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Neoliberalism and Other Dirty Words (Russia's Alien Nations)
I have never liked the term “neoliberal,” because it is not a term one speaks; rather, it is a term that speaks itself through the person who utters it.
Or(c)ientalism (Russia's Alien Nations)
If the appeal to literary fantasy might seem to cheapen ideological discourse, then this is a job well done.
"Socialist Orientalism: Aleksandr Rodchenko’s and Varvara Stepanova’s Ten Years of Uzbekistan", a talk with Nariman Skakov
Rodchenko and Stepanova’s album “Ten Years of Uzbekistan” was commissioned and produced in 1933, with the intent of producing a luxurious folio to commemorate the tenth-year anniversary of the Uzbek...
Neoliberalism and the Crisis of Liberalism
Scholars discuss the roots of neoliberalism and how we can understand the spheres of economic and political liberalism.
Alien Rule and Famine in Ireland and Ukraine
In Ireland as in Ukraine, alien rulers in London and Moscow refused to suspend the export of grain and other foodstuffs and supply them to starving farmers in culturally distinct...
Mali 2023: How Russia Made Its Way into Malian Life
Evgeny Prigozhin is dead, but Wagner’s mercenaries remain in Mali, and give no sign of leaving any time soon.
Undocumented Aliens (Russia's Alien Nations)
“Once again, a UFO has landed in America, the only country UFOs ever seem to land in.”
Alfred J. Rieber approaches Soviet history through Stalin and the nationality question
On March 28, 2016, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia and the NYU Department of History welcomed Alfred J. Rieber from Central European University for a...
What Was Postsocialism, and What Comes Next? (Russia's Alien Nations)
“Post-Soviet” is, initially, meaningless, but so was “Soviet”
Boris Groys – “The Cold War Between the Medium and the Message: Western Abstract Art vs. Socialist Realism.”
The powers of the post-WWII period began to politicize the struggle between realism and avant-garde modernism. The West, Groys argued, believed that socialist realism was just another version of fascist...
Evgeny Dobrenko examines the “Cold War” through socialist realist ideology
On April 15, 2016, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Evgeny Dobrenko for a lecture entitled “Soviet Cold War Imagination.” Dobrenko, head of the department...
Deciphering Stalin, the man and tyrant: Stephen Kotkin discusses the second volume of his series, "Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941"
The shaping of Communist ideology in the midst of 20th-century geopolitics informed Stalin's domestic policies as well as the Soviet Union's role on the world stage.
Robert Bird discusses female subjectivity in socialist realist film
On December 11, 2015, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Robert Bird for a colloquium entitled, “Synchrony and Matriarchy: Documenting Female Subjectivity in Dziga Vertov...
From Internationalism to Postcolonialism: Literature and Cinema between the Second and Third World
“Is the post- in postcolonial the post- in post-Soviet?” asked David C. Moore in 2001, prompting a reexamination of the dynamics between the Russian metropole and its Eurasian peripheries. But...
“Spiritual Materialism” and Realist Discourse
"To endlessly describe nothing but priests/ In my opinion, is boring and out of fashion;/ Now you’re writing in a declining family;/ Don’t blow it, L—v."
Anticommunism, Neoliberalism, and the Rerunning of Socialist Era Films on Romanian Television
Anticommunist discourse has long since ceased to advance the democratization of society by means of depoliticization and “decommunization.” Instead, it has become a discourse that protects the privileges of the...
Falshfasad: Disavowed Infrastructure and Everyday Mate-realism in Wild Capitalist Moscow
On September 17, 2021, the Jordan Center hosted Michał Murawski for the talk “Falshfasad: Disavowed Infrastructure and Everyday Mate-realism in Wild Capitalist Moscow.” Murawski is a Lecturer in Critical Area...
The Rise of Socialist Realist Melodrama: Yakov Protazanov and NEP-Era Film
The universal film language directors like Eisenstein sought to craft through montage and simultaneous viewings would have remained at a purely theoretical level without directors like Protazanov, who merged public...
Society of Thieves. Protection of the Socialist Property under Stalin
Stealing public property was a mechanism for coping with the Socialist realities
Journalists discuss the role of race in US-Russia relations
"The alt-right has found a natural ally in Russia's current zeitgeist."