A Century of Movement: Russian Culture and Global Community Since 1917

This two-day conference, in the centennial year of the Revolution, seeks to explore the transformations set in motion during and after the events of 1917 through an examination of cultural production and practices, located both within and without Russia.

The Revolution, broadly defined, was a catalyst for the changes that affected the cultural developments of generations of Russian artists, writers, and musicians and significantly shaped subsequent discourse – arguably continuing into the present day. Moreover, waves of human movements and resultant diasporic communities have become enmeshed in the cultural lives of their host countries, whose responses have shifted with the global political changes of the interwar years, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the post-1989 world order. In light of today’s desperate discussions regarding the migration of refugees, it is both timely and important that we examine the ways in which human migration yielded and continues to yield both social and cultural challenges and profound creative contributions.

In addition to various panels and performances, the conference will feature keynotes by Katerina Clark (Yale University) and Marina Frolova-Walker (University of Cambridge).

Download the preliminary conference schedule.

Please contact the conference organizers Jamie Blake and Grace Kweon with any questions.

The conference is jointly sponsored by the UNC Department of Music, the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, the Graduate School, and the College of Arts and Sciences.