Housed within the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, the Romanoff Center for Russian Studies promotes the interdisciplinary study of the Russian Federation and its larger historical precursors, the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire. Founded in 2022, thanks to the generous bequest of Princess Janet Romanoff, the Center is dedicated to informing both the University of Oklahoma community and the broader public about the history and culture of Russia, current events involving the Russian Federation, and Russia’s actions on the world stage. It sponsors lectures, symposia, and cultural events; engages with scholars and public figures nationally and internationally; and works to support excellence in teaching and research in Russian studies.
Congratulations to Dr. Dustin Condren, in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures & Linguistics, on the publication of his new book An Imaginary Cinema: Sergei Eisenstein and the Unrealized Film (Cornell University Press, 2024). This volume received a prestigious First Book Subvention award from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
Dr. Emily Johnson delivered the keynote address at the workshop "Narrating the Gulag" at Oxford University's University College in January 2025. Her talk was titled "The Narrative Impulse in Private Correspondence from the Soviet Gulag."
On Thursday, March 6 at 4:30 p.m. in Zarrow 145, Dr. Karen Petrone of the University of Kentucky will deliver a talk titled "Vladimir Putin and Russian Memory of World War II" as part of a larger series of events organized in conjunction with the 80th anniversary of the end of the war. Dr. Petrone is co-director of the UK-JHF Holocaust Education Initiative and has written extensively on war and memory.
This spring, in connection with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Romanoff Center, the Honors College, and the Department of History are co-sponsoring a film series on World War II and Memory that includes works made in a variety of different countries and decades. Screenings include:
Tuesday, February 25 at 7:00 p.m. Bizzell LL1 Common Room. William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives (USA; 1946)
Tuesday, March 25 at 7:00 p.m. Bizzell LL1 Common Room. Alexei German’s Trial on the Road (USSR; 1971)
Tuesday, April 1 at 7:00 p.m. Bizzell LL1 Common Room. Konrad Wolf’s I was Nineteen (Germany, 1968)
Co-directors:
Emily D. Johnson and Melissa K. Stockdale
Contact information:
Romanoff Center for Russian Studies
Attn: Prof. Emily Johnson
Department of Modern Languages, Literatures & Linguistics
University of Oklahoma
780 Van Vleet Oval, Room 206
Norman, OK 73019
Romanoffcenter@ou.edu
