Description:

Eliot Borenstein is Professor of Russian & Slavic Studies and Senior Academic Convenor for the Global Network at New York University. He is the author of Men without Women: Masculinity and Revolution in Russian Fiction, 1917-1929, Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture, Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism, and Pussy Riot: Speaking Punk to Power (to be released on November 12, 2020).  His current projects include the recently-submitted Russia’s Alien Nations: The Secret Identities of Postsocialism, Marvel Comics in the 1970s: The World Inside Your Head  (serialized in draft form through Cornell University Press and as a blog), and Meanwhile, in Russia…: Russian Internet Memes and Viral Video (under contract with Bloomsbury Press). After that, he will begin work on HBO’s The Leftovers: Mourning and Melancholy on Premium Cable.

Professor Borenstein will be discussing his book in the title of the talk.  He says this about his inspiration:

"I’ve been fascinated by conspiracy theories for most of my life, and post-Soviet Russia did not exactly cure me of my preoccupation. As an experiment, I serialized the first draft of this book on plotsagainstrussia.org, and along the way developed my own approach to the nature of conspiracy."