Wednesday, October 28th, 4:00-6:00 pm.
The Soviet Union presented itself as a country free of racism and supported anti-racist struggles internationally. After the first African states gained independence in the 1960s, the Soviet Union, which welcomed the end of colonial rule, began to establish friendly relations with the newly independent states and to send Soviet specialists to Africa. Several thousand Russian geologists, doctors, and teachers went there to work over the course of almost three decades. For the vast majority of Soviet citizens involved, this was their first encounter with Africa. Many of them had cameras and carefully documented their encounters with local residents.
These photographs constitute an important historical source for understanding Soviet citizens’ encounters and interactions with Africans. The aim of this talk is to reconstruct the visitors’ attitudes towards Africans and their perceptions of Blackness, based on a previously unpublished photographic corpus that the speaker collected in Russia. He will explore how race was negotiated both in official and, more importantly, private photographs that ended up in family albums.
The event is free and open to the public in person at Rutgers, New Brunswick. A reception will follow
Location:
Rutgers Academic Building (West Wing), Rm. 5190, 5th floor, 15 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Wednesday, October 28th, 4:00-6:00 pm.
Sponsored by
The Center for Cultural Analysis
The Developing Room
Speaker
Dr. Denis Skopin
Dr. Denis Skopin
Denis Skopin earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Paris 8 University. He has held several research positions, including serving as Research Director at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris), and was Professor at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg University. His research focuses on photography studies, political philosophy, and the circulation of photographs under dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. He is the author of numerous articles and three monographs: La Photographie de Groupe et la Politique de la Disparition dans la Russie de Staline [Group Photography and the Politics of Disappearance in Stalin’s Russia], (Paris, Harmattan, 2015); Œdipe sous l’objectif. La Photographie et la Psychanalyse [Oedipus Under the Lens. Photography and Psychoanalysis], (Paris, Harmattan, 2018); and Photography and Political Repressions in Stalin’s Russia: Defacing the Enemy (London, Routledge, 2022).