The Ellison Center at the University of Washington

Visiting Scholar at Cornell University Azamat Gabuev presents his lecture "Stalin as a Neo-Pagan Deity in Contemporary Russia" on Dec. 8, 2021.

The word "cult" has been used with regards to Stalin since a famous report made by Khrushchev "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences". But in post-soviet Russia it returns from political to primary religious meanings. Regardless of his lifetime atheism, Stalin is often associated with mysticism. He became a character of mythologies of neo-pagan religions such as Rodnovery and Assianism. At the same time, the cult of Stalin grew under the veil of Russian Orthodox Church. Not being canonized as a saint, he was depicted in icons, murals and acts in folk-hagiography. Moreover, there are authorized concepts such as “Mystic Salinism” by Alexander Prokhanov. Thus, Stalin could be described as a common deity for separate cults.

Azamat Gabuev was born in 1985 in Vladikavkaz. In 2011 he has earned PhD (kandidat nauk) in Law from Kutafin Moscow State Law University. He has been living in Moscow since 2015, where he works as a lawyer. His stories have been published in Russian literary journals including Darial, Oktiabr, and Druzhba Narodov, as well as Russian Esquire. He has been longlisted for two literary prizes in Russia: the Neformat prize in 2009, and the Debut Prize in 2011. In 2018, EKSMO published his first book A Cold Day in the Sun, which was shortlisted in 2019 for the Fiction35 literary prize. Azamat Gabuev is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Cornell University for the fall semester 2021.

This lecture is hosted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The Ellison Center presents the panel "Feminist Anthropology of Old Europe: Celebrating the Centennial of Marija Gimbutas" on April 30, 2021.

This panel was part of the virtual 2021 REECAS Northwest Conference. Find more information about the conference here: jsis.washington.edu/ellisoncenter/reecas-nw/

Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994), Professor of European Archaeology and Indo-European Studies at UCLA, wrote numerous popular and controversial books about the prehistoric gods and goddesses of Old Europe. Her research was a source of inspiration for environmentalist, feminist, neo-pagan, and other social movements on both sides of and transgressing the “Iron Curtain.” Born in Lithuania, educated at the Universities of Vilnius, Tübingen and München, Gimbutas immigrated to the United States to teach at Harvard University before moving to the West Coast. This roundtable celebrates the Centennial of her birth.

Moderator & Organizer:

- Guntis Šmidchens, Kazickas Family Endowed Professor in Baltic Studies; Associate Professor of Baltic Studies; Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington-Seattle.

Panelists:

- Rasa Navickaitė, Visiting Lecturer, Central European University; Navickaitė's 2020 dissertation examines the transnational reception of Gimbutas’s work and persona in diverse feminist and women’s activist contexts on both sides of the “Iron Curtain.” Among her other publications are “Postcolonial Queer Critique in Post-Communist Europe -Stuck in the Western Progress Narrative?” Tijdschrift Voor Genderstudies (2014); “Under the Western Gaze: Sexuality and Postsocialist ‘Transition’ in East Europe,” in Postcolonial Transitions in Europe (2015), and numerous articles and essays in Lithuanian scholarly publications.

- Ernestine Elster, Associated Researcher, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archeology; Elster was a graduate student of Marija Gimbutas and participated in four of her archeological expeditions. She has authored numerous publications on Italy and Greece in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, among them Excavations at Sitagroi, a prehistoric village in northeast Greece (1986), coauthored with Marija Gimbutas and this panel’s discussant Colin Renfrew.

- Colin Renfrew, Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge; Renfrew was a friend and colleague of Marija Gimbutas. He is author of many articles and books, among them Before Civilisation: The Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe (1973); Transformations: Mathematical Approaches to Culture Change (1979); Archeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins (1990); Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in Archeology (2000); and Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind (2008).

This panel is cosponsored by the Lithuanian Culture Institute, the University of Washington Baltic Studies Program and the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies. The 2021 REECAS Northwest Conference, an ASEEES Regional Conference, is organized by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Image courtesy of Ernestine Elster. From left to right, Ernestine Elster, Colin Renfrew, and Marija Gimbutas in 1986 at the publication celebration for the first volume of the Sitagroi excavations.

Elżbieta Korolczuk presents her lecture "Anti-Gender Politics and Right Wing Populism in Poland" on April 27, 2021.

This lecture is part of Talking Gender in the EU, a lecture series hosted by the Center for West European Studies at the University of Washington, covering gender politics in Poland, Latvia, France, and the European Parliament. This lecture is also a Pre-Conference Lecture for the 2021 REECAS Northwest Conference, hosted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies.

