Introduction: Centrifuge and Fragmentation

The seismic changes inaugurated by desovietization not only recast the entire framework of Russia\u27s cultural priorities, production, and reception, but ultimately revised fundamental concepts of what constitutes culture

Style and S(t)imulation: Popular Magazines, or the Aestheticization of Postsoviet Russia

The new Postsoviet genre of the glossy magazine that inundated bookstalls and kiosks in Russia\u27s urban centers served as both an advertisement for a life of luxury and an advice column on chic style. Conventionalized signs of affluence, models of beauty, educational articles on topics ranging from the history and significance of ties to correct behavior at a first-class restaurant filled the pages of magazines intended to provide an accelerated course in etiquette, appearance, and appurtenances for Russia\u27s newly wealthy. The lessons in spending, demeanor, and taste emphasized moneyed visibility. Despite their differing emphases, popular magazines all shared the new-found fascination with aesthetics as a mode of constructing a cynosural Postsoviet public identity

Reflections and Refractions: The Mirror: Introduction

Why has humankind approached the mirror with both awe and trepidation? What is a mirror and what does it do? If posed fundamentally, the questions yield answers more complicated than one might expect

The Mirror in Art: Vanitas, Veritas, and Vision

Humankind’s venerable obsession with the mirror, traceable to the ancient myths of Medusa and Narcissus, is copiously attested in Western art, which historically relied on the mirror as both practical tool and polysemous trope. While the mirror’s reflective capacities encouraged its identification with the vaunted mimetic function of literature and film, its refractive quality enabled artists to explore and comment on perspective, in the process challenging the concept of art’s faithful representation of phenomena. My radically compressed and selective overview of the mirror’s significance in Western iconography focuses primarily on visibility, gaze, and gender, dwelling on key moments and genres that most vividly illustrate the paradoxes of the mirror as both symbol and utilitarian object. Comparing Russian art with its Western counterpart, I argue that Russia’s distinctive iconographic traditions account for Russian divergences from major aspects of the inherited and evolving mirror rhetoric that prevailed in Western Europe

International Conference on Women in War

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.The International Conference on Women in War explores the role of women in war from World War II to the present. The conference focuses geographically on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Soviet Union, and the Balkans; and historically on World War II, the wars in Afghanistan (1979-1989) and secessionist Chechnya (1994-96, 1999-present), and the Bosnia/Croatia/Serbia war (1992-95).Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesOhio State University. Center for Slavic and East European StudiesOhio State University. Office of International AffairsOhio State University. College of HumanitiesOhio State University. Dept. of Slavic and East European Languages and LiteraturesOhio State University. Dept. of Comparative StudiesOhio State University. Dept. of Film StudiesOhio State University. Center for the Study of ReligionsOhio State University. Dept. of Women's StudiesOhio State University. Association for Women in DevelopmentOhio State University. Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Cultureswebsite announcement, conference website, conference photo