The Spectacle: Culture and Politics in Eastern Europe and Eurasia
2026 Russian Studies Undergraduate Conference
2026 Russian Studies Undergraduate Conference
Keynote Speaker
Dr. James von Geldern
Professor of Russian and International Studies at Macalester College
Author of Bolshevik Festivals, 1917-1920, co-author of Mass Culture in Soviet Russia: Tales, Poems, Songs, Movies, Plays and Folklore, 1917-1953, and Entertaining Tsarist Russia: Urban Entertainments, 1798-1917.
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)