Spatial Dimensions of Contentious Politics in Eurasia

UW Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA) lecture series, Room 206. Coffee/tea and cookies at 3:45 pm.

media release: This talk will examine the contentious politics of Eurasia since 1900, highlighting the ways in which oppositions have utilized space in their efforts to contest regimes, and how regimes have sought to counter them through tactics of spatial control. It will elucidate how and why these interactions have evolved over time, transforming the physiognomy of cities and the tactics deployed by regimes and oppositions. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Comparative Politics Colloquium.

About the speaker: Mark Beissinger is Henry W. Putnam Professor in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, having previously taught on the faculties of Harvard and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His areas of interest are social movements, revolutions, nationalism, state-building, and imperialism, with particular reference to the former Soviet Union and its successor states. Beissinger is author or editor of six books. His 2002 book Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State won multiple awards—among them, the American Political Science Association’s award for the best book published in the United States on government, politics, or international affairs. His 2022 book The Revolutionary City won the best book award from the Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. Beissinger was founding director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) and served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (now the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies).

NB! CREECA talks will not be held on 11/21 and 11/28. The final talk of the fall semester will be on Thursday, December 5: “Mapping Land Use and Habitat Changes in the Caucasus through Spy Satellite Data,” a lecture by Afag Rizayeva.