Engineering Imperial Memories: Putin’s History Politics in Comparative Perspective

April 8, 2024, 9:00 am - 6:30 pm

University of Strasbourg and Online

This conference is held in CET (+6 hours from EST). 

Co-sponsored by USIAS and UR 1340 GEO, University of Strasbourg.

9 a.m. – OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE

• Rifka Weehuizen (Administrative Director, University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study)
• Sandra Schaal (Director of GEO – UR 1340 Research Center, University of Strasbourg)

9:20-10:50 – PANEL 1: National Narratives, Memory Politics, and the Freedom of History

• Chair: Sandra Schaal (University of Strasbourg)
• Antoon De Baets (University of Groningen), A Human Rights View of Memory, Memory Politics and Memory Laws.
• Emmanuel Droit (University of Strasbourg), Le modèle mémoriel allemand à la croisée des chemins : Quelle mémoire négative pour la République de Berlin ?
• Nikolay Koposov (Georgia Institute of Technology), Memory Politics and the Crisis of History.

10:50-11:10 – COFFEE BREAK

11:10-12:40 – PANEL 2: National Narratives, Memory Politics, and the Freedom of History

• Chair: Nikolay Koposov (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Nikol Dziub (University of Basel), Lessia Oukrainka et le droit à la souveraineté. Emilia Koustova (University of Strasbourg), Recycler, rénover, innover? Les politiques historiques en Russie, entre archaïsmes et modernités.
• Lev Maciel Sanchez (independent scholar, Mexico), The Churches as War Memorials in Contemporary Russia.

12:40-14:00 – LUNCH

14:00-16:00 – PANEL 3: Political Neomedievalism in Comparative Perspective

• Chair: Alexandre Kostka (University of Strasbourg)
• Richard Utz (Georgia Institute of Technology), Malevolent Memories: Anti-Semitic Medievalisms in the German-Speaking World (online)
• Frithjof Benjamin Schenk (University of Basel), Birthday Celebration as War Preparation: Alexander Nevsky’s 800th Jubilee in Russia in 2021.
• Luiz Felipe Anchieta Guerra (International Society for the Study of Medievalism, Brazil), The TFP and the Transnational Right: Brazil as an Exporter of Political Neomedievalisms (online).
• Dina Khapaeva (Georgia Institute of Technology), Putinism and the Global Appeal of Political Neomedievalism.

16:00-16:20 - COFFEE BREAK

16:20-18:00 – ROUND TABLE: Culture as a Weapon: Is “Great Russian Culture” an Instrument of Imperial Hegemony?

• Chair: Dina Khapaeva (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Victoire Feuillebois (University of Strasbourg)
• Eleonora Gilburd (University of Chicago) (online)
• Luba Jurgenson (Université Paris-Sorbonne) (online)
• Dmitry Dubrovsky (Charles University, Prague)
• Elena Ostrovskaya (Strasbourg University)

18:00-18:30 – CONCLUDING DISCUSSION

• Chair: Emilia Koustova (University of Strasbourg)