The Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 might have been expected to make Russia a liberal democracy; instead we see broad popular support for Putin’s undemocratic regime. Historian Steve Harris turns to aviation to offer new ways of understanding the Soviet past and Russia’s present. See the full interview at The Source.
Harris Presents Paper at University of Pennsylvania
Steven E. Harris, Associate Professor of History, presented his chapter, “Cold War Friendly Skies: Pan Am, Aeroflot and the Political Economy of Détente,” at the Russian History and Culture Workshop at the University of Pennsylvania on March 18. Harris was invited to present this chapter, which is part of his current monograph project, “Wings of the Motherland: Soviet and Russian Cultures of Aviation from Khrushchev to Putin.”
Preston and Harris Featured in Monroe-Related Media
Daniel Preston, editor of the Papers of James Monroe, and Scott Harris, director of the James Monroe Museum, are featured in a new documentary film titled Monroe Hill. The movie traces the evolution of Monroe’s Albemarle County farm that is today the University of Virginia, and the events that shaped the destiny of the fifth president of the United States. Monroe Hill premiered at the Virginia Film Festival in November. It will be shown at the Richmond International Film Festival on March 6, and at UMW’s Hurley Convergence Center on March 7 at 7 p.m. (popcorn provided).
Preston and Harris
Preston and Harris also discussed Monroe recently as part of a Washington Post presidential podcast series: https://soundcloud.com/washington-post/james-monroe-the-forrest-gump.
Harris Presents Paper at Slavic Studies Conference in Philadelphia
Department of History and American Science Professor Steven E. Harris presented his paper, “The Soviet Martyrdom of an Aeroflot Stewardess in the Age of Détente,” at the 47th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies in Philadelphia, Nov. 19-22, 2015. At this same conference, Harris was also a panelist on the roundtable titled “Motion & Urbanity: Visual Symbolism, Sites of Mobility & the Built Environment in the Tsarist and Soviet Empire,” where he discussed his current work on the history of Soviet airports.
Harris Presents Paper at the University of Zürich
Associate Professor Steven E. Harris from the Department of History and American Studies was recently invited to present his paper, “The Martyrdom of Nadezhda Kurchenko: Murder of an Aeroflot Stewardess and Cold War Displacement,” at the conference “Verschiebung/Displacement/Вымещение im Kalten Krieg,” at the Slavic Department of the University of Zürich, on Nov. 6-7, 2015. Harris’ paper is based on a chapter for his current book project, Wings of the Motherland: Soviet and Russian Cultures of Aviation from Khrushchev to Putin.
Harris Presents Paper at Moscow Conference
The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow invited Prof. Steven E. Harris to present his paper “Soviet Airports: Futuristic Gateways to the Socialist City” at its recent conference, “A Long, Happy Life: Building and Thinking the Soviet City: 1956 to Now,” held Oct. 30-31, 2015. This conference is the first event in a three-year project at the Garage Museum to examine the history and legacy of Soviet modernism in architecture and urban planning. Harris’s paper is based on a chapter of his second book, which he is currently researching and writing, Wings of the Motherland: Soviet and Russian Cultures of Aviation from Khrushchev to Putin.
Harris Discusses Monroe on Radio Show
Scott Harris, director of the James Monroe Museum, was recently interviewed for the Dave Nemo Show discussing President James Monroe’s popular national tours in 1817, 1818 and 1819. The Dave Nemo Show is broadcast nationwide on Sirius XM Satellite Radio Channel 146, which is the “Road Dog” channel that principally targets long-haul truckers.
Harris Co-Organizes Second World Urbanity Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia
Steven E. Harris, Associate Professor of History, recently traveled to St. Petersburg, where he attended the conference “Living Cities of the Second World,” Feb. 27 to March 1, 2015.
The conference was the third that Harris and Daria Bocharnikova (Harvard University) have organized in the past year for the Second World Urbanity project. The conference featured two days of panel discussions on the history of urban planning, architecture, and the lived experience of socialist cities, not only in the former USSR and Eastern Europe but also Latin America (Managua) and East Africa (Dar es Salaam).
In addition to co-organizing the conference, Harris presented his paper, “Soviet Airports of the 1960s: Futuristic Gateways to Socialist Urbanity,” based on his current research project about the entangled histories of Aeroflot and Pan Am. While in St. Petersburg, he had the opportunity to conduct some research at the National Library and was also invited to speak to high school students at School No. 157, where he previously taught English for a year.
Harris Publishes Essay on the Communist Way of Life
Steven E. Harris, associate professor of history, published his essay, “Soviet Mass Housing and the Communist Way of Life,” in the volume Everyday Life in Russia Past and Present, eds., Choi Chatterjee, David L. Ransel, Mary Cavender, and Karen Petrone (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015). This edited collection of peer reviewed essays is published in the Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies, eds., Alexander Rabinowitch and William G. Rosenberg. The essays were originally presented at the conference, “Everyday Life in Russia: Strategies, Subjectivities and Perspectives,” held in 2010 at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Harris’s essay examines Soviet citizens’ move from communal housing to the single-family separate apartment under Khrushchev and how their everyday experiences intersected with the regime’s discourse on the “communist way of life.” It is based on the research of his book, Communism on Tomorrow Street: Mass Housing and Everyday Life after Stalin (Washington, D.C., and Baltimore: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).
The following is a description of Everyday Life in Russia Past and Present from the Indiana University Press website:
“In these original essays on long-term patterns of everyday life in prerevolutionary, Soviet, and contemporary Russia, distinguished scholars survey the cultural practices, power relations, and behaviors that characterized daily existence for Russians through the post-Soviet present. Microanalyses and transnational perspectives shed new light on the formation and elaboration of gender, ethnicity, class, nationalism, and subjectivity. Changes in consumption and communication patterns, the restructuring of familial and social relations, systems of cultural meanings, and evolving practices in the home, at the workplace, and at sites of leisure are among the topics explored.”
James Monroe Museum Affiliates Attend Workshop
University of Mary Washington students and alumni with connections to the James Monroe Museum had an impromptu reunion at a recent Virginia Association of Museums workshop on event planning held at Gari Melchers Home and Studio.
Theresa Cramer and Gabrielle Lindemann are the current Bowley Scholars at the James Monroe Museum. They were joined at the workshop by former Bowley Scholars Bill Backus, Historical Interpreter, Prince William County Historic Preservation Division; Christine Clements, Curatorial Assistant, Fauquier History Museum at the Old Jail; and Candice Roland, Library Clerk, Virginia Historical Society. Former Monroe Museum student aide Sarah Palenik, who is now Membership and Office Manager for the Gari Melchers Home and Studio, also took part in the workshop.
The Lt. Gen. Albert J. Bowley Scholarship funds academic-year and summer internships at the museum, giving students hands-on experience in artifact collections management, education, and public programs. Student aides work as paid museum guides.
James Monroe Museum Director Scott Harris, who attended the workshop along with Membership and Special Events Coordinator Adele Uphaus-Conner, was very pleased by the participation of students and alumni who worked at the museum.
“The James Monroe Museum is proud to support UMW’s educational mission through internships and student employment,” said Harris. “The University’s majors in historic preservation and history, and the interdisciplinary museum studies minor, provide excellent academic training. When a superior course of study is augmented by practical experience, graduates are better prepared to enter the workforce.”
The James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library is a National Historic Landmark owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia and administered by the University of Mary Washington. Founded in 1927, it is the nation’s largest repository of artifacts and documents related to the fifth President of the United States. For hours of operation, directions, and other information, call (540) 654-1043, or visit www.jamesmonroemuseum.org.