Hösten 2014

Seminarieprogram

Plats: Gamla Torget 3, tredje våningen, biblioteket
Tid: Tisdagar, 15.15-17.00 (om inget annat är meddelat)

27 aug (OBS! Onsdag, kl. 18:30-20:30) Debate seminar on the current situation in Ukraine. Speakers: Katja Gortjinskaja, Deputy Editor-in-Chief (Kyiv Post), Dr Igor Torbakov, Senior Research Fellow (UCRS), Professor Elena Namli (UCRS). Moderator: Docent Ann-Mari Sätre. Language: English. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP no later than August 25 to Rolf Eidem: rolf.eidem@telia.com.

This debate seminar will look back and reflect on events of the past several months in Ukraine. Questions that will be discussed include: What happened at Maidan, and what kind of protest was it? How should subsequent events be interpreted? What kind of impact will these events have on the development in Ukraine? How is Russia affected?

The seminar is arranged is cooperation with the Swedish Society for the Study of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia.

2 sep Stefan Hedlund presenterar sin bok ”Putin’s Energy Agenda”. Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska.

Professor Stefan Hedlund presents his new book "Putin's Energy Agenda: The Contradictions of Russia's Resource Wealth." He will highlight questions of Russia's dependence on resources, of accusations of Gazprom "pipeline terrorism" and the future consequences of depletion of traditional fields. And he will say a few words about the renewed gas war between Russia and Ukraine.

Stefan Hedlund is Professor of Russian and East European Studies at Uppsala University and Research Director at the UCRS. His main research focus is on neo-institutional theory. He has written extensively on institutional development and attempted institutional reform in Russia, from Kievan Rus up to the present.

8 sep (OBS! Måndag kl.13:00-15:00) Tamara Martsenjuk (National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine)) ”Gender, Nation, and Revolution. The Role of Women in the Euromajdan Protests of 2013-14”. Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

Women's participation in EuroMaidan and its social and media evaluations largely reflect the social position of women in the Ukrainian society. In the current economic and social situation, entrenched stereotypes of men as family breadwinners and leaders in the public sphere (particularly, in politics) and stereotypes of women as mostly wives and mothers inhibit progress in gender equality in Ukrainian society. In her research Tamara Martsenjuk will try to discuss three major ideas: (1) (International) media discourse about EuroMaidan was “narrow”; event (practices) is much more diverse; (2) Women were not “helpers”, but “participants” of EuroMaidan; (3) women had possibility to fulfill not only “traditional” (“female”) roles; new niches for egalitarian (emancipatory) participation were possible. The empirical base for research is the examples of speeches on Maidan, journal articles, pictures and video materials, blogs and social networks. In order to analyze practices, females’ participation in protests and case studies of women’s initiatives / protests on Euromaidan are studied. The theoretical background of my research is feminist theories, especially intersection of feminism and nationalism (Yuval-Davis 1997; Bohachevsky-Chomiak 1994; Kis 2005; Rubchak 1996; Zhurzhenko 2012 and others).

Tamara Martsenyuk holds PhD in Sociology and her research interest focuses on the social structure of society and, particularly, on gender relations. Tamara Martsenyuk is the author of over 40 academic publications. Tamara’s current project is on women’s activism in Ukraine, particularly on Euromaidan protests 2013-2014.

9 sep Tetiana Kostjutjenko (National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine)): "Legislative Networks in the Ukrainian Parliament: Who Can Survive the Forthcoming Elections?" Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

16 sep Dmitry Uzlaner (Moscow): “J. Lacan’s theory of (religious) subjectivity and contemporary Russia”. Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska.

The speech will be devoted to Jacque Lacan’s theory of the subject and the way it can be applied to the study of contemporary religious processes (especially to the study of religious subjects). It will be shown that Lacan’s ideas allow us to enrich our understanding of contemporary believers/unbelievers. Several paradoxical examples from today’s Russia will used as illustrations: among them – “offence to religious feelings”, “vicarious holiness”, “beliefs without owners”, “hazy religious majority” and so on.

Dmitry Uzlaner is the Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia); Editor-in-Chief of State, Religion and Church.

