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351. Book Talk. Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change by Thane Gustafson

Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Harriman Institute for a presentation by Thane Gustafson, author of Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change (Harvard University Press, 2021). Moderated by Kimberly Marten (Harriman Institute). Russia will be one of the countries most affected by climate change. No major power is more economically dependent on the export of hydrocarbons; at the same time, two-thirds of Russia’s territory lies in the arctic north, where melting permafrost is already imposing growing damage. Climate change also brings drought and floods to Russia’s south, threatening the country’s agricultural exports. Thane Gustafson predicts that, over the next thirty years, climate change will leave a dramatic imprint on Russia. The decline of fossil fuel use is already underway, and restrictions on hydrocarbons will only tighten, cutting fuel prices and slashing Russia’s export revenues. Yet Russia has no substitutes for oil and gas revenues. The country is unprepared for the worldwide transition to renewable energy, as Russian leaders continue to invest the national wealth in oil and gas while dismissing the promise of post-carbon technologies. Nor has the state made efforts to offset the direct damage that climate change will do inside the country. Optimists point to new opportunities—higher temperatures could increase agricultural yields, the melting of arctic ice may open year-round shipping lanes in the far north, and Russia could become a global nuclear-energy supplier. But the eventual post-Putin generation of Russian leaders will nonetheless face enormous handicaps, as their country finds itself weaker than at any time in the preceding century. Lucid and thought-provoking, Klimat shows how climate change is poised to alter the global order, potentially toppling even great powers from their perches.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Green Technology
Political Geography:
Russia and Europe

352. Where To Now? The New Challenges to Russian Independent Media

Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the the Program on U.S.-Russia Relations at the Harriman Institute as Ann Cooper, Professor Emerita at Columbia Journalism School, interviews Roman Badanin, founder and editor-in-chief of recently established investigative media outlet Agentstvo and former editor-in-chief of Proekt, and Galina Arapova, Director and Senior Media Lawyer of the NGO Mass Media Defence Center (Russia) and a practicing media lawyer who has who has defended journalists in Russian domestic courts and at the European Court of Human Rights. Moderated by Elise Giuliano (Harriman Institute). Independent journalism in Russia currently faces the most difficult circumstances since the advent of free media in the country. As the Kremlin expands its use of coercion under the guise of legalistic categories such as “undesirable organization” and “foreign agent,” journalists and media organizations confront a set of serious challenges. How do journalists continue their professional work and interact with state authorities, while defending freedom of expression and their personal security? More generally, what is the role of the media under current political conditions?
Topic:
Authoritarianism, Media, State Media, and Free Speech
Political Geography:
Russia and Europe

353. Queer Central Asian Activism

Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join us for a roundtable discussion on the current state of queer, feminist activism across Central Asia, with expert panelists who are on the frontlines of this fight for equality. Co-sponsored by RUSA LGBT and the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs.
Topic:
LGBT+, Identity, Queer Theory, and Activism
Political Geography:
Central Asia and Asia

354. Archives of Solidarity: Yugoslav Newsreels and the Non-Aligned World

Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Njegoš Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture at the East Central European Center for a lecture by the award-winning director and film scholar Mila Turajlić. Moderated by Aleksandar Bošković and Christopher Caes, co-directors of the East Central European Center. Mila Turajlić is an award-winning director born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Her films have screened at numerous festivals including Toronto and Tribeca, and have been released theatrically in Europe, North America and across the former Yugoslavia. Her most recent film The Other Side of Everything (2017) was HBO Europe’s first co-production with Serbia. It won 32 awards including the IDFA Award for Best Documentary Film, the Grand Prix for Best historical documentary released in France in 2018, the IDA Award for Best Writing and was nominated for the LUX Prize the European Parliament. Turajlić's debut feature doc, Cinema Komunisto (2011) played at over 100 festivals and won 16 awards including the Gold Hugo and the FOCAL Award for Creative Use of Archival Footage. Turajlić is currently in post-production on her third feature film, The Labudović Reels, an archival road trip through the archives of African liberation movements of the 50’s and 60’s filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Tito. In her work with archives, Turajlić researches the intersection of personal and national memories, seeking to reactivate forgotten histories, through forms ranging from lecture performances and video art to analytical essays. She teaches documentary and creative use of archives at Sciences Po and INASup in Paris, as well as at a documentary programs run by the Balkan Documentary Center, and Scottish Documentary Institute.
Topic:
Media, Film, and State Media
Political Geography:
Europe

