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Crimea: Centre of Gravity in the Black Sea

Crimea: Centre of Gravity in the Black Sea

In 2014 Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea dominated headlines around the world. Since then it has largely receded from view – despite an ongoing Russian military build-up on the peninsula and crackdowns on Crimean Tatar civil society.

On 21 April 2017 the international workshop‘Crimea: Centre of Gravity in the Black Sea’returns the peninsula and its environs to thecentreof attention.

The event is an exciting collaboration between Black Sea Networks, a research project at Columbia University led by Professor ValentinaIzmirlieva, and Ƶ Ukrainian Studies, an academiccentrein the Department of Slavonic Studies at the Ƶ.

‘Our aim is to contest a “peripheralisation” of Crimea in Ukrainian, Russian and Turkish Studies and beyond’, said Dr RoryFinnin, Director of the Ƶ Ukrainian Studiesprogrammeand Head of the Department of Slavonic Studies at the Ƶ. ‘Reconceptualising Crimea as a dynamic nexus – of peoples, historical traditions, political interests – will enrich our scholarly approaches to andgeostrategicanalysesof the Black Sea region as a whole.’

The interdisciplinary workshop will feature two panel discussions and a collective roundtable exchange, which will be chaired byFinninandIzmirlieva. The presentations will address a wide range of topics, from the contemporary dynamics of Islam in Crimea to the identity work of pro-Russian nationalist groups prior to the annexation. Panelists include IdilIzmirli,HakanKirimli, Eleanor Knott,SaitOcakli, SophiePinkham,VsevolodSamokhvalov, and OlgaZeveleva.

The event will be held in the historicPitt Building in the heart of the Ƶ on 21 April 2017 from10amto 5:30pm. It is free and open to the public, butis required.

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