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The Slavic Connexion

News & Politics Podcasts

A fresh international chat show from The University of Texas at Austin meant to share research, ideas, and culture from the Slavic world and beyond in digestible episodes. Each week we feature faculty, students (both undergraduate and graduate), and speakers of note from other institutions and countries. The Slavic Connexion is a production of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies within the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin... It's not typical Texas, y'all. TPN 2021 https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/9/9a59b135-7876-4254-b600-3839b3aa3ab1/P1EKcswq.png Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin.

A fresh international chat show from The University of Texas at Austin meant to share research, ideas, and culture from the Slavic world and beyond in digestible episodes. Each week we feature faculty, students (both undergraduate and graduate), and speakers of note from other institutions and countries. The Slavic Connexion is a production of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies within the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin... It's not typical Texas, y'all. TPN 2021 https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/9/9a59b135-7876-4254-b600-3839b3aa3ab1/P1EKcswq.png Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin.

Location:

AUSTIN, TX

Description:

A fresh international chat show from The University of Texas at Austin meant to share research, ideas, and culture from the Slavic world and beyond in digestible episodes. Each week we feature faculty, students (both undergraduate and graduate), and speakers of note from other institutions and countries. The Slavic Connexion is a production of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies within the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin... It's not typical Texas, y'all. TPN 2021 https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/9/9a59b135-7876-4254-b600-3839b3aa3ab1/P1EKcswq.png Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin.

Twitter:

@SlavXRadio

Language:

English

Contact:

5129878264

Episodes

The Ghana-Soviet Connexion with Nana Osei-Opare

4/12/2021
On this episode, Professor Nana Osei-Opare from Fordham University joins Lera and Cullan to talk about the history of Ghana's independence from Great Britain and the way in which this country in West Africa looked to the Soviet Union to build itself as an "industrialized, socialist" post-colonialist state. Many black thinkers across the world saw the USSR as a space of equality and freedom and as a way to envision how a multi-racial multinational society could come together. This is a...

Duration:00:34:30

Ukraine Through the Author's Pen with Oksana Lutsyshyna

3/24/2021
In this episode, Matt speaks with Dr. Oksana Lutshyshyna, acclaimed fiction author and beloved professor at UT Austin, about her most recent book Ivan and Feba (Іван і Феба), as well as about her earlier work Love Life (Любовне життя), humor in her writing, her inspirations, and the state of American and Ukrainian politics and literature. A few weeks ago, Dr. Lutshyshyna won Ukraine's highest state prize for the arts, the Shevchenko National Prize for Literature, for her latest book Ivan and...

Duration:01:00:59

"American Girls in Red Russia" with Julia Mickenberg

3/17/2021
In honor of Women's History Month, we have a special episode featuring American Studies professor Dr. Julia Mickenberg who joins us to talk about her spectacular book "American Girls in Red Russia" which explores the intimate lives of American women who traveled to the USSR chasing the "Soviet Dream." We hope you enjoy! ABOUT THE GUEST https://minio.la.utexas.edu/colaweb-prod/person_files/0/913/julia_mickenberg_profile_image.jpeg Julia L. Mickenberg grew up in Connecticut, about 90 miles...

Duration:00:51:55

"Hate in the Homeland": The Global Far Right with Cynthia Miller-Idriss

3/7/2021
On this special episode, we have renowned expert on far right youth movements, Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss who joins us courtesy of UT's ISPRII (the Initiative for the Study of Politico-Religious Ideation and Influence). ISPRII guest host Eliza talks with Dr. Miller-Idriss about her research and latest book, Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right. This is a fascinating episode on a very critical topic for the international community, and we hope you enjoy! To learn more about ISPRII,...

Duration:00:44:15

"Russia Resurrected": The Paradox of the Perception of Russian Power with Kathryn Stoner

2/18/2021
In this episode, Matt is joined by Dr. Kathryn Stoner of Stanford University to talk about her new book, Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order. The book pushes back at some misconceptions about Russia’s place in the international system while offering a new perspective on how the West should approach Russia. Matt and Dr. Stoner discuss how the book informs ongoing policy challenges related to recent news coming out of Russia. ABOUT THE GUEST...

