Events

Russian Conversation Hour (Русский разговорный час) will restart in Spring 2024. Stay tuned for the days and times. Join us for tea, cookies, conversation, and fun activities!

Вы говорите по-русски? Хотите говорить ещё лучше? Приходите на Русский разговорный час!

Join our Russian Conversation Hour to embark on a journey of discovering Russian language and culture of Russian-speaking countries:

• Thematic Meetings: We host conversational sessions led by USC faculty on a variety of cultural topics. Each meeting brings something unique to the table.
• Connect and Learn: Engage in our activities to expand your language skills, immerse yourself in Russian-speaking cultures, and make new friends.
• All level friendly: We welcome all, from beginners to advanced speakers, as well as heritage speakers for discussions of a wide range of topics tailored so that everyone can get engaged.

When?

Where?

До скорой встречи! Вопросы? Пишите Саше Пчелинцевой pchelint@usc.edu

Prof. Andrey Ivanov (History, Univ. of Wisconsin — Plattsville)

“A Universal Man of Slavic Enlightenment: Science and Empire in the Works of Feofan Prokopovich (1677-1736)”

The event will take place on Friday, October 27 at 2:00pm in 309K Taper Hall. It is co-sponsored by the Levan Institute for Humanities.

Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich (1681-1736) is a well-recognized figure in Ukraine and Russia. Although known primarily as an intrepid church reformer, the archbishop was also the chief ideologist of Tsar Peter I, a poet, a jurist, a linguist, a craft brewer, and a prolific scientist, among other things. As such, he was a true “universal man” (to translate the Italian Renaissance term uomo universale) of the East Slavic Enlightenment. This talk will focus on the key intersections between science and empire found in the archbishop’s life and what role his scientific inquiry played in Petrine imperial building.

Professionalization Workshop for Graduate Students: Conference Paper Proposals.

What makes a proposal successful? Come learn some strategies for mastering this special genre. We’ll consider specific examples and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.

Hosts: Colleen McQuillen and Ellina Sattarova

Prof. Lilya Kaganovsky (UCLA)

“Dysphonia as an Art Practice: Muratova, Tarkovsky, Gogoberidze”

The event will take place at 11:00AM-2:00PM on Friday, April 21st at the Parsons Family Auditorium (room 17 in the Leavey Library).

Conversation with Boris Dralyuk, writer, editor, translator

Taper Hall 309, 5:00pm

Prof. Yuliya Ilchuk (Stanford)

“The Vanished: Memory, Temporality, and Identity in Post-Euromaidan Ukraine”

Prof. Riccardo Nicolosi (LMU Munich)

“Russian Political Rhetoric on the War in Ukraine”

In my talk I analyze the political discourse on Ukraine in today’s Russia. I argue that this discourse is based on a paranoid interpretation of history, in which two main plot lines are of key significance: a sense of deep resentment and discursive practices of reenactment. At the same time, both these elements are evidence of a very particular perception of temporality in Putin’s Russia, where the past, interpreted in a conspiratorial vein, determines the perception of the present and the future. Importantly, this discourse owes its internal coherence to the fact that it functions in the same ways as conspiracy theories: nourished by strong emotions, it produces in its interpretation of global history a fundamental semiotic clarity, whereby any particular events are regarded not as contingent, but always as having significance in the context of the narrative thus constructed. That is why this discourse is therefore not falsifiable.

Prof. Sergei Oushakine (Princeton)

“Fighting a New Cult: Thing-Power of Late Socialism”