Events

Are you looking to be in conversation with the world of Russian and Eurasian studies? You have come to the right place — pull up a seat.

Davis Center art exhibit

Looking for a recording of a past event? Browse prior listings below, or see all of our event videos on our YouTube channel.

Event Format

Upcoming

Albats Kotkin

Russia: Back to the USSR or Back to the Tsarist Empire?

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In person

Please join the inaugural event in our new speaker series to hear historian Stephen Kotkin and journalist Yevgenia Albats discuss Russia's latest shift to aggressive militarism.

Recording Available
Stephen Kotkin of Stanford University
Stephen Kotkin

Kleinheinz Senior Fellow, Stanford University; Birkelund Professor of History and International Affairs Emeritus, Princeton University

Yevgenia Albats

Editor-in-Chief & CEO, The New Times

An image of Turgenev from the time of writing Fathers and Children

Lessons From Turgenev's Laboratory: Toward a Companion to 'Fathers and Children'

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In person

Thomas Hodge will discuss how Turgenev’s Fathers and Children (a.k.a. Fathers and Sons) evolved from initial musings in 1860 into the book that was published in 1862.

Thomas Hodge
Thomas Hodge

Professor of Russian, Wellesley College

Edythe Haber
Edythe Haber

Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Boston

"Kiss of Judas" by Giotto di Bondone

How to Let Paintings Talk: Stories of Arts for Humanities

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In person

Victor Martinovich, an art historian and writer from Belarus, will present his Fulbright research about recent developments in his native country. 

Victor Martinovich
Victor Martinovich

Associate Professor, Dept. of Humanities and Arts, European Humanities Universities (EHU)

Jenya Mironava

Preceptor, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

youth in traditional Georgian clothing sitting on the floor with music instruments

Echoes of the Cultural Crossroad: Shaping Identity in Georgian Culture

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In person

Join Nana Sharikadze for a lecture on the history of Georgian cultural influences, artistic performance styles, and unique national identity. The talk will kick off this year's Exchanging Notes program, culminating in an evening of drums and dance Saturday, Sept. 21.

Image of Nana Sharikadze of the Caucasus University
Nana Sharikadze

Associate Professor, Caucasus University and Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire

Claire Lane
Claire Lane

Dance Artist, Choreographer, and Educator; Co-Artistic Director, detritus dance

Lasha Mdzinarashvili
Lasha Mdzinarashvili

Dancer, Choreographer, and Stuntman/Actor

George Oniani
George Oniani

Percussionist; Co-founder, Ensemble GENI; Artistic Director, Kutaisi Junior Folklore School

Marcus Santos
Marcus Santos

Percussionist and Educator

two dancers in the air, red, blue adn yellow color illustration

Exchanging Notes: An Evening of Dance and Drums

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In person

A celebration of cross-cultural artistic collaboration, linking American and Georgian cultures and common humanities in music and dance performance.

Claire Lane
Claire Lane

Dance Artist, Choreographer, and Educator; Co-Artistic Director, detritus dance

Lasha Mdzinarashvili
Lasha Mdzinarashvili

Dancer, Choreographer, and Stuntman/Actor

George Oniani
George Oniani

Percussionist; Co-founder, Ensemble GENI; Artistic Director, Kutaisi Junior Folklore School

Marcus Santos
Marcus Santos

Percussionist and Educator

Yevgenia Albats

Russian Economy 2 1/2 Years Into the War Against Ukraine

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In person

Economists Oleg Itskhoki of Harvard and Sergei Guriev (via Zoom) of the London Business School will discuss the resilience and weak points of Russia's wartime economy. 

Oleg Itskhoki
Oleg Itskhoki

Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Sergei Guriev
Sergei Guriev

Dean and Professor of Economics, London Business School

Yevgenia Albats

Editor-in-Chief & CEO, The New Times

Manganari's Atlas of the Black Sea

Map Tasting: One if by Land, Two if by Sea

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In person

Join us to explore Egor Manganari's magnificent Atlas of the Black Sea, produced in the 1800s, and to learn about the knowledge maritime maps contain and what digital historians can build with them! 

Kelly O'Neill
Kelly O’Neill

Director, Imperiia Project / Lecturer on History, Harvard University

Paul Vadan
Paul Vădan

Coordinator, Imperiia Project

Image of a library

Fall Reception: Back to School Night

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In person

Join us for the Davis Center's fall reception, a.k.a. Back-to-School Night. Learn about the research and events we have planned for the 2024-2025 academic year!

