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.

People walking in front of large timeline mural
Paige Brown

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

Exchanging Notes: Songs and Stories from Tbilisi and Somerville

Exchanging Notes: Songs and Stories from Tbilisi and Somerville

to
In person

A celebration of songs and stories fusing Georgian and American themes, linking cultures, and demonstrating our common humanity.

Nana Abuladze
Nana Abuladze

Writer and Literary Scholar, Republic of Georgia

Maxwell Evrard
Maxwell Evrard

Choir Director and Music Teacher, Somerville High School

Aleksandre Kharanauli
Aleksandre Kharanauli

Georgian Folk and Rock Musician, TV Producer, Republic of Georgia

Owen Thomas

Writer and Educator, Boston

Georgian and US Flag

Democracy, Geopolitics, and the Future of US-Georgia Relations

to
In person

There are major geopolitical shifts afoot in the South Caucasus and Georgia is central to their outcome. What explains the strains in the Georgian-U.S. relationship and what are its prospects?

Kelly Degnan
Kelly Degnan

Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff; Former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia

Neil MacFarlane

Professor Emeritus, Oxford University

Mamuka Tsereteli
Mamuka Tsereteli

Senior Fellow, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

Stephen Jones
Stephen Jones

Director, Program on Georgian Studies, Harvard University
Professor of Modern Georgian History, Ilia State University

archival small boxes in shelves

Archival Research in the Former USSR Before and After February 2022

to
Online

Professor Mark Kramer will discuss archival work during Russia's war against Ukraine. 

Recording Available
Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project

Georgian landscape

Georgians, Caucasians, and the Invention of Race

to
In person

2023 Ilia Chavchavadze Lecture featuring Charles King.

Charles King 2020 hires credit Mary Fecteau.
Charles King

Charles King is a Professor of International Affairs and Government at Georgetown University.

Stephen Jones
Stephen Jones

Director, Program on Georgian Studies, Harvard University
Professor of Modern Georgian History, Ilia State University

Maggie Paxson singing

Maggie Paxson's Bomb Shelter Cafe

to
In person

Maggie Paxson's Bomb Shelter Cafés are sing-along events inspired by the collective music of embattled communities in the era of the Second World War.

Maggie Paxson
Maggie Paxson

Author and Singer

Alexandra Vacroux
Alexandra Vacroux

Executive Director, Davis Center

image of the old map

The Imperiia Game Night: The Great Globe Trot

to
In person

Join us for the first Imperiia game night of the year and find out. We will play a boardgame that dates to 1790 and enjoy some refreshments. Grab your friends, your powdered wigs, and your good luck charms – no skill or experience needed.

Serhii Plokhii

The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History

to
Online

History professor and director of Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute, Dr. Serhii Plokhii, will speak about his new book The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History.

Serhii Plokhii
Serhii Plokhii

Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History / Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute , Harvard University

marble quarrie

The Geopolitics of Critical Materials: The Role of Central Asia

to
Online

Central Asia can become a major global supplier of selected critical materials for clean energy technologies. The seminar will discuss the economic and geopolitical aspects of this development.

Recording Available
Sophia Kalantzakos
Sophia Kalantzakos

Global Distinguished Professor in Environmental Studies and Public Policy, New York University Abu Dhabi, the UAE

Roman Vakulchuk
Roman Vakulchuk

Head of Climate and Energy Research Group, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

Nargis Kassenova
Nargis Kassenova

Senior Fellow; Director, Program on Central Asia, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Reinventing Tradition book cover yellow

Russian-Jewish Literature: Reinventing Tradition Under Communism

to
In person

How was the Jewish tradition reinvented in Russian-language literature after a long period of assimilation, the Holocaust, and decades of Communism?

Recording Available
Klavdia Smola
Klavdia Smola

Professor and Chair of Slavic Literatures, Technische Universität Dresden

Maxim Shrayer
Maxim D. Shrayer

Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies; Boston College and the Chair of the Seminar on Russian and Eurasian Jewry, Davis Center

globe

Eastern Approaches: The United States and Central Asia 1991 to the Present

to
In person

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan George Krol will discuss the development of relations between the United States and the Central Asian republics from the inception of diplomatic relations in 1992 to the present time.

George Krol
George Krol

Adjunct Professor, U.S. Naval War College

Nargis Kassenova
Nargis Kassenova

Senior Fellow; Director, Program on Central Asia, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Tbilisi skyline at sunset

REECA Master's Program Info Session

to
Online

Learn about the REECA  A.M. program in this virtual info session.