18 sep (OBS! Torsdag kl. 15:15-17:00) Jesko Schmoller (European University, St. Petersburg): “Tradition and Modernity in Southern Kazakhstan”. Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

Described as the “historic heartland of Muslim culture at the northern edge of Central Asia” (Privratsky 2001: 3), Southern Kazakhstan is about to undergo fundamental change. In an urban planning project, the city of Shymkent is destined to become the new metropolis, cultural centre and main tourist destination of Kazakhstan. The modernisation of urban space can be expected to affect the lifestyles of the people, which may cause internal conflict in an environment more generally seen as the most traditional and Kazakh part of the country. The research project focuses on the questions how tradition and modernity were historically conceptualised and how people from Southern Kazakhstan nowadays express traditional and modern identities through their lifestyles. In the presentation, special emphasis is given to the Soviet effort at establishing a socialist modernity and the preservation of Islam as tradition in Soviet Central Asia.

Jesko Schmoller is an anthropologist who wrote his PhD about the professional and private aspirations of young Uzbeks and their career strategies in the workplace. Starting in autumn 2014, he will be a post-doc research fellow at the “European University at St. Petersburg” and the “Centre for Comparative History and Political Studies” in Perm.

23 sep Nataliya Volchkova (Moscow): "Export costs of visa restrictions". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska. Ladda ner artikeln "Export costs of visa restrictions".

The seminar will be based on the paper that studies the role visa restrictions play in determining export flows between firms and their foreign partners and explores the mechanism of this relationship. The specification of empirical model is derived from a heterogeneous firms’ model of trade. The existing visa restrictions are used as proxies for the costs the exporters incur while dealing with customers abroad. Data on trade flows and parties involved comes from customs transaction database. The results indicate that visas have a negative market access effect. Controlling for the choice of destination, visas have a significant negative effect on the value of relationship-specific exports as well. These results are consistent with informational and contractual nature of visa costs.

Natalya Volchkova is an Assistant Professor of Economics at New Economic School (Moscow) since 2008. Her research interests are in the areas of international trade theory and policy, natural resource economics and corporate governance. She has publications in Journal of Finance and Russian economic journals and co-authored chapters in books on Russian economy. Natalya Volchkova is also a core member of the Centre for Economic and Financial Research at New Economic School (CEFIR at NES) which she joined when it was founded in 2000 and currently she serves as its Policy Director. In this capacity she is doing applied research for various Russian Ministries and agencies, Central Bank of Russia, World Bank, EBRD etc. Natalya earned her PhD from the Central Economic and Mathematic Institute of Russian Academy of Science in 2000. She was a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001-2002. In 2008 she was awarded Fulbright scholarship and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 2008-2009. Currently, Natalya serves as a member of Expert Council of Open Government, and a member of Expert Board of Agency of Strategic Initiatives.

25 sep Rolf Ekéus: ”Russia and Baltic Sea region in the light of Ukrainian crisis”. Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska.

The Russian annexation of Crimea and the political and security crisis in Eastern Ukraine have had political psychological impacts on the Baltic Sea region. The three Baltic States, all like Ukraine former components of the Soviet Union, have expressed deep concern for their own security and are now requesting a visible and substantial engagement in their region by the Western Alliance, NATO. In this respect they are strongly supported by Poland, while other European States have positioned themselves with a little more caution. Sweden adopts a policy of strong criticism towards Russia. The question now is whether sanctions can lead to more constructive and structural changes in the security pattern in the Baltic Sea region. Will Sweden modify its traditional policy of staying outside alliances by getting closer to NATO? These and other interesting issues will be discussed during the seminar.

Rolf Ekéus is a well-known Swedish diplomat. From 1978 to 1983, he was a representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Between 1991 and 1997 he was director of the UN Special Commission on Iraq. Ekéus was also High Commissioner on National Minorities at the OSCE and he is now member of the Supervisory Council of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe.

30 sep Elena Namli (UCRS) Boklansering “Human Rights as Ethics, Politics, and Law”. Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: svenska.

