Sudha Rajagopalan
University of Amsterdam

The Small Matter of Solidarity
Histories of solidarities generally focus on formal mobilization and public campaigns in twentieth-century political struggles. Yet these solidarities were also sustained by micro gestures such as listening empathetically, sharing food, and offering shelter, remembered as crucial forms of everyday support in repressive circumstances. In this talk, Sudha Rajagopalan will explain how objects feature in personal accounts of twentieth-century activism, and broach some of the challenges of writing a history of ‘quiet solidarities’ through the lens of material culture.

Sudha Rajagopalan teaches and researches in the Department of European Studies, within its East European Studies cluster, at the University of Amsterdam. Her first book, Indian Films in Soviet Cinemas: The Culture of Movie-Going after Stalin (2009), draws on archival research and oral history methods and is considered a pioneering ethnohistory of Soviet moviegoing. Her most recent book, Journeys of Soviet Things: Cold War as Lived Experience in Cuba and India (2023), is an oral history of socialist globalization constructed around the journeys of Cold War–era Soviet objects, such as household appliances, decorative artifacts, and books. A Russian-language translation was published in 2024. Rajagopalan has also published about Russian digital cultures on issues ranging from memory work to celebrity, fandom, and post-feminism.

Tuesday, October 20, 12:15 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

Tea, coffee, and snacks will be served starting at noon.
No registration required.