Duration:00:35:59

Poison, Prison, Protests: The Continued Saga of Alexei Navalny with Mark Galeotti

2/3/2021
Once again, Dr. Mark Galeotti joins Matt to discuss yesterday's sentencing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and what it means for Russia's short and long term future. Is this the end of the first installment of Navalny’s battle with the Kremlin, which peaked with his poisoning at the hands of the FSB in August 2020? Mark lays out Navalny’s possible next steps, and how the ongoing standoff in neighboring Belarus figures into these events. They also discussed Mark’s latest book,...

Duration:00:47:58

From Red to Green: The True Nature of Environmental Activism in Russia with Angelina Davydova

1/27/2021
From St. Petersburg, Angelina Davydova, Environmental journalist and head of the German Russian Office of Environmental Information, graciously joins us to give us the surprising facts on environmental activism, protests, and reforms in Russia. She talks about the very real effects of climate change in that part of the world, including the fires in Siberia, the record high temperatures, and the meteorological phenomena in Vladivostok. This was an eye-opening but uplifting conversation in...

Duration:00:50:23

Russia's Mercurial Role in Southeast Europe (with Dimitar Bechev)

1/11/2021
Samantha chats with Dr. Dimitar Bechev on the geopolitics of the Balkans and the stratagems of Russia in the region. Dr. Bechev also discusses Russia's relationship with Turkey and Turkey's ties with the US and how these affect the countries nested in the Balkans which have fallen out of US foreign policy priority since the George W. Bush administration. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.fpri.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2283-dimitar-bechev_160313_171008.jpg Dimitar Bechev is the director of the...

Duration:00:28:04

"Mixed Messages": The Survival of the Buryat Language with Kathryn Graber

1/5/2021
Амар мэндээ or hello and Happy New Year! Dr. Kathryn Graber of Indiana University Bloomington joins the show to talk about her research on the Buryat language and minority-language media in Russia’s Buryat territories, a multilingual region of eastern Siberia on the Mongolian border. Her fifteen years of research in this area is the foundation of her new book, Mixed Messages: Mediating Native Belonging in Asian Russia. Enjoy! Ехэ баярлаа! ABOUT THE GUEST Kathryn Graber, PhD, is a linguist,...

Duration:00:34:59

"How to Lose the Information War" with Nina Jankowicz (Wilson Center)

12/9/2020
In this episode, Matt and Tom talked to Nina Jankowicz of the Wilson Center about her new book, How to Lose the Information War, and how it serves as a useful primer for understanding the disinformation challenges facing the US today, particularly in the aftermath of the 2020 election. To read some of Nina's work, click the links below and do be sure to follow her on Twitter @wiczipedia . Thank you for listening!...

Duration:00:39:33

From the Russian Far East to the American West with Matthew Luxmoore (RFE/RL)

12/1/2020
On this special episode, Zack speaks with English journalist Matthew Luxmoore. Matthew is the Moscow Correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Politico, and elsewhere. Zach and Matthew discuss a wide-range of issues, from the Russian Far East to the current state of the Russian opposition movement, to environmental concerns and other current affairs of the day. We hope you enjoy! ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Duration:00:33:02

"Writing Resistance": An Inside Look at Russian Carceral Literature with Sarah J. Young

11/24/2020
In this episode, Matt talks with Dr. Sarah Young of University College London about her upcoming book "Writing Resistance: Revolutionary Memoirs of Shlissel’burg Prison, 1884-1906" and the genre of carceral literature. Where do Russian literary titans like Dostoevsky and Shalamov fit in and how are they perceived in the Russian imagination? Dr. Young also speaks about the uses and importance of spatially mapping historic and literary events and why she undertook such mapping projects in the...

