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Eastern European Studies
Jewish Studies June 4, 2023

Jewish and Romani Families in the Holocaust and its Aftermath

Eliyana R. Adler and Katerina Capková

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
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Diaries, testimonies and memoirs of the Holocaust often include at least as much on the family as on the individual. Victims of the Nazi regime experienced oppression and made decisions …

Eastern European Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Eastern Europe about their new books.

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Middle Eastern Studies June 3, 2023

Red Star over the Black Sea

Nazim Hikmet and His Generation

James H. Meyer

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
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Nâzım Hikmet (1902-1963) is best known as a poet and communist whose daring flight by motorboat from Turkey to the Eastern Bloc captured international headlines in 1951. One of the …
Jewish Studies May 30, 2023

The White Terror

Antisemitic and Political Violence in Hungary, 1919-1921

Béla Bodó

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
The White Terror was a movement of right-wing militias that for two years actively tracked down, tortured, and murdered members of the Jewish community, as well as former supporters …
MIT Press Podcast May 29, 2023

A Slow Burning Fire

The Rise of the New Art Practice in Yugoslavia

Marko Ilić

Hosted by MIT Press
Writer and academic Anthony Gardner (NSK from Kapital to Capital, Politically Unbecoming) interviews Marko Ilić about his new book A Slow Burning Fire, which documents Yugoslavia's cultural output throughout the …
General History May 27, 2023

The West

A New History of an Old Idea

Naoíse Mac Sweeney

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Dr. Naoíse Mac Sweeney presents a radical new account of how the idea of the West has shaped our history, told through the stories of fourteen fascinating lives in her …
Ukrainian Studies May 27, 2023

A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails

Translated by Amelia Glaser and Yulia Ilchuk

Halyna Kruk

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
"We act like children with our dead," Halyna Kruk writes as she struggles to come to terms with the horror unfolding around her: "confused, / as if none of us …
Ukrainian Studies May 24, 2023

In the Hour of War

Poetry from Ukraine

Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Ukraine may be the only country on earth that owes its existence, at least in part, to a poet. Ever since the appearance of Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar in 1840, poetry …
Jewish Studies May 20, 2023

Flights of Spirit

Elly Gotz

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Today I talked to Elly Gotz, author of the memoir Flights of Spirit (Azrieli Foundation, 2018). Sixteen-year-old Elly Gotz hides with his family in an underground bunker in the Kovno ghetto in …
History Ex Silo May 20, 2023

Empires after World War II: The Cases of the USSR and France

A Discussion with Rachel Applebaum and Emily Marker

Rachel Applebaum and Emily Marker

Hosted by Stephen Bittner
Where lay the fissures of Soviet power in Eastern Europe during the Cold War? Why did France fail in its postwar efforts to make its African colonies part of France …
Jewish Studies May 19, 2023

Romania and the Holocaust

Events, Contexts, Aftermath

Simon Geissbühler

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
From summer 1941 onwards, Romania actively pursued at its own initiative the mass killing of Jews in the territories it controlled. 1941 saw 13,000 Jewish residents of the Romanian city …
Human Rights May 12, 2023

Power on the Move

Adivasi and Roma Accessing Social Justice

Cristina-Ioana Dragomir

Hosted by Aleem Mahabir
Throughout centuries of persecution and marginalization, the Roma and Adivasi have been viewed as both victims and fighters, as royals and paupers, beasts and gods, and lately have been challenging …
European Politics May 12, 2023

The Russo-Ukrainian War

The Return of History

Serhii Plokhy

Hosted by Tim Jones
"The Ukrainian nation will emerge from this war more united and certain of its identity than at any other point in its modern history," writes Serhii Plokhy at the end of …
Russian and Eurasian Studies May 11, 2023

Writing Fear

Russian Realism and the Gothic

Katherine Bowers

Hosted by Iva Glisic
Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic (U Toronto Press, 2022) argues that nineteenth-century Russian writers actively engaged with narrative models borrowed from European gothic fiction to articulate experiences such …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 10, 2023

Bruno Schulz

An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History

Benjamin Balint

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The twentieth-century artist Bruno Schulz was born an Austrian, lived as a Pole, and died a Jew. First a citizen of the Habsburg monarchy, he would, without moving, become the …
Middle Eastern Studies May 5, 2023

Erdoğan's War

A Strongman's Struggle at Home and in Syria

Gönül Tol

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's pugnacious president, is now the country's longest-serving leader. On his way to the top, he has fought many wars. This book tells the story of those …
Military History May 5, 2023

Putin's Wars

From Chechnya to Ukraine

Mark Galeotti

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
Mark Galeotti's book Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine (Bloomsbury, 2022) is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and …
Russian and Eurasian Studies May 3, 2023

Nicholas Roerich

The Artist Who Would Be King

John McCannon

Hosted by Aaron Weinacht
Dr. John McCannon's new biography of Russian artist, mystic, and all-around fascinating character Nicholas Roerich follows its subject from his artistic beginnings in the 1880's to the end of his …
Political Science May 1, 2023

Deploying Feminism

The Role of Gender in NATO Military Operations

Stéfanie von Hlatky

Hosted by Susan Liebell
In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing launched the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. Successive UN Security Council resolutions highlighted the need to include more women …
Ukrainian Studies April 29, 2023

Babyn Yar

Ukrainian Poets Respond

Research Center Coordinator Ostap Kin

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
In 2021, the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of the massacres of Jews at Babyn Yar. The present collection brings together for the first time the responses to the tragic …
Russian and Eurasian Studies April 26, 2023

Russian Political Philosophy

Anarchy, Authority, Autocracy

Evert van der Zweerde

Hosted by David Kunsman
Evert van der Zweerde in his 2022 book Russian Political Philosophy: Anarchy, Authority, Autocracy (Edinburgh University Press) details a through history of political thought from the very beginning of the …