Videos
Plots against Russia:
The Uses of Conspiracy after the Soviet Collapse
I was honored to deliver the annual Annual Alexander Dallin Lecture at Stanford. I spoke about, you guessed it, conspiracy theory.
(April 30., 2021)
2021 George L. Mosse Lecture
(Humboldt University)
“Informing Ourselves to Death: Conspiracy and Fantasy in Postmodern Russia"
I wish I could have been there to deliver it, but we all know that Zoom (and now Youtube) is the next best thing.
Comics of the New Europe
José Alaniz (University of Washington), Martha Kuhlman (Bryant University), and Biz Nijdam (University of British Columbia) will discuss the recently published edited collection Comics of the New Europe. I’m the moderator.
(March 11, 2021)
New Sci-Fi Horror: Sputnik
Sponsored by the Harriman Institute
Dasha Ezerova and Mark Lipovetsky arranged this virtual panel on Egor Abramenko’s 2020 cerebral science-fiction thriller Sputnik. I participated along with Tom Haxhi and Julia Vaingurt.
(February 24, 2021)
Statuary Performances: Neo-Paganism and Memory in the American and Russian Far Right (with Alexandar Mihailovic)
Whether it be of Robert E. Lee, Tsar Nicholas II, Huey Long or the head of the NKVD Feliks Dzerzhinsky, political statuary evokes a range of impassioned responses from groups as varied as the Proud Boys and Identity Evropa in the United States, and the Double-Headed Eagle and Izborsk Club in the Russian Federation. The ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, VA on August 12, 2017 protested the removal of an equestrian monument to Lee, and brought about the murder of Heather Heyer. This talk will compare the neo-Confederate advocacy for the preservation of syncretic ‘Celtic’ origins of the Old South with recent Russian nationalist efforts to reconcile the Orthodox Church’s stricture against devotional statuary with the totem worship practiced by the growing neo-pagan ‘Native Belief’ (rodnoverie) movement in Russia.
I was the discussant
(February 10, 2021)
In which I’m interviewed about this weird, pro-Trump conspiracy.
Airs on CBS, November 29, 2020
Biopower in Transition: Prisons and Policing during the Long Soviet Collapse
A panel on the discourse and practice of violence.
I start around 22:45
(October 16, 2020)
Ode to the Hybrid: Writing as a Russian-American
(with Olga Livshin)
Olga Livshin presents her amazing book A Life Replaced at the Jordan Center on Friday, October 16. I’m the moderator
(October 16, 2020)
Do Black Lives Matter in Russia (Panel 2)
Sponsored by Indiana University
Panel 2: Russian media and public response to Black Lives Matter Panelists Dmitry Dubrovsky, Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, Amalia Zatari. Moderated by Eliot Borenstein.
(September 25, 2020)
Voting by Mail
In which I’m interviewed by the Russian-Language American TV station RTVI about voting by mail (in Russian).
(Starting at 10:40)
(August 18, 2020)
Teaching Online during COVID-19
In which I’m interviewed by the Russian-Language American TV station RTVI about online education. Naturally, I have technical difficulties during the segment. (In Russian, starting at 13:40)
(May 21, 2020)
Super-Nos!
A debate at Columbia University to select the best of the 10 winners of the annual “Nos” book prize.
Debate moderated by Irina Prokhorova and Mark Lipovetsky
Super-NOS Jury
Chair: Anna Narinskaya, literary critic (Moscow)
Polina Barskova (Hampshire College/ Amherst College/Smith College)
Eliot Borenstein (New York University)
Alexander Genis (Radio Liberty)
Sergei Oushakine (Princeton University)
Lara Vapnyar (Columbia University)
Graduate Experts
Chair: Tomi Haxhi (Columbia University)
Tatiana Efremova (New York University)
Natalia Klimova (Princeton University)
Max Lawton (Columbia University)
The Democratic Caucasus
In which I’m interviewed by the Russian-Language American TV station RTVI about online education.
(February 4, 2020)
Sanders, Warren & Biden
In which RTVI tries to get me interested in a manufactured conflict between Sanders and Warren. In Russian, starting at 5:00.
(January 15, 2020)
Political Correctness: The Stupid Topic that Will Never Die
But they asked. On the Russian-Language American TV station RTVI, in Russian.
(December 17, 2019)
Students’ Politics Are Nothing to Be Afraid of
In which I’m interviewed by the Russian-Language American TV station RTVI about politics in the classroom.
(Starting at 29:20)
(November 2, 2019)
The Talking Dead: Articulating the “Zombified” Subject under Putin
The talk focuses on the use of the idea of “brainwashing” in Russian public culture and media today all along the political spectrum. Sponsored by the Department of Slavic Studies and the C.V. Starr Foundation Lectureships. Brown University, October 29, 2019
(Cheer up, it’s not as if our democracy is in danger!)
About Trump’s Impeachment
In which I’m interviewed by the Russian-Language American TV station RTVI about the impeachment proceedings (in Russian, starting at 18:50)
(October 1, 2019)
“We Are All Conspiracy Theorists: Memes, Speech Acts, and the Conspiratorial Mode
Based on Plots against Russia, this was a talk delivered at the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany, on July 5, 2019
Life Stories, Death Sentences
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, the June issue of InTranslation features a folio of translated Russian queer literature entitled Life Stories, Death Sentences, co-edited by author Margarita Meklina and translator Anne O. Fisher. This was a special bilingual event with live readings by translators, audio presentations of the authors reading their work in the original Russian, and commentary by Russian literature and gender/sexuality scholars Eliot Borenstein and Julie Cassiday.
(June 14, 2019)
A Conversation with Meduza
A panel discussion with the editorial team for the Latvian-based Russian-language independent news outlet.
May 12, 2017
Hollywood in the New Cold War
A panel at the New School, with me and Todd Gitlin, organized and moderated by NIna Khrushcheva.
May 11, 2016
Russian Orc: The Evil Empire Strikes Back
The last of the three presentations on Panel 1 of “Radiant Futures: Russian Fantasy and Science Fiction” at the Jordan Center on April 8, 2016
Russia and the Ukraine Crisis
Jordan Center Roundtable (Yanni Kotsonis, Anne Lounsbery, Shinasi Rama, Artemyi Troitsky, Joshua Tucker, and me
March 12, 2014
Pussy Riot’s First Legal Team at NYU
Mark Feygin, Nikolai Polozov, and Violetta Volkova in a public discussion by NYU Law School (joined by Pyotr Verzilov). That’s me in the corner, simultaneously interpreting.
September 21, 2012.