Susan Smith-Peter

Susan.SmithPeter@csi.cuny.edu
Articles by Susan Smith-Peter

Rethinking “The Archives” in the Aftermath of Russia’s War in Ukraine, Part II

Instead of giving funding for travel to archives in Russia, funding should be determined by the project itself. Scholars should be able to propose travel to a variety of places in the US or elsewhere other than Russia. The needs of the project would determine the places where research would be done. This would avoid fetishizing the Russian archives. Travel to Russia is not the main point. Collecting relevant material for a dissertation or other scholarly project is.

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Rethinking “The Archives” in the Aftermath of Russia’s War in Ukraine, Part I

Just as Europe must plan for an energy future without Russian fossil fuels, the field of history and related fields must plan for a future without access to Russian archives.

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What do Scholars of Russia owe Ukraine?

As scholars of Russia, we need to undertake a searching moral inventory to see the ways in which we have taken the Russian state’s point of view as a default.

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Guns for Lenin: A New Jersey Love Story

A family stands in a field. The woman has flowers in her hair and a revolver in her hand. The man stands proudly with a rifle beside him, while their son stands beside his mother with a rake.

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New York Public Library Appoints Full-Time Slavic Curator

On October 15, 2018, Bogdan Horbal became the full-time Slavic curator at the New York Public Library. He holds a Ph.D. in history from University of Wrocław in Poland and an MLS from Queens College. Before his appointment, he was head of Technical Processing at the Science, Industry and Business Library. In this post, Susan Smith-Peter interviews Dr. Horbal, who now takes charge of a fantastic collection with much to offer scholars in Slavic Studies and adjacent fields. 

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Theater Review: Jonathan Leaf’s “Pushkin,” Now Playing at New York’s Sheen Center

When I saw the Sheen Center’s new Pushkin play (which runs until August 25), I came aware of both the reverence I should have felt were I Russian and the complex feelings I actually have for him. I found a tightly written and incredibly well acted play that portrayed Pushkin in the last years of his life (1834-37).

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