Elżbieta Korolczuk, PhD is an Associate professor in sociology working at Södertörn University in Stockholm and American Studies Center, Warsaw University. Her research interests involve: social movements, civil society, politics of reproduction as well as right-wing populism and mobilizations against “gender”. She co-edited two books on motherhood and fatherhood in Poland and Russia (in Polish) and published two volumes on social movements and civil society in Central Eastern Europe: Civil Society Revisited: Lessons from Poland co-edited with Kerstin Jacobsson (Berghahn Books, 2017), Rebellious Parents. Parental Movements in Central-Eastern Europe and Russia co-edited with Katalin Fábián (Indiana University Press, 2017). Most recent publications include an edited volume Bunt kobiet. Czarne Protesty i Strajki Kobiet [Women’s Rebellion. Black Protests and Women’s Strikes] co-authored with Beata Kowalska, Jennifer Ramme and Claudia Snochowska-Gonzalez and published by European Solidarity Centre in 2019 and a monograph Anti-gender Politics in the Populist Moment written with Agnieszka Graff (in press, Routledge). She is also a commentator and a long-time women’s and human rights activist.

The Talking Gender in the EU lecture series is organized by the Center for West European Studies and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence with support from the Lee and Stuart Scheingold European Studies Fund, the EU Erasmus+ Program, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the Center for Global Studies, at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The Ellison Center presents the panel "The Future of Nagorno-Karabakh: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Peacebuilding and Development in the South Caucasus" on April 29, 2021.

This panel was part of the virtual 2021 REECAS Northwest Conference. Find more information about the conference here: https://jsis.washington.edu/ellisoncenter/reecas-nw/

Following the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh during the fall of 2020, what comes next for the region? This roundtable brings together an interdisciplinary panel of experts to discuss the opportunities and uncertainties created by the ceasefire, the prospects for building a lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and potential ways to foster economic and social development in Nagorno-Karabakh and the broader South Caucasus.

Organizer and Moderator:

– Jeanene Mitchell, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Ellison Center, University of Washington

Panelists:

– Arman Grigoryan, Associate Professor of International Relations, Lehigh University

– Fariz Huseynov, Professor of Finance and Faculty Fellow, Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth, North Dakota State University

– Emin Milli, Founder, Restart Initiative

This panel and the 2021 REECAS Northwest Conference, an ASEEES Regional Conference, is organized by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Conor O'Dwyer presents his book talk "Coming Out of Communism: The Emergence of LGBT Activism in Eastern Europe" on Nov. 8, 2019 at the University of Washington, Seattle.

This book talk is a part of the Ellison Center's "1989 30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall" lecture series.

While LGBT activism has increased worldwide, there has been strong backlash against LGBT people
 in Eastern Europe. Although Russia is the most prominent anti-gay regime in the region, LGBT individuals in other post-communist countries also suffer from discriminatory laws and prejudiced social institutions. Combining an historical overview with interviews and case studies in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, Conor O’Dwyer analyzes the development and impact of LGBT movements in post-communist Eastern and Central Europe. He argues that backlash against LGBT individuals has had the paradoxical effect of encouraging stronger and more organized activism, significantly impacting the social movement landscape in the region. As Eastern and Central European countries vie for inclusion or at least recognition in the increasingly LGBT-friendly European Union, activist groups and organizations have become even more emboldened to push for change. Using fieldwork in five countries, O’Dwyer explores the intricacies of these LGBT social movements and their structures, functions, and impact while also considering their ability to serve as models for future movements attempting to resist backlash.

Conor O’Dwyer (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 2003) is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida. He specializes in comparative politics, with a thematic focus on LGBT politics, social movements, democratization, and the state and a regional emphasis on East Central Europe and the European Union. He is the author of Coming Out of Communism: The Emergence of LGBT Activism in Eastern Europe (New York University Press, 2018) and Runaway State-Building: Patronage Politics and Democratic Development (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). In addition to his time at the University of Florida, he has been an Academy Scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Baltic and East European Studies at Södertörn University in Sweden.

This lecture is sponsored by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The University of Washington presents the panel, "The Politics of Memory in Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia 30 Years After the Berlin Wall" on Nov. 7, 2019.

Panelists:

Conor O'Dwyer, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida

Laada Bilaniuk, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington

William Hill, Global Fellow at the Kennan Institute and former U.S. State Department

Scott Radnitz, Associate Professor and Ellison Center Director at the University of Washington (Chair)

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was supposed to give rise to a "Europe Whole and Free." Today, the idea of a united Europe is under severe threat. At a time of rising authoritarianism, struggles over how to study, remember, and move past the Communist era are central to the political futures of countries east of the Iron Curtain. Our panel of three experts discuss the politics of history and identity in Poland, Czechia, Ukraine, and Russia.

This panel is organized by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Dr. William H. Hill presents his book talk, "No Place for Russia: European Security Institutions Since 1989" from his book of the same title, published by Columbia University Press. This lecture was given on Nov. 6, 2019 at the University of Washington.

This lecture is part of the 1989 30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall series, organized by the Ellison Center of Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies.

The optimistic vision of a “Europe whole and free” after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has given way to disillusionment, bitterness, and renewed hostility between Russia and the West. In No Place for Russia, William H. Hill traces the development of the post–Cold War European security order to explain today’s tensions, showing how attempts to integrate Russia into a unified Euro-Atlantic security order were gradually overshadowed by the domination of NATO and the EU—at Russia’s expense.

William H. Hill is professor emeritus of national security strategy at the National War College in Washington and a retired foreign service officer who served in various posts in Europe, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a Global Fellow at the Kennan Institute.