Donna Griesenbeck
Donna Griesenbeck

Student Programs Officer, Davis Center

Davis Center 75th Logo

Davis Center 75th Anniversary Celebration

to
In person

We hope you'll join us October 27-28, 2023, as we celebrate the history of the Davis Center while also looking to the future of the field. 

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

Alexandra Vacroux
Alexandra Vacroux

Executive Director, Davis Center

Burnt White House in Russia 1993

Yeltsin and the Confrontation at the Russian White House: A 30-Year Retrospective on the Event and Its Significance

to
Online

The event and its aftermath enabled Yeltsin to expand the power of the presidency and restructure the political system through the adoption of a new constitution in December 1993.

Recording Available
Yevgenia Albats
Yevgenia Albats

Editor-in-Chief & CEO, The New Times

Timothy J. Colton
Timothy Colton

Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies, Harvard University

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project

Conference room in black adn white with many men

Human Rights, the Helsinki Process, and the Soviet Bloc, 1971-1989

to
In person

 In the Soviet bloc, Communist rulers sought to prevent CSCE from being invoked by human rights activists and organizations to press for greater freedom. This seminar will explore how this issue was viewed in the Soviet bloc.

Recording Available
Nadia Boyadjieva
Nadia Boyadjieva

Professor of International Law and International Relations, Institute for Balkan Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project

illustration map of soviet bloc red adn blue colors

Soviet-Bloc Active Measures, 1967-1989

to
In person

This seminar focuses on the clandestine activities of Soviet-bloc intelligence services from the late 1960s through the late 1980s.

Douglas Selvage
Douglas Selvage

Research Fellow, Institute for Historical Scholarship, Humboldt University in Berlin

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project

Lake Sevan

Navigating the Caucasus: A Workshop for Educators

to
In person

K-14 educators are invited to join us at our fall teacher workshop, where we will learn to navigate the Caucasus. 

 

Stephen Jones
Stephen Jones

Director, Program on Georgian Studies, Harvard University
Professor of Modern Georgian History, Ilia State University

Cris Martin
Cris Martin

Associate Director, Davis Center

Allison Elizabeth Hart

Program Coordinator, Program on Georgian Studies

Central Downtown Nur-Sultan: in center Bayterek tower

REECA Master's Program Info Session

to
Online

Learn about the REECA  A.M. program in this virtual info session.

Donna Griesenbeck
Donna Griesenbeck

Student Programs Officer, Davis Center

Past

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

Alex Averbuch

Alex Averbuch: Readings from "The Jewish King" and "Of Rage and Longing"

to
In person

A poetry reading by Alex Averbuch, postdoctoral fellow at the Davis Center and 2024 HURI research fellow at Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute, moderated by Oleh Kotsyuba.

Alex Averbuch
Alex Averbuch

Independent Researcher

Photo of Oleh Kotsyuba
Oleh Kotsyuba

Manager of Publications, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University (HURI)

Soviet-era photo of back-to-school day, Sept. 1

Fall Reception: Back-to-School Night at the Davis Center

to
In person

Join us for the Davis Center's version of back-to-school night!

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

Alexandra Vacroux
Alexandra Vacroux

Executive Director, Davis Center

old photo of Armenian family during Stalin era

Investigating Stalin's Terror Through Archival Photographic Evidence

to
In person

Scholars are using photographic evidence from archives in the former USSR to help fill in the stories of people killed during Stalin's Terror. A large effort is underway to assemble photographic evidence in a repository that will be permanently accessible not only to scholars but to the descendants of those who were killed.

Denis Skopin
Denis Skopin

Senior Scholar in Exile, Center for Contemporary History, Berlin; Former Professor of Political Science, St. Petersburg State University

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project

masked protestor with Molotov cocktail

Railway Partisans, Arsonists, and Vandals: Homegrown Saboteurs of Russia's War Against Ukraine

to
In person

A presentation of new research will share some contradictory results from a multi-pronged data-gathering project on antiwar sabotage.

Ania Aizman

Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

Stephanie Sandler
Stephanie Sandler

Ernest E. Monrad Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

a soldier jumping over the wire fence

'Defectors': Conversation with Erik Scott

to
In person

Join the conversation with Erik Scott — University of Kansas history professor and author of the book Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World — and the director of the Davis Center's Cold War Studies Project, Mark Kramer.  

Erik Scott
Erik Scott

Associate Professor of History and Director, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Kansas

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project

See more past events