Spots remain for Sept. 26 Dinner Lecture event featuring culture, cuisine of Russia
Registration remains open for the latest installment in the UW-Green Bay Dinner Lecture series, featuring the culture and cuisine of modern Russia.
“Russia Today,” featuring UW-Green Bay Associate Prof. Katia Levintova, will take place Thursday, Sept. 26 in the Phoenix Room of the UW-Green Bay University Union. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a gathering and cash bar; and the dinner and presentation will run from 6:30-8 p.m.
A native of Moscow, Levintova is an associate professor and adviser in Public and Environmental Affairs and chair of Political Science and Global Studies at UW-Green Bay. Her talk will focus on numerous aspects of Russia’s diversity, from climates, landscapes and cultures to traditions, history, language, customs and more.
“People might kind of assume this very stoic, very stone-faced image of Russia,” Levintova said. “But you know, Russians are known for their hospitality. … I think people realize how large Russia is, but just learning the hidden diversity — I’ll talk about different ethnic groups, their customs and dancing and costumes. The folk art — again, people just kind of have one image, of the nesting dolls, when they think about Russian folk art. But there’s so much more to it.”
One of Levintova’s areas of scholarship is post-communist society, and she often conducts research in Russia while visiting family during the summer. With Russia in the news frequently as of late, she anticipates there may be some questions concerning the country’s politics.
“One of the contrasts is, it’s such a modern country,” Levintova said, “but politics is sometimes — there is a lot of nostalgia for the Soviet Union in contemporary Russian politics, there’s all these debates about Stalinism, what was good, what was bad. So definitely, I think we can talk about politics in this contrastive way, as well.”
Levintova also helped shape the menu for the evening, which includes a Russian Potato Salad (one of her personal favorites), a hearty Borsch soup, beef stroganoff, stuffed cabbage roll, noodles with field mushrooms and dessert. Russia’s famous hospitality is showcased, in part, in its cuisine, she said.
Cost for the Dinner Lecture Series event is $29 per person, with registration available online. Participants also can register via U.S. Mail (send to Camps and Conferences – Office of Outreach, UW-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311). For questions or additional information, call (920) 465-2775 (local), (800) 621-2313 or email.
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