Dennis Deletant presents his lecture, "The Fall of Communism in Romania: A BBC Journalist's Perspective" on Oct. 29, 2019 at the University of Washington, Seattle. The lecture covers the fall of communism in Romania from the point of view of a BBC reporter and first-hand witness of the events, honoring the invitation of the UW Ellison Center and American Romanian Cultural Society.

Dennis Deletant is currently the Ion Ratiu Visiting Professor of Romanian Studies at Georgetown University in Washington DC., and Emeritus Professor of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College in London. With an impressive academic activity in UK, Holland, and the USA, Dennis Deletant has contributed seminal studies on twentieth century Romanian history and politics, 1940s labor camps in Transnistria, the “Bessarabia question”, the Soviet influence on Romanian communism, language policy in Soviet Moldova, as well as the place of Romania in Eastern Europe today. His books Ceausescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-89 (1995), Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948-65 (1999), Hitler's Forgotten Ally. Ion Antonescu and His Regime, Romania 1940-1944 (2006), and British Clandestine Activities in Romania during the Second World War (2016) have changed Romanian historiography by opening it up to an interdisciplinary approach. For example, in Ceausescu and the Securitate, he takes a cultural studies approach to address the issue of Romanian identity as a propaganda instrument that was supposed to deter any protest which could have “destabilized” the unity of the state. In the same book, he incorporated a detailed report on Romanian literary debates in order to unveil the deception cultivated by some literary critics and poets, avid supporters of the communist regime.

For Dennis Deletant, culture and diplomacy are intertwined as he proves when examining British - Romanian relationships in early 1940s in his 2016 book. He did not avoid controversial figures of Romanian history like Marshall Antonescu who led Romania during WWII in fighting alongside Germany. By close reading documents, Deletant is using fine lines in portraying Antonescu and his regime: Antonescu, in the author’s opinion, was not a fascist although an anti-Semitic, while his regime was not dictatorial, but rather authoritarian. His exceptional insight into the aftermath of the war reveals another set of paradoxes, this time in the personality of the first Romanian communist leader Gheorghiu-Dej who succeeded in ascending to power in spite of his ethnic origin, social status, and lack of political expertise. The most awaited book, Romania under Communism. Paradox and Degeneration (2019), is a synthesis of his scholarship, a culmination of his research, in perfect coherence with his argument about Romania’s exceptional place among the countries of the former communist bloc and the unexpected course of events in the aftermath of the 1989 revolution.

This talk is hosted by the UW Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies and the American Romanian Cultural Society.

Dr. Laura Dean presents her lecture, "Political Ethnography with a Gender Lens in the Latvian Parliament" on March 1st, 2021.

This lecture is part of Talking Gender in the EU, a lecture series covering gender politics in Poland, Latvia, France, and the European Parliament. The European Union has set impressive standards on gender equality, providing legal frameworks for equal pay, investing in work/life balance and childcare, and allowing for positive action to advance equal treatment of women across member states. At the same time, Europe witnesses considerable backlash from anti-gender activists and rightwing reactionary movements, calling into question gender equality as a core norm of European democracies. This lecture series investigates actors, institutions, and policies in the area of gender in Eastern and Western Europe, the Baltics, and on the EU level. This lecture series is organized by the Center for West European Studies and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence with support from the Lee and Stuart Scheingold European Studies Fund, the EU Erasmus+ Program, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the Center for Global Studies.

Laura A. Dean is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University. She is also a Regional Faculty Associate at the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In 2016, she was a Title VIII Summer Research Scholar at the Kennan Institute part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Kansas and an M.A. in International Studies focusing on Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dr. Dean researches gender and politics issues focusing on women’s representation, public policy, and gender-based violence in Eurasia. Her book Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia was published by Policy Press at the University of Bristol in May 2020.

This panel discussion features the following speakers:

Dr. Philip Gamaghelyan, Assistant Professor, Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego

Dr. Resat Kasaba, Ann H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Professor of U.S. Foreign Policy, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Dr. Kamal Makili-Aliyev, Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University; affiliated researcher, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Moderator: Dr. Scott Radnitz, Herbert Ellison Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, University of Washington

On September 27, 2020, nearly three decades of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh escalated into full-scale war. Forty-four days later, on November 10th, a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement between the two countries brought a formal end to fighting. Seven districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh returned to Azerbaijani control, as well as part of Nagorno-Karabakh itself.

According to the agreement, Russian peacekeepers have been dispatched to the region for five years (with the possibility of extension), economic and transportation links are to be unblocked, and internally displaced persons and refugees are to be given the right of return. Yet the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains undefined, and the agreement is not a formal peace treaty. In the midst of this new status quo, what comes next for Nagorno-Karabakh?

This panel discusses the reasons for and outcomes of the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the remaining questions surrounding the ceasefire agreement between the two countries. Panelists also discuss the changing geopolitics and geopolitical actors in the region, including the role of Turkey and the Minsk Group countries, and the necessary elements for building a sustainable peace in Nagorno-Karabakh.

This talk is hosted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies, with the Jackson School of International Studies, at the University of Washington.