Duration:00:32:53

Russian Meme Culture, "Shirtless Putin", and Pussy Riot with Eliot Borenstein

11/16/2020
On this fun episode, Dr. Eliot Borenstein from NYU joins us to talk about his research on memes and meme culture in Russia as well as his freshly-released book on Pussy Riot (available from Bloomsbury). This was a great time all around, and even if you don't consume memes or like them very much, this is still an enjoyable discussion. Thanks for joining us! ABOUT THE GUEST: https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/668226829162029057/zPPxzpej_400x400.jpg Eliot Borenstein is a Professor of Russian...

Duration:00:42:14

On Russia's War in Syria with Colonel (ret.) Robert Hamilton

11/9/2020
From the Foreign Policy Research Institute comes a fantastic, dispassionate resource on Russia's intervention into Syria. Here to speak with us about the book and the process of compiling this insightful tome written by both American and Russian experts is Associate professor of Eurasian Studies at the US Army War College Robert E. Hamilton. Enjoy! Please do check out and download the book here:...

Duration:00:44:38

The Eurasia Downbeat with Alex Kokcharov

11/4/2020
On this whirlwind episode, Tom visits with London-based journalist and risk research analyst Alex Kokcharov on an impressive array of events and current conflicts across the CIS region. This is hardly a boring episode and we don't sit on one topic for too long, so if you're looking for a quick, but in-depth Eurasia fix (while we in the US patiently, calmly wait on those election results), look no further! And as always, thanks for listening. NOTE: This episode was recorded on October 12th,...

Duration:00:35:18

"Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans" with Jasmin Mujanovic

10/25/2020
Dr. Jasmin Mujanović, a political scientist focused on democratization and social movements in the Western Balkans and a host of the podcast "Sarajevo Calling", joins Samantha and Cullan for an in-depth discussion on the state of democracy in the region in 2020. This is a great walkthrough of the elite maneuvering and politics in the Western Balkans and which nuclear powers hold sway and influence in the region. We hope you enjoy! ABOUT THE GUEST...

Duration:00:51:58

"Dance of Compromise": Putin's Russia, Disinformation, and the Wily Man with Joshua Yaffa

10/19/2020
The New Yorker's Moscow correspondent, Joshua Yaffa, joins us from Moscow in fact to talk about the conditions in Russia during the pandemic, his latest book Between Two Fires, and the oft-debated Russian interference in US elections. Additionally, Yuri Levada's work and coining of the term "Wily Man" figures prominently into this discussion having played a role in Yaffa's attempt to understand the characters he sought to portray in his book. This is a fascinating conversation, and we hope...

Duration:00:35:09

Kyrgyzstan's Uphill Battle for Democracy with Nazgul Kulova

10/16/2020
On this episode, we discuss the ongoing political crisis in Kyrgyzstan, resulting from the disputed October 4th elections, with Nazgul Kulova, a resident of Bishkek (the capital of Kyrgyzstan) and a policy analyst in the mining sector. As a former government official at the State Agency for Mineral Resources, she has worked with various international organizations and is thus a valuable inside resource. Nazgul talks with Matt about Kyrgyzstan's tumultuous political history, the motivations...

Duration:00:41:27

"Lukashenko Has No Future" with David Marples

10/11/2020
We're back to Belarus with this episode, but this time we take an in-depth look at the still-thrumming situation from the dictator's perspective with one of the foremost experts on the region, Dr. David Marples. Dr. Marples talks about the potential end of the dictator while rounding out the context for the current revolution, allowing us to see just how and why Alexander Lukashenko came into power. Follow Dr. Marples on Twitter @drmarples. ABOUT THE GUEST...

Duration:00:47:37

Siberian Overtones: Stories and Songs from Tuva with Dr. Susan Crate

10/6/2020
Dr. Susan Crate returns to the show to share her 1990 journey to Tuva, the geographic center of Asia. At this time, Tuva had only recently opened up to foreign travelers and the oblast (region) experienced heavy upheaval across the domains of the former Soviet Union. This moment also proved to be a turning point for the revitalization of lost or hidden cultural traditions, and many Tuvans openly displayed their heritage, wearing their garments and exhibiting their practices. Dr. Crate spent...

Duration:00:32:57

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