Boken ” Human Rights as Ethics, Politics, and Law” av Professor Elena Namli är en analys av de etiska, politiska och rättsliga aspekter inom begreppet mänskliga rättigheter. Boken behandlar frågan om hur moraliska, politiska och rättsliga dimensioner av begreppet är sammankopplade – hur de kompletterar och utmanar varandra. Huvudsyftet med boken är att kritiskt granska den liberala förståelsen av de mänskliga rättigheterna. Denna uppfattas inte sällan som en del av ideologisk kolonialism. I boken uppmärksammas särskilt kritiken som kommer från post-koloniala och muslimska aktörer. En av författarens teser är att de mänskliga rättigheterna och särskilt deras moraliska och politiska dimensioner har potential att upprätthålla sin legitimitet i den globala världen.

Elena Namli är professor i etik vid Teologiska institutionen samt forskningsledare vid Centrum för Rysslandsstudier.

7 okt Steven Nafziger (Williams College): “Serf Emancipation and Russian Economic Development, 1861-1905”. Ordförande: Martin Kragh. Språk: engelska.

The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 was part of a sequence of large-scale reforms that transformed the institutional environment of Imperial Russia. Scholars such as Alexander Gerschenkron have long identified these "Great Reforms" with perpetuating constraints on the development process that eventually led to the revolutions of the early 20th century. However, remarkably little empirical analysis of emancipation or other contemporaneous reforms exists to support this assertion. This lecture will document the changes wrought by emancipation and related institutional reforms. In doing so, the presentation will draw upon several ongoing research projects utilizing newly collected historical data in order to shed light on the processes underlying Russian social, political, and economic development between 1861 and 1905. Ladda ner Book Project: “Serf Emancipation, Land Reform, and the Political Economy of Development in Tsarist Russia”.

Steven Nafziger is an Associate Professor of Economics at Williams College and a Center Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. His research focuses on a variety of issues related to the economic development of late-Imperial Russia. Besides his work on the consequences of Russian serfdom and serf emancipation, Steven Nafziger is also working on a history of Russian industrialization, Tsarist state capacity and local governance issues, the role of the corporation in the Imperial economy, and the economics of prostitution in the late 19th century. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 2006.

9 okt Eric Uslaner (University of Maryland. College-Park): “Corruption, Inequality and Trust in Transition”. Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska

Corruption rests upon a foundation of low out-group trust and high inequality. In Corruption, Inequality, and the Rule of Law Professor Uslaner provided evidence for this argument, which he called the “inequality trap.” While transition countries generally had low levels of inequality, in the years after 1989 inequality rose sharply in most countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Corruption perceptions rose as well. More recently, there seem to be gains in levels of equality, overall economic performance, and in corruption as well. The results are uneven across transition countries. Some countries (notably Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary) have performed much better than others. Others, notably Russia, have not fared as well. The roots of these differences does not rest upon current reforms on democratization and economics alone. Rather, the immediate post-transition levels of democracy and market reforms seem strongly related to current reforms and outcomes.

Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland–College Park. He is Senior Research Fellow, Center for American Law and Politi2cal Science, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China and Honorary Professor of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark. He the author of eight books, including The Moral Foundations of Trust (Cambridge University Press, 2002; Chinese translation, Chinese Social Sciences Press, 2007; Korean translation, Today;s Books, 2014), Corruption, Inequality, and the Rule of Law: The Bulging Pocket Makes the Easy Life (Cambridge University Press, 2008; paperback, 2010; Chinese translation forthcoming 2015, Chinese Social Sciences Press; Japanese translation, Nippon Hyoron Sha, 2011), and Segregation and Mistrust: Diversity, Isolation, and Social Cohesion (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and approximately 150 articles and has received grants from the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage and C.V. Starr Foundations. He was the Fulbright Distinguished Professor of American Political Science at the Australian National University, Canberra in 2010 and in 1981-82 was Fulbright Professor of American Studies and Political Science at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.

14 okt Martin Kragh presenterar sin bok "A History of Russia: From Alexander II to Vladimir Putin". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: boken är på svenska, medan presentationen kommer att hållas på engelska.

