February 12, 2013 | 2:00 to 4:00 PM | The Jordan Center's Occasional Series
"Siberian Mestizos: Nation and Race in Asian Russia, 1860s-1920s"
A Lecture by David Rainbow
This talk asks what the categories of nation and race meant in Russia in the late imperial period. It examines a prominent idea that emerged in the nineteenth century that Russian settlers to Siberia had evolved into a new national, racial type, distinct from other Russians, as a result of centuries of inter-breeding with indigenous Siberians and exposure to the region's unique environment. The idea of "Siberian nationality" sheds light on the empire's political culture at the time, and also invites us to locate Russia's place in a world increasingly entangled by the meanings of nation and race.David Rainbow is a PhD Candidate in the history department at NYU and a fellow at The Humanities Initiative where he is completing his dissertation. His work deals with transformations in state power in the late Russian empire by tracing the evolution of an autonomist movement called "Siberian regionalism" that was inspired by colonial experiences in the Americas, South Asia and Australia.
