Date & time
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Conferences & lectures
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Russian America: How Russia tried to colonize the West
Speaker(s)
Dr. Kacper Dziekan
Cost
This event is free
Contact
History Department
Where
J.W. McConnell Building
1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Room LB 362
Accessible location
Yes
Abstract: In early 1800s Russia was the fourth biggest (after Great Britain, France and Spain) European colonial power when it comes to the territorial possessions. Russian colonial presence in North America lasted almost one hundred years (1784 - 1867). Most of the colonial possessions were located in Alaska, although there was one in California as well. Russians even sailed all the way to Hawai’i attempting to influence the archipelago. How and why did it happen? What is the legacy of the so-called Russian America? How is this story reflected in local toponymy, museal exhibitions, commemorative practices and even popular culture? What is the response from Indigenous communities to the memory of Russian settler colonialism?
Dr. Kacper Dziekan is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Concordia University (Montreal) within the Thinking Through the Museum research network. His former international projects include acting as the Main Specialist at the European Solidarity Centre (Gdansk, Poland, 2013-2023) and as an external expert/co-creator in a newly established museum/cultural centre - Port of Cultures (Mariupol, Ukraine - suspended since February 24th, 2022 after the Russian invasion on Ukraine). Dr. Dziekan received his PhD from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland in January 2023. He has also been a Landecker Democracy Fellow (2021/22), and a Fulbright Junior Fellow at UC Berkeley (2019/20). His PhD thesis studied the Russian colonization of America and the cultural memory of Russian America in the USA.