CREECA Lecture Series Podcast

In March 1968, Polish youth rebelled against the communist regime, demanding free speech and academic freedom. In response, the government publicly accused Polish Jews of staging the demonstrations as part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to weaken communism and forced thousands of Jews to leave the country. The talk exposes the conspiracies the communist regime held and promoted, which had turned Polish Jews into “security risks,” and points to connections between contemporary memory politics in Eastern Europe and the anti-Jewish drive of 1960s Poland. About the Speaker: Anat Plocker teaches at the School of General Studies at Stockton University, specializing in Modern European History. She gained her PhD from Stanford University and had been a fellow at Yale University and the University of Haifa. Plocker’s first book, The Expulsion of Jews from Communist Poland, was published with Indiana University Press in 2022.

There is very little academic literature on polygyny among Central Asians in general and among the Kyrgyz in particular. This talk, based on Michele Commercio’s forthcoming book, will explore the normalization of polygyny among the Kyrgyz in contemporary Kyrgyzstan, which criminalizes such unions, from a historical perspective. By this, she means implicit tolerance of unconcealed polygynous marriages at the mass and elite levels of Kyrgyz society within a state that is obligated but neglects to penalize men with multiple wives. During the talk, Commercio will explain how communist institutions gradually limited the rate of unconcealed polygynous marriages among the Kyrgyz, and how the breakdown of those institutions combined with enduring hegemonic constructions of gender gradually contributed to the re-emergence of unconcealed polygynous marriages among the Kyrgyz. About the Speaker: Professor Commercio specializes in Central Asian comparative politics. Her research interests include issues related to regime transition, ethnic politics, gender, and Islam in post-Soviet states. Her current research focuses on obstacles women desiring a career in Kyrgyz politics confront as well as obstacles women in Kyrgyz politics confront.

While James Joyce’s place in the modernist pantheon has long been firmly entrenched, its resonances continue to be uncovered. In the Russian context, the Irish writer has occupied many roles since his work was first translated in the mid-1920s. This talk will trace the development not of a monolithic Joyce, but rather of five separate Russian Joyces — the versions of the author imagined by his Russian readers. About the Speaker: José Vergara is Assistant Professor of Russian at Bryn Mawr College. He specializes in prose of the long twentieth century, with an emphasis on experimental works. His first book, All Future Plunges to the Past: James Joyce in Russian Literature, examines Russian writers’ reception of Joyce’s fiction.

The world has been shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Why did this happen? What is the true historical relationship between Russia and Ukraine? How are people reacting in Russia? What are the implications for the United States, NATO, and international security? What will be the impact of sanctions and other financial penalties that the United States and its allies have imposed on Russia? A panel of University of Wisconsin faculty members addressed these and other questions. Panelists include Mark Copelovitch (UW-Madison, Political Science), Yoshiko Herrera (UW-Madison, Political Science), Andrey Ivanov (UW-Platteville, History), Kirill Ospovat (UW-Madison, GNS+), and Jessica Weeks (UW-Madison, Political Science). Moderated by Ted Gerber (UW-Madison, CREECA Director).

Military assertiveness in the “near abroad” and elsewhere has characterized Russia’s foreign policy at least since 2008. It has also played well with the Russian public. Is this aggressiveness due only or mostly to Putin’s ambitions or do popular attitudes in Russia support it as well? About the Speaker: Michael Alexeev is Professor of Economics at Indiana University in Bloomington. His research and teaching interests lie mostly in the fields of institutional economics, law and economics, and economics of transition from a Soviet-type economy to a market economy.

From 1878 to the early 1920s, millions of Ottoman Muslims became citizens of other European states. This talk explores the many ways Muslims responded, from resistance to negotiation, illuminating how Muslim citizens shaped the states and societies in which they lived. Emily Greble addresses questions about why Muslims have been erased from so much of European history and what we can learn about secularism, religious freedom, and European legal norms by analyzing Muslim lives and perspectives. About the Speaker: Emily Greble teaches History and East European Studies at Vanderbilt University. A historian of the Balkans, she is the author of Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe (2021) and Sarajevo, 1941-1945: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Hitler’s Europe (2011.

Like all facets of daily life, the food that Russian farms produced and citizens ate—or, in some years, didn’t eat—underwent radical shifts in the century between the Bolshevik Revolution and Vladimir Putin’s presidency. An interdisciplinary history of Russia’s agriculture and food systems documents a complex story of the interactions between political policies, daily cultural practices, and technological improvements. Examining governance, production, consumption, nature, and the ensuing vulnerabilities of the agrifood system, Black Earth, White Bread reveals the intended and unintended consequences of Russian agricultural policies since 1917. About the Speaker: Susanne Wengle is Nancy R. Dreux associate professor of Political Science Department at the University of Notre Dame, with a Ph.D. from the from University of California Berkeley.

Dissenting opinions are an unusual type of judicial behavior, especially in autocracies. Except for in very rare circumstances, separate opinions do not lead to changes in law or policy, but judges spend their time and resources to author them. In authoritarian regimes, dissents are even less expected: why would judges publicly voice their disagreement with the majority given the higher personal risks of expressing such discontent? Using original data on 629 judgments and 8,857 judicial votes, Yulia Khalikova explains dissenting behavior at the RCC.

Signe Baumane (Latvian-born animator, artist, and film maker) discusses her animated films, particularly 'Rocks in my Pockets' (2014), a film about five Latvian women throughout the twentieth century, which focuses on topics of depression, suicide, marriage, and gender roles in Soviet-occupied and post-Soviet Latvia. Baumane also offers a glance at her work-in-progress animated feature film 'My Love Affair With Marriage,' a fresh look on gender and romantic love, to be released in 2022. [Audio from 'My Love Affair With Marriage' has been removed from this podcast episode, as the film is currently unreleased.]

The introduction of an expansive housing reform in Moscow in 2017–the destruction and replacement of Khrushchev-era five story buildings–reflected a new form of consultative policy processes that demand state-society interaction. Similar policy interactions in democratic systems have led to increase in social capital and pro-social norms. In authoritarian contexts, they are a mechanism to win social support. The findings presented by Dr. Regina Smyth (Indiana University)have important implications for new state initiatives to extend the housing program across the Federation and push urbanization as the central mechanism to win societal support.