Past events

Dates: 20 September 2019

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

In brief: A one-day workshop organised by the Association of University Professors and Heads of French (AUPHF), co-sponsored by the Society for French Studies and the French Embassy. Focusing on changing mindsets and rethinking the value of languages in a time of crisis, the event brought together stakeholders from Universities, Schools and Cultural Institutes to celebrate and share positive examples of French and Francophone teaching of language and culture. The event culminated with a roundtable discussion on advocacy, lobbying and policy making.

Dates: 13 and 14 December 2018

Venues: 7 George Square, University of Edinburgh; L’Institut français d’Ecosse

Keynote speakers: Professor Nobuko Akiyama (Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo); Professor Nobuko Anan (Kansai University); Professor Fuhito Endo (Seikei University, Tokyo)

Date: 15 June 2018

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

Organisers: Dr María Alonso Alonso, Dr Charlotte Bosseaux, Dr Véronique Desnain and Dr Fiona Mackintosh

Date: 8 March 2018

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

Organisers: Professor Rob Dunbar and Dr María Alonso Alonso

Dates: 2 and 3 November 2017

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

Keynote speakers: Professor Juliet Hooker; Professor Peter Wade 

Organisers: Dr Julie Cupples and Dr Charlotte Gleghorn

Events series: The World After Fukushima

Date: 15 September 2017

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh; Summerhall

Organiser: Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce 

Events series: The World After Fukushima

Date: 14 September 2017

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

Organiser: Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce 

Dates: 11 and 12 May 2017

Venues: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh; Scottish Parliament; and Italian Cultural Institute

Format: Six panel sessions; exhibition; parliamentary debate; in-conversation event

Organisers: Cristina Savettieri and Federica Pedriali, with assistance from Eugenio Cannovale, Domenico Crea and Carolina Rossi

Dates: 8 to 10 September 2016

Venue: Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (Days 1 & 2); L’Institut français d’Ecosse (Day 3)

Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk 

In brief: A three-day conference bringing together 35 international experts to explore the power of women in Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present in panel sessions, exhibitions, a documentary screening, public talks and discussions. The first in an ongoing series of ‘cultural encounters’ between past and present, the event unlocked disciplinary differences and opened a new field of cross-cultural and transmedial investigation between playwrights, artists, filmmakers and others. 

Date: 25 January 2018

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest speaker: Professor Mary Buckley (University of Cambridge)

In brief: A book launch for Professor Buckley's latest publication, 'The Politics of Unfree Labour in Russia: Human Trafficking and Labour Migration'. The talk (and the book) focused on human trafficking out of the Russian Federation since the collapse of the Soviet state, as well as labour migration into it from Central Asia, and some internal movement.

Date: 18 January 2018

Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre

Guest speaker: Dr Andrea Liebschner (Ural Federal University)

In brief: A talk by Dr Liebschner that examined words for food and drinks in the menu of nine coffee houses and fast-food chains in Russia. Using her most recent research, Dr Liebschner analysed formation of the lexical units, orthography and grammatical adaption to the system of the Russian language.

Date: 22 November 2017

Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre

Guest speakers: Mikhail and Viacheslav Durnenkov (playwrights), Maria Kroupnik (arts producer and translator) and Irina Lukyanova (writer)

Organisers: School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures; Department of European Languages and Cultures' Language and Violence research strand; Nicola McCartney and the Class Act project

In brief: A roundtable discussion with the four participants, pulling on their various areas of expertise to explore language and violence in Russian theatre and literature.

Date: 24 October 2017

Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 19 Buccleuch Place

Guest speakers: Vladimir Sharov (author), Peter Bagrov (film historian) and Kristina Matvienko (theatre critic and practitioner)

Date: 12 October 2017

Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 19 Buccleuch Place

Guest speaker: Dr Dina Khapaeva (Georgia Institute of Technology)

In brief: A lecture by Dr Khapaeva that examined the appropriations of medievalism by contemporary culture and politics, applying the concept of neo-medievalism to Russia.

Date: 18 September 2017

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest speaker: Ludmila Ulitskaya

In brief: A talk in Russian with Ludmila Ulitskaya concerning contemporary Russian literature and her own work. It was organised by the Princess Dashkova Centre and the Moscow Institute of Translation.

Date: 17 June 2017

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest speaker: Roman Borisovich

In brief: A talk with Roman Borisovich, an actor, political campaigner and anti-corruption activist who starred in the Channel 4 documentary ‘From Russia With Cash’. Mr Borisovich discussed the film and the perception of corruption in Russia and London.

