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

Photographer, Mikhail Trakhman, "These two girls are fond of reading"

Literacy Webinar Series for Educators: Unlocking Complex Text

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Online

This webinar offers practical, inclusive strategies to help all students access and comprehend complex social studies texts through vocabulary support, text structure instruction, graphic organizers, and multisensory techniques.

H. Nicole Richardson

Psychology/ Social Studies Teacher

Sandra Grudic
Sandra Grudić

Program Administrator, Educator Outreach, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

a modern building of central archives of Lithuania

Access, International Cooperation, and Public Outreach in Lithuania's Archives

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Online

Join us for a talk to explore how Lithuanian archives influence the country today. 

Recording Available
Inga Zaksauskiene
Inga Zakšauskienė

Chief Archivist, Lithuanian Central Archives; Assistant Professor of Modern History, Vilnius University

Sophia Kalashnikova Horowitz
Sophia Kalashnikova Horowitz

Ph.D. Candidate in History, Harvard University

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

Russian military post at the administrative boundary line of Abkhazia, 2016

Taming a Conflict Zone: Mobility and Persistence in Georgia's De Facto Borderland With Abkhazia

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In person

Drawing on two years of ethnographic research on the crossings of the Gali people, this presentation examines how people develop anticipatory tactics, spatial knowledge, and creative resourcefulness to generate manageable lives in a zone where livelihoods are dependent on a shifting, militarized boundary line.

Görkem Aydemir-Kundakci
Görkem Aydemir-Kundakci

FWO Postdoctoral Fellow, KU Leuven

Natia Chankvetadze
Natia Chankvetadze

Director, Program on Georgian Studies, Davis Center

Photograph of President John F. Kennedy's Meeting with the Soviet Ambassador and Ministers at the White House, 1962.

US-Soviet Communications During the Cuban Missile Crisis

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In person

Join us for the talk to learn how the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States managed the Cuban Missile Crisis to prevent it from spinning out of control. 

Dmitry Yakushkin
Dmitry Yakushkin

Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tel Aviv

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

a drawing with red blot and a person

Alevtina Kakhidze: 'Drawing the War' Exhibition Opening Reception

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In person

Join us at the exhibition by the Ukrainian artist Alvetina Kakhidze, "Drawing the War" opening reception. 

The Man Who Loved Literature Very Much, by Guram Dochanashvili’s Book Cover

Provincializing National Literatures: Imperial Canon Formation in Multinational Soviet Literature and Georgian Counter-Models

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In person

The talk shows how late Soviet claims of cultural equality masked a Russocentric canon-making regime and how Georgian writers and critics both enabled and resisted it through competing strategies of universality and national self-assertion.

Zaal Andronikashvili
Zaal Andronikashvili

Research Fellow, Center for Literary and Cultural Research; Professor, Ilia State University

Allison Hart

Coordinator, Program on Georgian Studies, Davis Center

Monument to Genghis Khan on Sukhbaatar Square, Ulaanbaatar.

Retrospective Bordering: Genghis Khan, Central Asia, and Soviet Historical Imagination

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In person

Join us for the talk examining Soviet historical novels about Genghis Khan by Vasily Yan and Aleksei Kalashnikov as a site of ideological struggle over the meaning of the Mongol conquest and its place in Central Asian history. 

Ivan Peshkov
Ivan Peshkov

Head of the Center for Central Asian Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland)

Nargis Kassenova
Nargis Kassenova

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

18th National Congress of the CCP

Power, Coercion, and Loyalty: The Chinese Communist Party Hierarchy during the Cold War and After

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In person

Join us to hear Joseph Torigian tell the life story of Xi Zhongxun, a man who spent his entire life struggling to balance his own feelings with the Party's demands.

Recording Available
Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

Joseph Torigian
Joseph Torigian

Associate Professor, American University, Washington DC

Soviet-hosted 1980 Olympics with Olympic rings as chains

Visualizing the Cold War: New Tools for the Classroom

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Online

This webinar offers history and social studies teachers practical, classroom-ready ways to work with Cold War primary sources in a short professional learning session.

