11-12 December 2009 (CRASSH, University of Cambridge)

http://www.ellenrutten.nl/russiaonedgeabout.htm

Historically, Russian power structures have been highly centralized and contemporary commentators often assume that political power and cultural momentum are located in the nation’s capital, Moscow. As a result, historical and cultural analyses of Russia have tended to overemphasize the centre.

Since October 2007, the Contemporary Russian Culture Studies forum - a seminar series hosted by the University of Cambridge's Centre for Research in the Arts and Humanities - has persistently suggested that this conventional view is misleading. Speakers and panels discussing topics as diverse as architecture, fashion, voting patterns, new media, political propaganda, contemporary art, gay culture, and contemporary film provided evidence of a shift in cultural focus - one from Russia’s political centre to its geographical periphery. Not only do major cultural figures increasingly emerge beyond major urban centres, the idea of centrifugal power sources and competing centres has become a crucial element in their work.

Rather than a recapitulation of the seminar series, this workshop is launched as an opportunity to explore and expand a common focus that emerged in the course of the different seminars. With this goal in mind, we have devised a program with short papers (15-20 minutes) and ample time for discussion. We hope to produce an edited volume based on the workshop proceedings.

The workshop will be held at the University of Cambridge at the Centre for Research in the Arts and Social Sciences (CRASSH). The workshop proper will take place on December 11 and 12; December 10 is reserved for arrival, and the workshop dinner is held on December 11. Professor Serguei Oushakine, from the University of Princeton, will act as a keynote speaker.

Friday 11 December 2009

08:30 - 09:00 Registration
09:00 - 09:15 Introductory Remarks

09:15 - 10:45 Material Culture: Fashion, Architecture, Art

(Chair: Vlad Strukov, University of Leeds)

Djurdja Bartlett, London College of Fashion - Moscow on the Fashion Map: Between World Periphery and Russian Centre

Stanislav Savitskii, Smolny College St. Petersburg - Конструктивистская руина как язык современного искусства

Claire Shaw, University College London / SSEES - Fashion with Edge: Siberian Designers in Moscow

10:45 - 11:15 Break

11:15 - 12:45 Politics and Counterdiscourses (Chair: Vanessa rampton, University of Cambridge)

Lara Ryazanova-Clarke, University of Edinburgh - Playing with Meaning on the Periphery of Russian Counter-Discourse

Sander Brouwer, University of Groningen - Centre and Borders in Dugin & Prokhanov

Ivor Stodolsky, Aleksanteri Institute Helsinki - Living on the Archival Edge

12:45 - 14:30 Lunch/Break

14:30 - 16:30 Subcultures: Diaspora, Queerness, Ethnicity, Youth Cultures

(Chair: Muireann Maguire, Pushkinskii Dom, St. Petersburg)

Aline Ehrenfried, University of Aberdeen - Native Ethnic Identity in Siberia: From a Bird's Eye View

Hilary Pilkington, University of Warwick - "Воркута - это столица мира": Cultural Strategies for Life 'On the Edge'

Dan Healey, University of Swansea - Perverse Peripheries and Normal Centres: Situating the Queer in Gulag Memory Sarah Smyth, Trinity College Dublin - On Europe's Western Edge

16:30 - 17:15 Break

17:15 - 18:30 Keynote Speech
Serguei Oushakine, Princeton University - The Will to Connect: Plots and Fragments of Postsocialist Capitalism in Provincial Russia

Saturday 12 December 2009

09:00 - 10:00 Post-Soviet Cinema

(Chair: Emma Widdis, University of Cambridge)

Susan Larsen, University of Cambridge - TBA

Jeremy Hicks, Queen Mary, University of London - Centre and Periphery in the Documentary Films of Sergei Loznitsa

10:00 - 10:30 Break

10:30 - 12:00 Digital Discourses: New Media

(Chair: Ellen Rutten, University of Bergen)

Olga Goriunova, London Metropolitan University - Idiocy and New Media

Vlad Strukov, University of Leeds - Play, Modality and Claims of Nationhood: Russian Online Gaming

Henrike Schmidt, FU Berlin / Peter Szondi Institute - Voices from the Margins: Russian Bloggers from the Countryside

12:00-13:30 Working Lunch / Round Table Discussion (Chair: Alexander Etkind)

http://www.ellenrutten.nl/russiaonedgeabout.htm