Dr Martin Kragh presents his new book "Ryssland historia från Alexander II till Vladimir Putin” that details the economic and political development of Russia in the last 150 years. For more information about the book (in Swedish), please see here http://www.dialogosforlag.se/bocker/historia-och-idehistoria/rysslands-historia.html

Martin Kragh holds a PhD from the Stockholm School of Economics (2009). He is a researcher with the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and specializes in the economic history of Russia and the USSR.

16 okt Neil Melvin (SIPRI): “The Caucasus as a regional war complex”. Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Caucasus has emerged as the site for a set of violent and often protracted conflicts. These conflicts have played key roles in shaping the local and international politics of the region. A considerable literature has been created on how best to understand the conflicts of the Caucasus, including inter alia as ethnic and religious conflicts, interstate wars, state failure and warlordism, which has emphasised fragementation as the central dynamic across the region. In this presentation, violence and conflict in the Caucasus will be examined through attention to the interlinkages across the region, including the actions of violent non-state actors and states. It will be argued that new insights into the onset and duration of violent conflicts, into the emergence of situations of 'no-war' 'no-peace' and into the revision to conflict can be gained from approaching the Caucasus - north and south - as a regional war complex.

Neil Melvin leads a large EU FP7 research project on conflict and peacebuilding in the Caucasus at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Prior to joining SIPRI he served in senior posts at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Energy Charter Secretariat in Brussels. Dr. Melvin has held research positions at Chatham House and the Centre for European Policy Studies as well as teaching posts at the Brussels School of International Studies, Leeds University and the London School of Economics.

The principal focus of Dr. Melvin’s work has been on the political and security dynamics of post-Soviet Eurasia. He has worked in particular on issue of ethnic and national politics and their relationship to conflict, including involving states. He is also interested in questions of regional security and peace operations. He is currently completing an Adelphi Paper for the International Institute of Strategic Papers on the new international security of Central Asia.

17 okt (OBS! Fredag kl. 15:15-17:00) Rundabordsdiskussion "The 12th Saeima: Analysis of the Results of the 2014 Latvian Parliamentary Elections". Deltagare: Dr Matthew Kott (UCRS), Dr Pēteris Timofejevs Henriksson (Södertörn högskola) och Dr Simona Gurbo (Rīga Stradiņš University). Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

On 4 October 2014 elections to the twelfth session of the Saeima (Parliament) were held in Latvia. In this panel discussion we will analyse the results. Who were the winners and losers? What role, if any, did the Ukraine crisis have for this ethnically polarised society? How did the newly-created, often populist parties perform? Will the current coalition maintain power, or will there be a new constellation in government?

21 okt Sofie Bedford (UCRS): "One Religion—Two States? 'Politicization' of the religious aspect of Azerbaijani-Turkish relations". Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

Foreign religious influences played an important part in the post-Soviet religious revival process. While the Azerbaijani authorities portrayed brands of Islam from North Caucasus, Iran and Saudi Arabian as dangerous, work of Turkish Islamic groups for a long time was seen as less threatening, faced fewer restrictions and was in some cases even officially promoted. Gradually this is changing. Not only did Turkish religious representatives start losing their previously privileged position, some are today struggling hard to continue their work. Here Dr Bedford aims to provide a more thorough understanding of what made ‘Turkish Islam’ the preferred choice for the political leaders of independent Azerbaijan as well as highlight and attempt to explain the fact that this amicable reception seems gradually to be coming to an end. Dr Bedford argues that while the successful onset of ‘Turkish Islam’ was facilitated by the historical context, as well as linguistic and cultural communalities between the two peoples, the embrace of Turkish Islam on the elite level was overall a political decision. Consequently, a transformation of and change in the political parameters has prompted change in the official status of Turkish Islam in Azerbaijan and made some of its representatives the target of government attempts to dispose of critical elements on the religious- and political scenes.