Sandra Grudic
Sandra Grudić

Program Administrator, Educator Outreach, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Adnan Džumhur

Associate Director of the UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies at University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill

White House visit by C5 Central Asian leaders, Thursday, November 6, 2025.

Building a Secure Nuclear Future: US-Central Asia Partnership

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Online

Join us as we discuss the history of U.S.-Central Asia cooperation in non-proliferation, assess the current state, and explore the prospects and obstacles ahead in the nuclear energy sector.

Recording Available
Laura S. Holgate
Laura S. H. Holgate

President, LSHH International Advisors, Arlington, VA

Aidar Tainov
Aidar Tainov

Senior Program Manager, International Science and Technology Center, Astana, Kazakhstan

Nargis Kassenova
Nargis Kassenova

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

Adam Wozniak

A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies—REECA

Olympiada of Spoken Russian Graphic

Olympiada of Spoken Russian

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In person

Russian language competition for high school students. 

Cris Martin
Cris Martin

Associate Director, Davis Center

Sandra Grudic
Sandra Grudić

Program Administrator, Educator Outreach, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Literacy

Literacy Webinar Series for Educators: Making Writing Manageable

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Online

This webinar explores scaffolding techniques and strategies from The Writing Revolution to help educators make social studies writing tasks more accessible and manageable for diverse learners.

H. Nicole Richardson

Psychology/ Social Studies Teacher

Sandra Grudic
Sandra Grudić

Program Administrator, Educator Outreach, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Museum of Communism

The Cold War and the Mystery of an Anti-Stalinist Intellectual: Josef Guttmann's Two Lives

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In person

Join us for a book talk that uncovers the mystery of Josef Guttmann, a prominent communist dissident. 

Jacques Rupnik
Jacques Rupnik

Center for International Research, Sciences Po (Paris)

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

Kremlin tower through the small window

The Impact of 4 Years of Warfare on the Russian Federation (Part I)

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Online

Join a workshop on how Moscow's war against Ukraine has impacted the Russian Federation.

Henry Hale
Henry E. Hale

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University; Director, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES), Elliott School

Valerie Sperling
Valerie Sperling

Professor of Political Science, Clark University

Brian Taylor
Brian Taylor

Professor of Political Science, Director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University

Dmitry Gorenburg
Dmitry Gorenburg

Senior Research Scientist, CNA

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

Andrea Graziosi
Andrea Graziosi

Professor of History, Università di Napoli Federico II

a book cover of Magoril journal 1952

The Literary Legacy of Julius Margolin, Gulag Veteran and Public Intellectual

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In person

A reassessment of the literary legacy of Julius Margolin, whose memoir "Journey into the Land of the Zeks" was of the earliest important contributions to the corpus of Gulag literature.

Leona Toker
Leona Toker

Professor Emerita, the Hebrew University (Jerusalem)

Maxim Shrayer
Maxim D. Shrayer

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

Kremlin tower through the small window

The Impact of 4 Years of Warfare on the Russian Federation (Part II)

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Online

Join the workshop on how Russia's war against Ukraine impacted the Russian Federation.

 

Maria Snegovaya
Maria Snegovaya

Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Affairs Studies; Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University

Peter Rutland
Peter Rutland

Professor of Government, Wesleyan University; Vice President, Association for the Study of Nationalities; Associate Editor, Russian Review

Harley Balzer

Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University

Cynthia Buckley
Cynthia Buckley

Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at the University of Illinois

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

Andrea Graziosi
Andrea Graziosi

Professor of History, Università di Napoli Federico II

Anti-war and anti-NATO graffiti in Valladolid, 1986

The Cold War, Spain's Entry Into NATO, and the 1986 Referendum: The Political Dynamics

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In person

Join us for a seminar on Spain’s 1986 referendum on NATO membership. Drawing on multinational archival research and interviews, the talk explores how Spain navigated allies' expectations and domestic political pressures while defining its role in NATO. 

Recording Available
Marina Pérez de Arcos
Marina Pérez de Arcos

UKRI Global Fellow, Yale University

Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer

Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

"The First Social Democracy" book cover.

