Dr, Daniel Beer Lunchtime Seminar: "Civil Death, Radical Protest and the Theatre of Punishment under Alexander II"

In conjunction with the 2018 Cundill Prize celebrations, The Department of History and Classical Studies and the Department of Languages, Literature and Cultures – Russian Studies are sponsoring an informal lunch-time seminar by Dr Daniel Beer (Royal Holloway, University of London). Daniel Beer won the prestigious Cundill Prize for History in 2017, for his book The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile under the Tsars. This lunchtime seminar will take place on Wednesday 14 November in Arts 160 from 12:30-2:00.

Dr. Beer will discuss his new research project on “Civil Death, Radical Protest and the Theatre of Punishment under Alexander II”. Here is his summary: “Staged before crowds in Russian towns and cities, civil executions during the reign of Alexander II were punitive rituals that presaged a sentence of penal labour and lifelong exile in Siberia. When at the civil executions of revolutionaries both convicts and spectators departed from the state’s script of public humiliation and orderly opprobrium, the staging of monarchical power proved liable to subversion. Revolutionaries and their supporters gradually forced the state to retreat from the public performance of justice, showcasing the diminishing symbolic authority of autocracy.” Prof. Kristy Ironside (History and Classical Studies) will be the moderator.