The presentation is based on Sofie Bedford’s chapter in the forthcoming edited volume Continuity and Change in Azerbaijan-Turkey Relations: An Attempt at Conceptualisation (working title). Should you be interested in reading the chapter, please e-mail Sofie at sofie.bedford@ucrs.uu.se

Dr Sofie Bedford is a researcher at UCRS working on a project on opposition in Azerbaijan. She holds an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies from Uppsala University and a PhD in Political Science from Stockholm University. Sofie’s main research interests are social movements and political, ethnic and religious mobilization. Her latest publications include: ’Introduction to the Special Section Political Mobilization in Azerbaijan – The January 2013 Protests and Beyond’, Democratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 22 (1) 2014 and ‘Nagorno-Karabach: med kriget runt hörnet’ in Utan röst och status – de facto-stater i världen, Världspolitikens Dagsfrågor 11-12. Stockholm: Utrikespolitiska institutet, 2013 [in Swedish].

23 okt Mikhail Suslov: "Orthodoxy Online: Russian Church in the Digital Environment" Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: Engelska.

This presentation introduces the special issue of the journal Digital Icons, devoted to the exploration of the Russian Orthodoxy in digital environment, which is edited by Mikhail Suslov (lead editor), Greg Simons and Maria Engström. The paper is based on the article, contributed to this issue.

Communication lies in the theological core of many religious traditions. For East Christian Orthodoxy with its propensity for collectivism (sobornost'), the concept of communication is central for elaboration of its social ethics. This means that comprehensive change of communicative environment, enacted by digital technologies, cannot simply get past Orthodoxy. Similarly to how the invention of script made Christianity possible, and the advent of book printed spurred Protestantism, Web 2.0 begot new, hitherto unseen religious practices and sensibilites - the so called 'religion online' with its cyber churches, digital prayers, and networked congregations. Is the Russian Orthodoxy conscious of promises of 'religion online', or is it apprehensive of its dangers? How has it managed to colonize new digital terrains such as social networks, or blogosphere? How does it conceptualize its experience of digitally mediated communication? Grounding on the analysis of blogs of the Orthodox priests, Mikhail Suslov's paper ventures to approach these questions and to offer the first theorization of 'Russian Orthodoxy online' in literature.

Mikhail Suslov is a Marie Curie postdoctoral researcher at the UCRS. He studies Russian intellectual history, (geo)political imagination, ideological genealogies and cultural history of the Russian Orthodox church. He holds a PhD in history from European University Institute (Florence), and works towards a Dr.habil. degree at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow. His most recent publications include 'Holy Rus': The Geopolitical Imagination in the Contemporary Russian Orthodox Church,' Russian Politics and Law 52, no. 3 (2014), and in Russian: 'Genealogy of the Idea of Monarchy in Post-Soviet Political Discourses of the Russian Orthodox Church,' Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom 32, no. 3 (2014).

28 okt Fabian Heffermehl (UCRS): “The Icon and the NSA - Internet Surveillance as Example of Media Transformation” Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska.

Usually when one discusses surveillance, one does it within categories of security politics, economics or human rights, but one seldom concerns the relation between surveillance and other spheres of our culture – like art and literature. The aim of this lecture is to focus on internet surveillance as a phenomenon within the internet medium in relation to the most distinctive medium of the Russian Orthodox Church – the icon. The icon gets its justification as cult-image in a complex theological system, which was introduced already in the eighth century in the Byzantine Empire. With its tradition of its cult-image the church up to this day defends one of the oldest media theories in history. At the same time Internet represents the most significant revolution in the history of medias. With internet one has to re-evaluate all patterns of what a medium is. What happens when the cult-image – the oldest medium of history – is confronted with internet – the historically most revolutionary medium? What are the challenges for theology and media theory in general?

Fabian Heffermehl is a PhD candidate as well as an artist, literary critic and theologian at Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Heffermehl has published several articles in Russian, German and Norwegian about Pavel Florensky and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In Heffermehl’s monography “The Image Seen from the Inside” (in progress) he analyzes the interaction between mathematical concepts in the twentieth century and theories of the Orthodox icon.

3-4 nov Internationell konferens "Eurasia 2.0: Post-Soviet Geopolitics and New Media". För mer information se konferensens hemsida.

4 nov William Pyle (Middlebury): “Land rights, industry and Russia’s post-socialist cityscape”. Ordförande: Leonid Polishchuk. Språk: engelska.

