journey takes him into unexpected territory, both physical and...   More >

Cinefication in Three Scenes

Lecture | April 25 | 5:15-6:45 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe Room, 220

Speaker: Pavle Levi, Professor, Film and Media Studies, Stanford University

Sponsor: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)

This talk will diagnose and theoretically elaborate the notion of reality’s “general cinefication” by drawing on a range of post-WWII experimental and documentary film practices and spectatorial experiences. Questions pertaining to the politics of East European filmmaking in the age of moving image’s ubiquity will be explored through the consideration of works by Zelimir Zilnik, Bojan Jovanovic,...   More >

Movie Screening and Discussion: “Singing in Exile”

Film - Documentary | April 26 | 7-9 p.m. | 105 North Gate Hall

Performers: Virginia Pattie Kerovpyan; Aram Kerovpyan

Sponsors: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), Armenian Studies Program

“With the song we face ourselves, we cannot lie ...” Aram
and Virginia, an Armenian couple from the diaspora, transmit an ancestral chant tradition (traditional monodic singing), which is on the verge of disappearance, to a troupe of European actors. In view of creating a theatrical performance, the couple takes the troupe of the Wroclaw Grotowski Institute on an initiatory journey to...   More >

Building Bridges or a Bridge Too Far? The "Macedonia" Name Agreement and the Past, Present and Future of Greek Interstate Relations

Lecture | April 29 | 12-1 p.m. | 201 Moses Hall

Speaker/Performer: Spero Paravantes

Sponsors: Institute of European Studies, Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)

The "Macedonia" name issue has been a constant point of contention between Greece and the newly re-named Republic of North Macedonia since the breakup of Yugoslavia. With the origins of the dispute stretching back to the Second World War, the "Prespa Agreement", signed between the two Balkan neighbors in June 2018 (in effect since February 2019) is hoped to be a new beginning in interstate...   More >

Political Machines at Work: Electoral Subversion in the Russian Workplace

Lecture | April 29 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 270 Stephens Hall

Speaker: John Reuter, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin - Milawaukee

Sponsor: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)

In many countries, employers use their leverage over workers to induce them to turn out in elections and/or vote a specific way. This practice is very common in contemporary Russia. In recent elections, as many as 1 in 4 firms engaged in some form of electoral mobilization. Drawing on voter surveys, firm surveys, focus groups, and electoral violation reports, this talk will address several...   More >

The Frozen Conflict in Transnistria: Current Situation and Prospects for Settlement

Lecture | April 30 | 5:15-6:45 p.m. | 270 Stephens Hall

Speaker: Anatolii Dirun, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Georgetown University

Sponsor: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)

Ethno-political conflicts are key factors affecting the level of regional security. Being complex in their “nature of origin”, they become protracted in the process of their settlement. Thus, the history of the Transnistrian conflict has been around for almost 29 years. The armed confrontation of the parties in 1992 complicated the elaboration of a political settlement formula. On the one hand,...   More >