355. The State of US-Russia Relations One Year into the Biden Administratio

Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Join us for a meeting of the New York-Russia Public Policy Series, co-hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and the New York University Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. Our virtual panel of distinguished academics, practitioners, and commentators will assess the state of US-Russia relations. Following the June presidential summit in Geneva with Vladimir Putin, US President Joe Biden commented that as "powerful and proud countries'' the United States and Russia "share a unique responsibility to manage the relationship" in order to make it "stable and predictable." What is the state of US-Russia relations following the summit and how successful have Washington and Moscow been in realizing this stated goal of more stable and predictable relations? What has been the impact of global events like the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic? Does the Russian military build-up near Ukraine augur a period of renewed tension and even conflict? What is the position of each country now towards the domestic political affairs of the other? How successful have the two sides been in finding new areas for possible coordination or cooperation?
Topic:
Diplomacy, Bilateral Relations, Leadership, Rivalry, and Strategic Interests
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, North America, and United States of America

356. Wellsprings of David Burliuk’s Art: Exploring Enduring Inspiration, Kakhovka to New York

Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute for a talk by Myroslav Shkandrij exploring the artwork of David Burliuk. Mark Andryczyk (Harriman Institute) will moderate. The art of David Burliuk, the founder of futurism in the Russian empire, went through several phases. From the moment he founded the Hylaea group near Kherson in 1903, during his travels through Siberia and Japan, and after his arrival in New York in 1922 he explored various styles. Among them were impressionism, neo-primitivism, cubo-futurism, surrealism, and ‘radiostyle.’ There were, however, some constant sources of inspiration, to which her continually returned up to his death on Long Island in 1967. These included an enthusiasm for nature, vitality, the Steppe, and the Cossack past of his ancestors. The evidence of his writings, paintings and archives provide keys to understanding puzzling aspects of his development. Myroslav Shkandrij is Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba where he taught Slavic studies. He has published books on Ukraine in the 1920s, Ukrainian-Russian relations, nationalism, avant-garde art, and contested views of revolutionary events. He has also curated a number of exhibitions dealing with the early twentieth-century avant-garde, and has translated several Ukrainian authors into English. In the fall 2021 semester, he is Visiting Professor in History, Ukrainian Studies at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Revolution, and Identity
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Ukraine

357. Anatoly Zverev as a Cultural Phenomenon: Remembering the Artist

Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Harriman Institute and the Kolodzei Art Foundation for a presentation in conjunction with our exhibit Anatoly Zverev: Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation. Natalia Kolodzei of the Kolodzei Art Foundation will discuss the artist Anatoly Zverev and his legacy. Introduction by Mark Lipovetsky (Columbia Slavic Department/Harriman Institute), with recorded remarks by Tatiana Kolodzei, art historian/curator Maria Plavinsky and artist/art collector Natalia Kostaki.
Topic:
Arts and Culture
Political Geography:
Russia and Europe