The voluminous literature on the privatization of Russian industry has overlooked, almost completely, the story of enterprise land rights – a story that does not jibe well with the standard narrative of post-Soviet reform. The reputedly rapid privatization of the Yeltsin era was initiated without any changes being made to the tenure status of the land on which enterprises sat. And the Putin years, during which the government’s commitment to privatization has frequently been described as having waned, witnessed a wave of sell-offs of state-owned urban plots to private industry. This talk will review this history and explore the causes and consequences of the substantial inter-regional variation in non-agricultural, non-residential land policy. Drawing on a unique survey of urban industrial enterprises, the effects of land tenure on credit flows, investment behavior and urban land reallocation will be considered.

William Pyle is the Frederick Dirks Professor of International Economics at Middlebury College. He is also a research fellow at Russia’s National Research University Higher School of Economics’ International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development. On several occasions over the past decade, he has been a visiting researcher at the Bank of Finland’s Institute for Economies in Transition (BOFIT). In 2014, he and his BOFIT colleague, Laura Solanko, were awarded the Russian National Prize in Applied Economics for their research on Russian business lobbies. Professor Pyle serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Comparative Economics.

4 nov (OBS! kl. 19:00, Medborgarskolan, Hamnesplanaden 1, Uppsala) Seminarium "Russia's Role in the Crisis in Ukraine" arrangeras i samarbete med PeaceQuest International, Medborgarskolan och Pax et Bellum. Språk: engelska och svenska. För mer information se programmet.

11 nov Vitaly Kurennoy "Специфика советской культурной политики и ее актуальные последствия". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: ryska.

Отправной точкой доклада является оживление интереса к проблематике культуры и актуализация темы «культурной политики» в современной России (начиная с 2013 года) . Эта актуализация свидетельствует от том, что центр федеральной власти (а еще раньше – некоторые региональные центры) стремится придать культуре новое содержательное наполнение. Согласно основному тезису доклада сегодняшняя актуализация ценностного и морального дискурса в сфере культуры объясняется институциональной предрасположенностью инфраструктуры учреждений культуры к идеологическому наполнению, сформированной в рамках советской культурной политики и сохранившейся в силу специфически инертного поведения организаций, образующих современную российскую культурную инфраструктуру.

Виталий Куренной – кандидат философских наук, профессор, заведующий отделением культурологии НИУ ВШЭ, научный редактор журнала «Логос», член редколлегий журналов «Вопросы образования», «Ежегодник по феноменологической философии». Виталий Куренной окончил в 1998 году Московский государственный университет им. М.В. Ломоносова по специальности «Философия», диссертация «Проблема возникновения феноменологического движения» (РГГУ, 2001). Он является редактором журналов (в разные годы): «Отечественные записки», «Гуманитарный контекст», «Политический журнал», портал «Частный корреспондент». Автор более 150 научных публикаций, переводчик на русский язык работ К.-О. Апеля, Э. Гуссерля, В. Дильтея, Р. Ингардена, Г. Люббе, А. Райнаха, Э. Тугендхата, Г. Фреге, Г. Шельски и др., автор аналитических и публицистических статей в общественно-политических изданиях «Независимая газета», «Новая газета», «Политический журнал», «Левая политика», «Частный корреспондент» и др.

15 nov (OBS! lördag, kl.10.30-16.00, Museum Gustavianum) En temadag för hela familjen "Miljö och energi. Världens utmaningar". Ett komplett programm finns på Museum Gustavianums hemsida

Uppsala universitet in till en spännande dag med föreläsningar och roliga aktiviteter där världens utmaningar diskuteras utifrån ett humanistiskt och samhällsvetenskapligt perspektiv. Under rubriken Miljö och energi behandlas de olika problem och möjligheter som olika världsdelar står inför. Under dagen bjuds det också på underhållning och traditionella maträtter från alla världens hörn. UCRS är en av arrangörerna och bjuder på:

kl. 10.30 Mini-föredrag ”Moderniseringen av Öst- och Centraleuropa – några nerslag i en förvirrande verklighet” med professor emeritus Lars Rydén

kl.14.00 Konsert. Uppsala Vokalensemble framför sakrala och folkliga ryska låtar

Vi bjuder dessutom på traditionella ryska sötsaker!

