On February 19, at 7 pm Tbilisi time, the biweekly research colloquium of the Institute for Social and Cultural Research, Ilia State University, will host Oleksandr Polianchev with a talk on his research: “Tropical Dreams: The Russian Empire and Exotic Plants in the South Caucasus / Oleksandr Polianichev”.
Abstract:
In the early nineteenth century, as Russia extended its rule south of the Caucasus Mountains, many within tsarist society came to envision these new imperial possessions as a kind of open-air greenhouse for exotic crops suited to the needs of the metropole. From the Black Sea littoral to the Caspian shore, the region became a laboratory for acclimatization experiments with heat-loving plant species procured from across the globe. This talk examines how the Russian Empire sought to create a “tropics” of its own in the South Caucasus.
Bio:
Oleksandr Polianichev earned his Ph.D. from the European University Institute in Florence in 2017. Since 2019, he has worked at Södertörn University in Stockholm. A historian of empire and colonialism with a focus on imperial Russia, he is currently working on the project “Tropics of Tsardom: Plants and Empire in the South Caucasus, 1800–1917,” which examines the invention of Russia’s own quasi-tropical realm on the Caucasus Black Sea coast. His most recent essay on this topic, “Dream of the Russian Tropics,” was published in Aeon Magazine.
The event will take place in English via Zoom. Registration is required.
To register please follow this link.
Photo: Postcard “Batumi surroundings. Chakvi, tea plantation”. Source: https://postcards.ge/