Book Talk: Georgia, 1918-1921, The World's First Social Democratic State?

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In person

The book asks questions about how the great ideologies of the twentieth century such as nationalism, socialism and liberalism both clashed and fused in Georgia to establish something no one was expecting, a social democratic state on the periphery of Europe.

Stephen Jones
Stephen Jones

Chairman, Advisory Board, Program on Georgian Studies, Davis Center; Professor of Modern Georgian History, Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Natia Chankvetadze
Natia Chankvetadze

Director, Program on Georgian Studies, Davis Center

Lottery ticket issued by Avtodor, 1930

Introduction to Blavatnik Archive's Open-Source Digital Collections

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Online

Join us for a presentation on the Blavatnik Archive’s digital collections and tools. 

Sandra Grudic
Sandra Grudić

Program Administrator, Educator Outreach, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Julie Reines Chervinsky

Director, Blavatnik Archive

Brandon Schechter

Historian, Blavatnik Archive

Past

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

Graffiti of Nabakov

Vladimir Nabokov and Russian Literary Traditions

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In person

Join us for a talk exploring Vladimir Nabokov as a bilingual writer whose work is deeply rooted in the Russian literary tradition. This talk examines how his shift from Russian to English transformed this tradition.

Alexander Dolinin
Alexander Dolinin

Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Daria Khitrova
Daria Khitrova

Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

First International Conference on Nuclear Law: The Global Debate, held at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

Strategic Ambiguity as a Safety Valve: Rethinking Escalation in Russia-West Standoffs

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In person

Join us for a timely conversation with political scientists Adam N. Stulberg and Mikhail Troitskiy, who challenge conventional nuclear deterrence theory. Drawing on three recent high-stakes episodes from 2022 to 2024, they introduce a new distinction between risk-taking and opportunistic coercive strategies to show how mismatched approaches have at times defused tensions and averted nuclear confrontation.

Mikhail Troitskiy
Mikhail Troitskiy

Visiting Professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Adam N. Stulberg
Adam N. Stulberg

Sam Nunn Professor, Chair, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Tech

Stephen De Spiegeleire
Stephan De Spiegeleire

Principal Scientist, The Hague Center for Strategic Studies (HCSS), Netherlands

Steven Solnick
Steven Solnick

Executive Director, Davis Center

Flag of Kazakhstan over digital code

Fragmenting the Digital Silk Road: Agency and Modularity in Kazakhstan’s Telecom Sector

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Online

A study of Kazakhstan’s telecom sector shows how China's seemingly unified strategy of building an alternative to U.S.-dominated internet infrastructure is appropriated by local actors and shaped by local forces.

Recording Available
Elisa Oreglia
Elisa Oreglia

Reader in Global Digital Cultures, King’s College London

Oyuna Baldakova
Oyuna Baldakova

Lead Researcher, DigiSilk, King's College London

Nargis Kassenova
Nargis Kassenova

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

photo of Baia Uridia doing calligraphy

The Art of Mkhedruli: Aesthetic Tradition and Cultural Identity in Contemporary Georgian Calligraphy

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In person

A workshop on Mkhedruli Georgian calligraphy that explores its expressive, living form as both writing and art.

Baia Uridia
Baia Uridia

Artist; Veteran, U.S. Air Force

Allison Hart

Coordinator, Program on Georgian Studies, Davis Center

an image of prehistoric statue; background of blue orange and red semi-circle

Suitcase Artifacts and Translating Memory: Feminist Interventions in Writing Iranian-Armenian Diasporic Histories

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Online

Join the talk examining the (im)possibilities of reconstructing contemporary Irano-Armenian diasporic histories through the lens of doubly minoritized women’s activism and elusive archives.

Houri Berberian
Houri Berberian

Professor of History, Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies, and Director of the Center for Armenian Studies, University of California, Irvine

Talinn Grigor
Talinn Grigor

Professor of Art History, University of California, Irvine

Feruza Aripova
Feruza Aripova

Lecturer in Modern Political, Social, and Cultural History in Global Context, The Cooper Union (NYC)

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