Date: 16 June 2017

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest speaker: Alexander Kan

In brief: A lecture by Alexander Kan, BBC World Service Arts and Culture Correspondent, on the growing community of Russians and Russian speakers in the UK capital. The talk explored the ever-changing Russian cultural landscape in London, and attempted to project its evolution into the future.

Date: 30 May 2017

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Guest speaker: Dr Ilya Kalinin (St Petersburg State University)

In brief: A lecture by Dr Kalinin on the subject of energy resources in the Soviet Union, how they were used to advance the socialist cause, and how to to reveal some interconnections and correlation, as well as some mutual translatability, between Soviet power and electric power.

Date: 24 May 2017

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Guest speaker: Dr Katya Rogatchevskaia (Lead Curator, East European Collections at the British Library)

In brief: A lecture and virtual tour by Dr Rogatchevskaia concerning a new major multimedia exhibition by the British Library. The exhibition re-examined the Russian Revolution in light of recent research, using physical tools such as posters, maps, postcards, letters, newspapers, and ephemera.

Date: 9 May 2017

Venue: Scottish Parliament

Guest speakers: Floriana Fossato (Centre for Media and Society, Russia and Oxford); Jakub Kalensky (East StratCom Task Force, EU) Professor Luke March (University of Edinburgh); Ben Nimmo (Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab); Andras Racz (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest); Dr Lara Ryazanova-Clarke (University of Edinburgh)

Date: 28 March 2017

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest speaker: 

Tolstaya

Date: 9 March 2017

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest speaker: Professor 

Wolczuk (University of Birmingham)

In brief: A lecture by Professor Wolczuk, organised in collaboration with the Edinburgh Europa Institute. This talk analysed EU-Ukraine relations by looking at different types of boundaries of order.

Date: 9 February 2017

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest speaker: Dr Derek Averre (University of Birmingham)

In brief: A lecture by Dr Averre that examined recent international developments and analysed the opportunities and constraints Moscow faces in its foreign policy.

Date: 25 January 2017

Venue: Appleton Tower

Guest speaker: Dr. Ilya Yablokov (University of Leeds)

In brief: A joint lecture between LLC and the School of Social and Political Science, this event saw Dr. Ilya Yablokov (University of Leeds) investigate the phenomenon of conspiracy theories, and demonstrate how journalists became one of the main drivers to their popularity in contemporary Russia.

Date: 17 October 2016

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Guest speaker: Nina Dashevskaya

In brief: An informal discussion and book reading event with writer and musician, Nina Dashevskaya, particularly aimed at children. Nina read extracts from her books in Russian, and answered questions.

Date: 14 September 2016

Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Guest speaker: Alicia Kozameh (Chapman University)

In brief: A bilingual reading in Spanish and English by Alicia Kozameh (Chapman University) from one of her books. An author, editor and Creative Writing teacher, Alicia discussed the fictionalisation of her experience as a political prisoner, and as a political exile.

Date: 10 September 2016

Venue: Institut français d’Écosse, Edinburgh

Speakers: Professor Gina Luria Walker (USA; Chair); Professor Suzan Broomhall (Australia); Professor Mary Spongberg (Australia); Dr Elena Woodacre (UK); Dr Armel Duboit-Nayt (France); Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk (UK)

Date: 10 September 2016

Venue: Institut français d’Écosse, Edinburgh

In brief: Part of the Recovering Women’s Past conference, this public event brought together four theatre practitioners to discuss their work. With the participation of Anna Birch (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland):

Date: 3 May 2016

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Guest speaker: Professor Marianna Shakhnovich (Saint-Petersburg State University)

In brief: A presentation by Professor Marianna Shakhnovich (Saint-Petersburg State University) that aimed to contextualise the activity of Semyon Desnitsky, a prominent figure in the philosophical circle formed in Moscow in the late 1760s, in the early history of religious studies in Russia. Professor Shakhnovich was invited to the University by The Princess Dashkova Centre as a Visiting Dashkova Fellow in May 2016.

Date: 30 March 2016

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest speaker: Alexei Kudrin (Honorary Professor, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures)

In brief: A public lecture by Alexei Kudrin (Honorary Professor, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures) organised by The Princess Dashkova Centre, entitled ‘The Russian Economy: Structural Problems and Perspectives on Economic Growth’.

Date: 24 March 2016

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Guest speaker: Professor Sergei Zenkin (Russian State University for the Humanities)

In brief: A presentation by Professor Sergei Zenkin (Russian State University for the Humanities) that explored four aspects of the formalist externalism – the formal, the mimetic, the nomothetic and the historical. It demonstrated that the ideas of Russian theorists converged with some aspects of 20th century European philosophy, but in a different intellectual context.