Cris Martin
Cris Martin

Interim Executive Director, Davis Center

Eve Blau
Eve Blau

Director, Davis Center
Adjunct Professor of the History of Urban Form, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
Co-Director of the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative

Yevgenia Albats

Putin’s Military Might: Bluff and Reality

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In person

Military analysts Dmitri Gorenburg of CNA and Alexander Golts (via Zoom) of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs will discuss Russia's military capacity and its limits.

Dmitry Gorenburg
Dmitry Gorenburg

Senior Research Scientist, CNA

Alexander Golts
Alexander Golts

Analyst, Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS), Swedish Institute of International Affairs

Yevgenia Albats

Editor-in-Chief & CEO, The New Times

Fragment of Ivan Franko Park, Lviv 1955

Sources from Ukraine: (Re)structuring Place, Memory, and Nature

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In person

Day-long workshop for educators interested in exploring the intersection of ecology and historical narratives in Ukraine.

Cris Martin
Cris Martin

Interim Executive Director, Davis Center

Sandra Grudic
Sandra Grudić

Outreach Program Administrator

Ivanna Cherchovych
Alexander Langstaff
Soviet stamp

History’s Many Voices: Learning How Visual Sources Speak

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In person

 In this workshop, participants will consider new ways of teaching about Imperial, Soviet and Post-Soviet Eurasia through the use of maps, data, oral histories and more.  

Kelly O'Neill
Kelly O’Neill

Director, Imperiia Project / Lecturer on History, Harvard University

Cris Martin
Cris Martin

Interim Executive Director, Davis Center

Sandra Grudic
Sandra Grudić

Outreach Program Administrator

Svetlana Rukhelman
Svetlana Rukhelman

Librarian for the Davis Center Collection, Harvard University

Mind Against Religion

Using an Analytical Approach to Primary Sources in the Classroom

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In person

This workshop will focus on understanding the origin, purpose, content, and value of various textual and visual primary sources.

Sandra Grudic
Sandra Grudić

Outreach Program Administrator

Cris Martin
Cris Martin

Interim Executive Director, Davis Center

Past

We’ve hosted dozens of events, many of which we’ve recorded. Search past events for the topics you care about.

Ice Atlas

Mapping Sea Ice: Spatial Data 101

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Sea ice isn’t easy to measure, let alone map.

Kelly O'Neill
Kelly O’Neill

Director, Imperiia Project / Lecturer on History, Harvard University

The movie poster for "Under The Grey Sky," a sketch of a bird on a gray background

Film Screening: 'Under The Grey Sky'

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In person

To mark the 4th anniversary of violent regime repercussions against protesters after the presidential elections in Belarus, Belarusians of Boston and New England and the Davis Center will screen a film based on the true story “Under The Grey Sky."

Mural "Breath Life," part of the Grove Hall Mural Project By Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs

Imagining a Better World: Arts, Activism, and Social Justice: A Workshop for Educators

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In person

This workshop, hosted by the Global Studies Outreach Committee at Harvard University, will be offered in person on Harvard's Cambridge campus July 29-Aug. 1, 2024. 

Cris Martin
Cris Martin

Interim Executive Director, Davis Center

Allison Hart

Program Coordinator, Program on Georgian Studies, Davis Center

1990 Dushanbe Riots

Moscow’s Heavy Shadow: The Violent Collapse of the USSR

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Online

In his new book "Moscow’s Heavy Shadow" Isaac McKean Scarborough explores Tajikistan's descent into bloody civil war in the early 1990s and argues that armed conflict has accompanied the extended Soviet collapse since the beginning and until today.

Recording Available
Isaac McKean Scarborough
Isaac McKean Scarborough

Assistant Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, Institute for History, Leiden University

Leora Eisenberg
Leora Eisenberg

Ph.D. Candidate in History, Harvard University

Nargis Kassenova
Nargis Kassenova

Senior Fellow; Director, Program on Central Asia, Davis Center

otherwise

'OtherWise': An Evening of Song, Dance, and Poetry

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In person

Two nights of performance draw on censored Soviet-era texts by iconic singer-songwriters Okudzhava and Vysotsky to explore intergenerational trauma in refugee experience and illuminate the sublime social power of poetic practices.

Ilya Vidrin
Ilya Vidrin

Assistant Professor, Northeastern University

Alec Hutson

Singer/Songwriter

Jessi Stegall

Dance-Theater Artist

Vera Koshkina

Scholar of Russian Literature and Culture

Valeria Solomonoff

Dramaturg

See more past events