On December 6–7, Dr. Roman Smirnov participated in the International Conference “Memory and Trauma” at Birkbeck, University of London, where he presented the paper “Constructing a National Trauma: Russian Ideology and Propaganda and Anti-Western Attitude of Russians.”
His presentation examined how the notion of “national trauma” has been ideologically constructed in contemporary Russia. He focused on several key questions:
— how this construction was achieved;
— which tropes and themes were central before and after 2022;
— and through which cultural forms and media these narratives were disseminated.
This research is closely connected to the course Smirnov teachs at Leibniz Universität Hannover, “Russian Culture in Wartime: Between Protest and Submission.”
In addition to presenting his paper, Dr. Smirnov chairied the session “Exile, Translation and the Afterlives of Displacement.”
The conference offered a valuable space for dialogue on memory, trauma, exile, and cultural translation, underscoring the academic, political, and ethical urgency of these themes today.
