LECTURE: Electric Speech: Dziga Vertov and Technologies of Sound at UCL, Dec 12th

Seminar Series 2011-2012
Mondays 5.15pm - Room 433 SSEES (16 Taviton Street), London, WC1H 0BW

12 December 2011
Prof. Lilya Kaganovsky (University of Illinois)
Electric Speech: Dziga Vertov, Esfir´ Shub and the Technologies of Sound [RCRG]


The Centre for Russian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (UCL) exists to promote research and teaching on Russia, the former USSR and the Russian Empire. The primary aim of the Centre is to create a more distinct focus within the School for cultural, historical, linguistic, literary and social sciences research into Russia, past and present, and thereby to improve the environment for joint and individual research on Russia, including interdisciplinary and comparative approaches. The Centre aims also to promote knowledge and discussion of Russia in the broader academic community and with the public at large. Its activities enhance the quality of both postgraduate and undergraduate teaching and at the same time provide a 'home' for the many SSEES research and MA students with an interest in Russia.


Activities:
SSEES is the major centre for Russian studies in the UK. More than twenty full-time members of faculty -- language, literature and culture specialists, historians, social scientists -- devote all or most of their research and teaching to Russia. At the MA level, more than 50 students are taking Russian-based courses and/or writing their dissertations on a Russia-related topic and some 25 students are doing their postgraduate research on Russian and the former USSR, ranging from 17th-century icons to 20th-century poets, from Soviet cinema to post-Soviet politics. About 125 undergraduates are registered for degrees in Russian studies and combined degrees including Russian, with many more taking one or more courses with a Russian component, in particular politics, history and language. The Library's collection on Russia and the Former Soviet Union currently contains some 100,000 books and over 200 current periodicals and newspapers, making it one of the major resources for Russian studies in the United Kingdom.


The Centre's regular activities include the Post-Soviet Press Group which meets weekly during term-time. It also organises postgraduate Research Workshops as well as running seminar programmes: in 1999-2000 on 'The Re-writing of History in Russian Literature', 2000-2001: 'Death and Immortality in Russian Cultural History'; 2001-2002 : 'Russia in Time. Time in Russia'; 2002-3: series linked to the dates 1703 (the founding of St Petersburg) and 1903 (the founding of the Bolshevik party).


SSEES's Russian Cinema Research Group which organises seminars, talks and conferences on Russian and Soviet cinema, is also affiliated to the Centre for Russian Studies.

http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/russstud.htm