Evenemanget arrangeras av forskargrupper knutna till de åtta områdesstudier som finns vid Uppsala universitet: Centrum för Rysslandsstudier, Forumen för Afrika-, Kina-, Latinamerika-, Sydasien-, Turkiska och Tysklandsstudier, samt av Engelska institutionen/Svenska Institutet för Nordamerika studier och Museum Gustavianum.

18 nov Dmitry Oreshkin (Moskva): "Эволюция политического пространства РФ. Электоральное измерение". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: ryska.

Россия всегда и для всех была метафорой - страшной, доброй, агрессивной, великой, дикой... Только с появлением электоральной статистики в середине 90-х стало возможно количественно измерить ее внутреннюю неоднородность и написать ее портрет не на языке образов, а на языке цифр. Стандартные файлы электоральных данных, накопленные каждой из примерно 2750 Территориальных избирательных комиссий (ТИК) за 11 федеральных избирательных кампаний начиная с 1995 г., позволяют объективно выделять в РФ области разной политической (электоральной) культуры, изменять степень различия между ними и оценивать их эволюцию за последние 20 лет. Россия оказывается более сложной и более объяснимой, чем при попытке свести ее к набору ярких политологических образов.

Дмитрий Орешкин окончил Географический факультет МГУ, канд. Геогр. наук. Дмитрий специализируется главным образом в электоральной географии, регионалистике и геополитике. Он успешно выступает в качестве политического аналитика и публициста. До 2012 г. Дмитрий был членом Президентского совета по правам человека, руководителем группы защиты избирательных прав граждан.

20 nov Alpo Rusi, fd Finlands ambassadör i Schweiz: ”Sphere of Influence- Power Game of Finland for Survival on the Border of Europe from 1700 to 2014- and Repercussions of the Ukraine Crisis for Finland and Sweden”. Ordförande: Matthew Kott. Språk: engelska.

Since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine the geopolitical situation of Finland and other countries bordering with Russia have been gaining attention in the international debate. Even the concept of ”finlandisation” has been discussed this time in positive terms. Yet the history of Ukraine and Finland is different although not without some similarities. The seminar is be based on Dr. Rusi’s recent book “Sphere of Influence- Power Game of Finland for Survival on the Border of Europe from 1700 to 2014” where he has envisaged the main repercussions concerning geopolitical changes of Finland since 1700 until Today.

Alpo Rusi holds a PhD degree in Political Sciences from University of Helsinki (1982). He served at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland between 1972-1993, in various post in Hamburg , Copenhagen, New York and Bonn. Dr. Rusi was among other things Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to the President of Finland, 1994-1999, Deputy Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe (Defence and Security) Brussels1999-2000 and visiting Professor of European Studies at the University of Economics and Politics, Hamburg 2001-2002. Dr Rusi was Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, based in Helsinki, and Ambassador of Finland to Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Holy See, Berne 2009-2014. His publications in English include ”After the Cold War; Europe's New Political Architecture” and “Dangerous Peace: New Rivalry in World Politics”. Several other books in Finnish, most recently “Etupiirin ote-Suomen valtapeli Euroopan rajalla 1700-2014”, (Sphere of Influence- Finnish Power Struggle for Survival on the Border of Europe from 1700 to 2014).

25 nov Julie Hansen (UCRS): “Theories of Memory and the Imaginative Force of Fiction – Afterword to a Project”. Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska.

This seminar explores connections between fiction, history and memory in recent novels that look back in various ways on the Communist period in the former East Bloc. It will summarize parts of the theoretical discussion in Dr. Hansen’s recently completed project “History through the Prism of Memory: Post-Communist Novels from Central and Eastern Europe” (funded by the Swedish Research Council).

Julie Hansen is Associate Professor of Slavic Languages at the Department of Modern Languages and Research Fellow at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University. She has published articles on Russian and Czech modernism, exile literature, translingual literature, translation, and the theme of memory in literary fiction. She is co-editor of Transcultural Identities in Contemporary Literature (Rodopi, 2013) and Punishment as a Crime? Perspectives on Prison Experience in Russian Culture (Uppsala Studies on Eastern Europe, 2014). She is currently writing a book on the theme of memory in post-Communist novels from Central and Eastern Europe.