Date: 18 March 2016

Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Participants: Peter Davies (German); Kate Dunn (Hispanic Studies); Barbara Fernandez (Hispanic Studies); Rose France (Russian); Andrea Gullotta (University of Glasgow); Lara Ryazanova-Clarke (Russian)

Organiser: The Dashkova Centre

Date: 17 March 2016

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Title: Towards a New Understanding of the Gulag and of its Literature through the Prism of Auto-Biographical Studies

Speaker: Dr Andrea Gullotta (The University of Glasgow)

Date: 4 March 2016

Venue: 50 George Square

Organisers: The Dashkova Centre and the Calvert 22 Foundation

In brief: A presentation of Calvert 22’s London-based exhibition "Things Fall Apart", curated by scholar of art and film Mark Nash. The exhibition was named after Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic of post-colonial fiction, and used the association to focus on a similar loss of utopian perspective following the end of the cold war and collapse of the Soviet Union and eastern bloc. Mark Nash’s presentation was accompanied by screening of Abderrahmane Sissako’s “October” (1993).

Date: 2 March 2016

Venue: 40 George Square Lecture Theatre B

Speaker: Yelena Khanga

Organisers: The Dashkova Centre and the Calvert 22 Foundation

In brief: A conversation with popular chat show host and possibly the most recognisable face of black Russia, Yelena Khanga. She discussed her life and career as a black journalist in the Soviet Union, the United States and modern Russia. This was one of a series of joint events between the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre and Calvert 22 Foundation.

Date: 18 February 2016

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Speaker: Professor Nancy Ries (Colgate University)

Organiser: The Dashkova Centre in collaboration with Language and Violence Research strand (DELC)

Date: 28 January 2016

Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Speaker: Professor Mika Lähteenmäki (University of Jyväskylä)

In brief: A public seminar by Professor Mika Lähteenmäki, organised by the Dashkova Centre. In this talk, Professor Lähteenmäki discussed language ideological discourse in contemporary Russia and its role in the promotion of national unity.

Date: 21 January 2016

Venue: 50 George Square

Speaker: Billy Kay

Organiser: Dashkova Centre

In brief: Scottish writer and broadcaster Billy Kay presented and discussed his new BBC Radio Scotland series “The Scots in Russia”. He discussed the substantial contribution to Russia made by Scots from the 17th century to the time of the Revolution, and illustrated his talk with clips from the series.

Date: 8 December 2015

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Speaker: Professor Alexander Nakhimovsky (Colgate University)

In brief: A lecture organised by the Dashkova Centre, given by Professor Alexander Nakhimovsky (Colgate University). It investigated how class struggle and interpersonal relationships are represented in dialects of characters of Lydia Seifullina's novella ‘Перегной’ (Humus).

Date: 28 November 2015

Venue: 50 George Square

Title: The "Last address": how the idea of the public memorial becomes the basis to civil movement

Speaker: Sergei Parkhomenko

Date: 25 November 2015

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

Speaker: Dr Alan Macniven (University of Edinburgh)

In brief: A public lecture, drinks reception and book signing to celebrate the launch of The Vikings in Islay, a systematic review of around 300 of Islay's farm and nature names, turning traditional assumptions about the history of the Scottish island on their head.

Related research: Islay Life Explorer (ÌLE) 

Date: 15 March 2018

Venue: 40 George Square

In brief: A screening of the play Evgenii Onegin staged and filmed before a live audience in Moscow's venerable Vakhtangov Theatre. The play was shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Date: 30 June 2017

Venue: 50 George Square

In brief: A screening of 'Chitai, chitai', the debut film from Evgenii Koriakovskii, prolific Russian actor. The film was shown in Russian, and was followed by a Q&A session.

Date: 27 June 2018

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk 

In brief: A public screening of Bertrand Tavernier​​​​​​'s 2010 film La Princesse de Montpensier [The Princess of Montpensier] shown in collaboration with The French Institute as part of the two-day event, Cultural Encounters Between North, South, West And East. Inspired by a novel by an iconic seventeenth-century French woman writer, the film was introduced by Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk based on her research ‘Women of the past, Reception of women writers: Madame de La Fayette as a case study’.

Events series: The World After Fukushima

Date: 13 September 2017

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

Organiser: Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce 

In brief: The first in a series of events on the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 and the future of nuclear energy. A screening of the 2015 documentary 'Nuclear Lands' (Kami Productions, Arte France), followed by a Q&A with director, Kenichi Watanabe, and scriptwriter, Michaël Ferrier. Generously supported by the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee.

