Dela

Facebook Mail Twitter

17

feb

2025

Between Nostalgia and Nationalism: An Analysis of Discussions on Old Photographs of Russian Turkestan on Facebook

CBEES Advanced Seminar with Svetlana Gorshenina, Research Professor and Research Director, EUR'ORBEM, CNRS/Sorbonne Université

Speaker: Svetlana Gorshenina, Research Professor and Research Director, EUR'ORBEM, CNRS/Sorbonne Université

Discussant: Bo Petersson, Professor of Political Science and IMER at the Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University.

Chair: Irina Sandomirskaja, Professor of Cultural Studies, Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University.

Abstract: The study analyses the discussion of Turkestan photographs by social media users, using several specialised Facebook groups as examples. Based on years of observation, the characteristics of these transnational online communities are outlined, and it is shown how Turkestan photographs are incorporated into the circulation of digital memory, how they are perceived by users, and how they are integrated into contemporary nationalist, anti- and decolonial, imperial, nostalgic (in all its variations), and (anti-)racist discourses online. Equally important was to understand how, within these frameworks, personal and collective memories intersect and confront each other, taking into account the specificities of new digital media, and how their clashes often resemble head-on collisions in which collective digital memories are formed. These constructed hybrid memories are linked to multiple identities, sometimes oppositional, as well as to official and unofficial versions of the history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and post-Soviet countries, Orientalist narratives, antagonistic nationalisms, and different interpretations of nostalgia and imperial ideology. Starting with imperial-era photographs, evaluated through the lens of Soviet-era memories and post-Soviet realities of the independent republics of Central Asia and the Russian Federation, the group members create an important visual archive in the online space. This archive forms the basis of a new visual history of the region, clearly delineating the fractures of "memory wars" associated with the traumatic post-memory of Russian colonisation of Turkestan, its national-territorial demarcation between 1924-1936, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Reflecting the need for the personalisation and visualisation of history, these groups create alternative Popular Histories on Facebook pages, ensuring the production of knowledge in a new media space and under new conditions for the creation, preservation, and interaction of memories.

Svetlana Gorshenina is Research Professor, EUR'ORBEM (CNRS/Sorbonne Université). She is a historian and art historian of Central Asia, mainly involved in the history of Turkestan of the nineteenth to the early twentieth century and the early years of Soviet rule in the region. She works on a range of topics related to the history of ideas and cultural heritage. She has curated several exhibitions of nineteenth and early twentieth century photographs and the history of Central Asian archaeology, and co-founded the international Alert Heritage Observatory (which aims to protect Central Asian Heritage). She is author of several books (https://www.svetlana-gorshenina.net/publications Länk till annan webbplats.).

Tid och plats

17 februari 2025, 13:00-14:30

Högre seminarium

MA796, hitta hit

Engelska

Arrangeras av

Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES)

Kontakt

Användbara länkar

Dela

Facebook Mail Twitter

Sidan är uppdaterad

2025-02-03