'Diversity and Extraction in the late Russian Empire's Eastern Borderlands'

The Global Studies Seminar presents “Diversity and Extraction in the late Russian Empire’s Eastern Borderlands” Denison University’s Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History and Visual Culture Ksenia Un.

Un is an art historian specializing in modern and contemporary Eurasia. Her first book project examines how visual culture shaped understandings of diversity in the course of the late Russian Empire’s eastward expansion. Prior to completing her Doctor of Philosophy, Ksenia held positions at the American Federation of Arts, International Center of Photography, and Guggenheim Museum. 

This paper examines how Alexei Kuznetsov’s (1845-1928) photographs of the Nerchinsk mining district picture imperial dispossession and the violence. Kuznetsov’s oeuvre is situated within numerous photographic projects that documented infrastructure projects across the Russian Empire. Kuznetsov exemplifies how this changing picture of Russia’s land was mediated through representations of Eurasia’s peoples.