Date: 24 September 2016

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Guest speaker: Ekaterina Eremenko

In brief: A screening of the new film 'The Discrete Charm of Geometry' (2015) by Ekaterina Eremenko, a Russian film director. The event began with an introduction from Ekaterina, and ended with a Q&A session.

Date: 9 September 2016

Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

In brief: MARCH (2015, 40 minutes) documents March of Women, a large-scale public art event in Bridgeton, Glasgow held on the eve of International Women’s Day 2015. Through a series of interviews with a wide variety of the participating women, the film considers the gap in documenting women’s history, and points to the resounding importance of having a female generation to both honour and draw inspiration from. A screening of the film was included in the programme of the Recovering Women’s Past conference in September 2016. It was introduced by Professor Anna Birch, Artistic Director of March of Women, and followed by a debate moderated by Professor Gina Luria Walker (New School, New York).

Date: 4 May 2018

Venue: 50 George Square

Featured guests: Dr Victoria Donovan (University of St Andrews), Stefhan Caddick, and Simon Gore

In brief: As part of their 'Enthusiasm' project exploring the story of Welsh industrialist John Hughes founding the mining town of Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine, the three featured guests presented a multimedia piece of work by the same name at this event. This event combined music, image, and discussion.

Date: 2 November 2017

Venue: City of Edinburgh Methodist Church

Guest performer: Vera Pavlova

In brief: An evening of music and performance with Russian poet and pianist Vera Pavlova, who played Tchaikovsky's 'Childhood' cycle. This was interspersed with readings from her poetry which she read in Russian, but English translations of her poetry was provided on a screen.

Date: 31 May 2018

Venue:  L’Institut français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh

Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk 

In brief: The second in a series of workshops examining the lives and literature of female writers from the early modern period (16th to 18th centuries). Held in French, this event centred on the novels of Madame de La Fayette, with a particular focus on La Princesse de Montpensier.

Related research: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues; Learning to see the power of women

Date: 17 May 2018

Venue:  L’Institut français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh

Format: Workshop

Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk 

In brief: The first in a series of workshops examining the lives and literature of female writers from the early modern period (16th to 18th centuries). Held in French, this event centred on the work of seventeenth-century playwright and novelist, Mme de Villedieu, with a focus on her play, Le Favori (1665) (H. Goldwyn and A. Evain (eds.), Théâtre de femmes de l’Ancien Régime, XVIIes, 2008).

Related research: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues; Learning to see the power of women

Dates: 16 to 17 June 2017

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Research strand: Global Russians: Transnational Russophone Networks in the UK

In brief: Part of the AHRC-funded research project, 'Global Russians', this two-day workshop concerned the imaginaries of 'Londongrad' - the British spaces populated and inflected by Russians, with a particular focus on cultural and media productions on the Russian presence in the UK.

Date: 14 March 2017

Venue: 50 George Square

Guest performers: Grigory Kruzhkov; Lev Oborin; Marina Boroditskaya; Christine De Luca; Jen Hadfield; Stewart Sanderson

In brief: A reading of poetry by three of Russia's leading contemporary poets, as well as three of Scotland's. The poems used Shakespeare's sonnets as a stepping-off point, and the Scottish poets translated the work of their Russian counterparts into Scottish and Shetlandic. Guests received a complimentary copy of a pamphlet of the poems and translations produced by the project. The exchange was organised by the British Council in co-operation with The Scottish Poetry Library, and supported by the Edwin Morgan Trust.

Dates: 29 July to 8 October 2016

Venue: Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh

In brief: Associating with Andy Warhol and the Beat Generation, Alice Neel (1900-1984) tended to exist on the peripheries of society. Telling the story of the turbulent events that shaped Neel’s life, The Subject and Me was the first solo exhibition of her work in Scotland. It was the latest in a series of exhibitions at Talbot Rice Gallery promoting the work of leading women artists, previously including Jane and Louise Wilson, Hanne Darboven, Jenny Holzer and Rosemarie Trockel. A guided tour of the exhibition with Principal Curator, Pat Fisher, was included in the programme of the Recovering Women’s Past conference in September 2016.

Related research: Learning to see the power of women

Date: 29 February 2016

Venue: The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Speaker: Dmity Vodennikov

In brief: An evening of poetry and performances from Dmity Vodennikov, an acclaimed Russian poet and essayist. This event took place in Russian.

Date: 23 February 2016

Venue: Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 14 Buccleuch Place

Organisers: The Russian department and Princess Dashkova Russian Centre

In brief: A performance of Anton Chekhov's 'The Marriage Proposal' by three undergraduate Russian Studies students: Deana Davis, Anastasia Lopoukhine and Robin Veale. This 30-minute sketch was one of Chekhov's famous 'Шутки' (Jokes), and was performed in Russian.