The Black Sea is being recreated by war and oil. The destruction of Ukraine's Kakhovka Dam caught the world’s attention, but a continual barrage of attacks on industrial sites has wreaked havoc on stretches of coastline. Militarization has destroyed marshlands and seaweed forests. Naval mines threaten improvised shipping corridors. Oil spills and toxic runoff endanger marine ecosystems from the Danube to the Don. War has displaced over ten million people, with unfathomable consequences on the local economies, infrastructure, and social fabric.
What does it take to understand a region in which the relentless upheaval is both terrestrial and maritime? Which strategies promise insight in these conditions? Do our perspectives and analyses shift when we anchor our understanding of the region in the sea itself?
Join us for an afternoon hosted by the Black Sea Lab. Student research reports, expert roundtables, and a micro-exhibit will generate new questions and identify new possibilities for studying the Black Sea in the geopolitical and environmental context of the 21st century.
Program
1:00 pm - Welcome and Introductions
1:15 pm - Davis Center Roundtable on Contingency, the Black Sea, and Eurasian Studies
2:15 pm - Student Research Reports
3:00pm - Reflections on the Black Sea Frames Gallery
3:15 pm - Coffee Break
3:30 pm - Roundtable: The Black Sea through the Lens of Area Studies
4:30 pm - The Incremental Sea Project Launch followed by Reception
Speakers:
Kelly O’Neill, Director, Imperiia Project, Davis Center
Natia Chankvetadze, Director, Program on Georgian Studies, Davis Center
Nargis Kassenova, Director, Program on Central Asia, Davis Center
Mark Kramer, Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center
Irina Busygina, Lead Researcher, Post-Soviet Reforms Initiative
Nadia Boyadjieva, Visiting Scholar, Center Associate, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Markus Vaher, Graduate Student Associate, REECA
Anastasiia Pereverten, Graduate Student Associate, REECA
Olive Coles, Innovation Fellow, Davis Center
Julian Gonzales-Poirier, Innovation Fellow, Davis Center
Natia Gamkrelidze, Postdoctoral Fellow, International Security Program, The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Albana Shehaj, Program Manager at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies Jesse Howell, CMES Jesse Howell Associate Director of Research Initiatives, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Organizers:
Paul Vădan, Coordinator, Imperiia Project, Davis Center
Allison Hart, Coordinator, Program on Georgian Studies, Davis Center
Accessibility
The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact us at 617-495-4037 or daviscenter@fas.harvard.edu in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance if possible. Please note that the Davis Center will make every effort to secure services but that services are subject to availability.