358. Book Talk. "There Is Nothing for You Here" by Fiona Hill

Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
lease join the Harriman Institute and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights for a book talk by Fiona Hill, author of There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century (Mariner Books, 2021). The talk will be chaired by David L. Phillips (ISHR) with Alexander Cooley (Harriman Institute) as discussant and interviewer. In There Is Nothing for You Here, a celebrated foreign policy expert and key impeachment witness reveals how declining opportunity has set America on the grim path of modern Russia—and draws on her personal journey out of poverty, as well as her unique perspectives as an historian and policy maker, to show how we can return hope to our forgotten places. Fiona Hill grew up in a world of terminal decay. The last of the local mines had closed, businesses were shuttering, and despair was etched in the faces around her. Her father urged her to get out of their blighted corner of northern England: “There is nothing for you here, pet,” he said. The coal-miner’s daughter managed to go further than he ever could have dreamed. She studied in Moscow and at Harvard, became an American citizen, and served three U.S. Presidents. But in the heartlands of both Russia and the United States, she saw troubling reflections of her hometown and similar populist impulses. By the time she offered her brave testimony in the first impeachment inquiry of President Trump, Hill knew that the desperation of forgotten people was driving American politics over the brink—and that we were running out of time to save ourselves from Russia’s fate. In this powerful, deeply personal account, she shares what she has learned, and shows why expanding opportunity is the only long-term hope for our democracy. Fiona Hill is the Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. From 2017 to 2019, she served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council. She has researched and published extensively on issues related to Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, regional conflicts, energy, and strategic issues. Coauthor of Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin and The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold, she holds a master's degree in Soviet studies and a doctorate in history from Harvard University and a master's in Russian and modern history from St. Andrews University in Scotland. She also has pursued studies at Moscow's Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages. Hill is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and lives in the Washington, DC, area.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Military Strategy, Hegemony, Conflict, Violence, and Strategic Interests
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, North America, and United States of America

359. Russia in Africa: Soviet Legacies, Current Objectives, Local Responses

Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
In recent years, Russia has stepped up its engagement in Africa, forging military and security agreements as well as business relationships with leaders in several states. What lies behind Russia’s “return” to Africa? During the Cold War, Africa constituted a major site of Soviet geopolitical competition with the U.S. Does this history, as well as the legacy of Soviet antiracism, inform Russia’s current goals and actions on the continent? Panelists will explore this issue, as well as the impact of Russia’s presence on security and humanitarian crises within Africa. What has been the reaction of various local actors to Russia’s presence? Panelists will also discuss the policy response: how should the international community and the West respond to Russian engagement in Africa?
Topic:
Military Strategy, Hegemony, Foreign Interference, Strategic Interests, and Influence
Political Geography:
Africa, Russia, and Europe

360. Residential Institutions for Disabled People in Russia: Two Models of Care

Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join us for an event in our Work of Care in Russia speaker series, a talk with Anna Klepikova, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the European University at St. Petersburg, and author of I Must Be A Fool (European University Press, 2018). Moderated by Svetlana Borodina (Harriman Institute). Anna Klepikova’s dissertation field research was conducted in two residential institutions for people with disabilities in St. Petersburg. Klepikova was inspired to study institutional disability care after watching an NGO volunteer recruitment ad about an orphanage for children with disabilities. She decided to learn more about the volunteers’ motivations and experience by joining them as a volunteer and participant observer for her dissertation research. At the orphanage, Klepikova witnessed a conflict developing between the NGO volunteers and the nurses: a clash between two models of care on the practical level, and two versions of understanding disability on the ideological level. This disconnect resembled the conflict between Western humanistic pedagogics and a patriarchal discriminating approach to disability and difference. After a year, Klepikova transferred to volunteer at a similar institution for adults. There, she found a different conflict between the volunteers and medical staff due to the latter being responsible for various psychiatric restrictions, forced administration of sedative drugs, and involuntary hospitalizations. In this case, the conflict was between the social-constructionist and medicalized approaches to mental illness. In this presentation, Klepikova discusses the differences and intersections in these polar approaches to disability care. Introducing her ethnographic material, she reflects on the nature of anthropological understanding that might form various grounds for solidarity.
Topic:
Health Care Policy, Humanitarian Intervention, Mental Health, and NGOs
Political Geography:
Russia and Europe