9 dec Fredrik Stöcker (UCRS): ""Economically self-governing Estonia": Foreign investments and marketization strategies in Soviet Estonia 1987-1991". Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

The presentation explores the gradual “transformation from Communism” (Archie Brown) in Soviet Estonia, which preceded the transition to a parliamentary democracy and a fully-fledged market economy after 1991. A landmark event in this process was the concept of an “economically self-governing Estonia”, launched in autumn 1987 by a number of Estonian scholars and reformist members of the Party apparatus. The radical reform agenda, which strongly supported the acceleration of Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic reforms and proposed a policy of republican self-management, triggered a lively debate in the Estonian SSR. As the ideas of economic autonomy and more radical steps towards a market economy reached the republican leadership, an increasing number of émigré experts became actively involved in the ongoing reform process. Focusing on the impact of businessmen and economic advisers from the ranks of the Estonian diaspora, the presentation sheds light on the role that these so far still underestimated actors played in a crucial phase of Estonia’s recent history. The Estonian case study, the topic of this presentation, is supposed to illustrate the research agenda of the recently started postdoctoral project “Laboratories of Marketization: A Historical Reassessment of Economic Reforms at the Soviet Union’s Western Fringes, 1987-1991” (funded by the Swedish Research Council).

Lars Fredrik Stöcker is a postdoctoral researcher at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University. He holds a PhD from the Department of History and Civilization at the European University Institute (2012), awarded for his thesis on Polish and Estonian émigrés in Cold War Sweden and their contacts with the homeland societies, titled “Bridging the Baltic Sea: Networks of Resistance and Opposition during the Cold War Era”. His current research focuses on market reforms in Mikhail Gorbachev’s Soviet Union. Focusing on early marketization in the Estonian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian SSR, his research project explores the role of Western actors on the implementation of market reforms and the impact of transnational economic networks on the nationalist movements in the three Soviet republics.

11 dec Lina Klymenko: “Narrating World War II: History Textbooks and Nation-Building in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.” Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

In 2014, the Russian president Vladimir Putin emphasized that Victory Day on 9 May remains the main Russian celebration; it is the day of national triumph, people’s pride, sorrow, and eternal remembrance. Indeed, in the post-Soviet context it is in particular the memory of World War II (or the Great Patriotic War) that has been used in state-led nation-building processes of post-Soviet countries to foster a sense of national belonging. This presentation provides an insight into the narratives of World War II and construction of national identities in recent school history textbooks in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

Lina Klymenko is a postdoctoral researcher at the Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Political Science from the University of Vienna. Her research interests include political culture and democratization in post-Soviet countries, politics of memory and national identity, and teaching and learning politics.

16 dec Christofer Berglund (Uppsala University): ”Nation-Building in Georgia’s Southern Borderlands: Ethnic or Civic?”. Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.

Following the 2003 Rose Revolution, President Saakashvili sought to transcend the ethnic nationalism that had poisoned relations between Georgians and the country’s Armenian and Azerbaijani minorities. A civic nation was to be forged by ensuring equal treatment for all Georgian-speaking citizens, regardless of their cultural orientation, surname or ethnic origin. Saakashvili therefore took a range of symbolic, legal and institutional measures to signal that Georgian-speaking minorities were going to be accepted as equals by the state. However, conservative ethno-religious revivalists opposed Saakashvili’s language-centred nationalism. In order to reveal the degree to which Saakashvili’s civic nationalism has supplanted the ethnic nationalism of the past, I have conducted a matched-guise experiment administrated for almost 800 adolescent Georgians. The findings indicate that the next generation of Georgians embrace Georgian-speaking minorities as their peers.

Christofer Berglund is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Government, Uppsala University, and is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. He specialises in issues of democratisation, ethno-politics and state-building in the South Caucasus. He has published articles for Demokratizatsiya (2014) and the Journal of Language and Social Psychology (2015), and has also written the chapter on Georgia in The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013).