Russia: Politics and Culture

callmanmorton — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 21:22:28 +0000

Russia: Politics and Culture Carol A. Allman-Morton (inactive) Thursday, 12/21/2017, at 4:22 PM

Schedule

Friday, April 27

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Checking in
You can pick up your packet with a name tag, schedule, participant biographies, list of open classes and meal tickets at the Pontypool building. There is a small driveway in front available while you pick up your packet.
Pontypool, 22 Snell Street

8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Visit Open Classes
A list of open classes is available online and will also be provided in registration packets.
Various locations

11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Lunch (as you are free)
Meal tickets provided in registration packets.
Valentine Dining Hall

1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Checking in
Check in and pick up your packets on site at the program.
Lobby, Converse Hall

2 P.M. – 3 p.m.

Historical and Political Context
Sergey Glebov, Associate Professor of History and Kathleen (Kelly) Smith ’87, Professor of Teaching, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, Georgetown University
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

3:10 P.M. – 4:10 p.m.

Putin and the Patriarch — Poets and Patriarchy
Bryn Geffert, Librarian of the College and Catherine Ciepiela ’83, Howard M. and Martha P. Mitchell Professor of Russian and Director of the Amherst Center for Russian Culture
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

4:10 P.M. – 4:30 p.m.

Break

4:30 P.M. – 5:30 p.m.

Student Research Presentations
Camille Blum '20 and Emilie Flamme '20 presenting their work from the Mellon Research Tutorial, "Examining the Secret Lives of the Late-Soviet Stage Through the Lens of a Russified American" and Karen Waserstein Engelman '18, presenting her senior thesis, "Culture Wars: A History of Soviet and Russian Soft Power in Latin America."
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

5:45 p.m.

Reception and Open Gallery
Amherst Center for Russian Culture, Webster Hall

7 p.m.

Dinner
Share a meal and conversation with students
Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons

Saturday, April 28

7:30 A.M. – 9 a.m.

Breakfast (as you are free)
Meal tickets are provided in registration packets.
Valentine Dining Hall

9 A.M. – 10 a.m.

Russia and Its Others
Michael Kunichika, Associate Professor of Russian and Kevin Moss ’77, Jean Thomson Fulton Professor of Modern Languages and Literature, Middlebury College
Professor Moss will speak on Gay Manifestos: Kuzmin Kharitonov, and Russian Gay Identity. This talk will explore Russian gay identity through two literary works, a scene from Mikhail Kuzmin’s 1906 coming out novel, Wings, and Evgeny Kharitonov’s “Leaflet.” These will provide a jumping off point for a discussion of how gay and non-gay Russians conceived of homosexuality before, during, and after the Soviet period.
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

10:15 – 11:30 a.m.

The Rise and Fall of Mikhail Gorbachev
William Taubman, Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science, Emeritus. Lecture followed by a book signing of Gorbachev: His Life and Times in Converse Lobby.
Cole Assembly Room and Lobby, Converse Hall

11:45 A.M.

Lunch
Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons

1 P.M. – 2 P.M.

U.S. - Russia Relations: A Deeply Rooted Clash of Strategic and Political Cultures
Andrew Kuchins ’81, Senior Fellow at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, Georgetown University.
From the optimism at the end of the Cold War for a new era of warm relations between Moscow and Washington, the U.S. - Russia relationship has descended in the last few years to a state described by many as a "new Cold War". There is lots of blame for both sides for the current dangerous and depressing state of relations, but we also need to appreciate that going back to the 19th century, conflict and tension in the bilateral relationship has been the norm punctuated briefly by alliance relations in two world wars and Russian support, mostly symbolic, for the Union in our Civil War. Understanding why this is so requires looking closely at the dramatic differences in political and strategic cultures in Russia and America.
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

Self-guided Art Tour
Program update: Due to an unexpected change, the Curator for Russian Art is no longer available to take part in Amherst Today. However, there are a number of Russian works on display at the Mead as part of other exhibitions. While Amherst Today will now formally end at 2 p.m., we encourage you to explore the Mead at your leisure. Current exhibits include:

HOUSE: Selections from the Collection of John and Sue Wieland: Interpretations of the house in various mediums by international artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Olafur Eliasson, Cindy Sherman and Ai Weiwei.
Fragmented Identities: The Gendered Roles of Women in Art through the Ages: Works examining the ways in which women have been depicted or represented themselves across media, centuries and the globe. (This exhibition includes works from the Thomas P. Whitney '37 collection of Russian art.)
New Publics: Art for a Modern India, 1960s–90s: Drawings, paintings, and sculpture that complicate the recent history of art from India.

Mead Art Museum

Amherst College: Schedule