THE SPECTACLE: CULTURE AND POLITICS IN EASTERN EUROPE AND EURASIA

Undergraduate Conference

Macalester College

May 2, 2026

Location: Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship, Markim Hall

9:30-10:00 am Registration and Light Breakfast 

10:00-10:10 am Welcoming Remarks by Dr. Julia Chadaga and Dr. Masha Fedorova

10:10-11:10 am  Panel 1: Imperial Spectacles: Culture, Diplomacy, and War in Tsarist Russia

• Daniel Wiltse, “Culture, Consumerism, and Circus in the Russian Empire”

• Spencer Mullen, “'She thinks only of Constantinople': Orthodoxy as a Spectacle in the Danube Campaign of the Crimean War"

• Cayden Mayer, TBD

11:10-11:30 am Break

11:30-12:30 pm Keynote Lecture by Dr. James von Geldern

12:30-1:30 pm Lunch

1:30-2:40 pm  Panel 2: Stages of Power: Music, Protest, and the Politics of Performance

• Alex Jin, “Spectacles of Sound: Russian Military Song and the Politics of Unity in the Late Imperial Era”

• Anwyn Cook, TBD

• Jeremy Roberts-Kleban, “The Transformation and Evolution of Musical Protest and Resistance in Russia, 1980-Present”

• Charlie Rhodes, TBD

2:40-3:00 pm Break

3:00-4:00 pm   Panel 3: Performing Politics: Power, Protest, and Gender Representation in the 20th-21st centuries

• Liam Klatsky, TBD

• Senia Stasiukevich, TBD

• Beja Puškášová, “Postcolonial gender/sex and sexuality in Eastern Europe: Re-imagining Slavic Traditions”

4:10-5:30 pm   Reception at the Russian House (1668 Princeton Avenue)