2025 Anniversary

The Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA) brings together scholars specializing in the art and architecture of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia, spanning from ancient times to the present day. In 2025, we are celebrating our 30th anniversary with a year-long speaker series, highlighting topics that reflect the diversity of our region, broader methodological approaches, and current trends in art history, material studies, and architectural history.

Schedule of events:

January 23: Olenka Z. Pevny, The Aesthetic of Homogeneity, Scientific Atheism and the Reconstruction of the Rus’ and Early Modern Past in Ukraine

February 27: Maja and Reuben Fowkes, More-than-Human Revolutionaries: The Politics of Trees in Socialist Art

March 27: Roundtable 1, History of SHERA, with long-standing SHERA members including Karen Kettering, Wendy Salmond, Alison Hilton, Jane Sharp, Natasha Kurchanova, John Bowlt, Tamara Jhashi, Pamela Kachurin. Chair: Margaret Samu

April 25: Christina E. Crawford, Socialism Means Housing: Architectural Praxis in Early Soviet Baku

May 29: Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, Vanishing Imageries of Europe’s East: Book Covers post 2020

June 19: Roundtable 2, Decolonization, featuring: Maria Taroutina, Jasmina Tumbas, Svitlana Biedarieva, Nazar Kozak, Konstantin Akinsha. Chair: Polly Blakesley

September 25: Molly Brunson, Monoliths: Art, Industry, and the Marvelous Objects of the Russian Empire

October 23: Łukasz Stanek, The Gift: Spaces of Global Socialism and Their Afterlives

November 13: Roundtable 3, Connecting and Networking Eastern Europe, featuring: Robert Born, Beata Hock, Klara Kemp-Welch, Olena Martynuk, and Susan E. Reid. Chair: Allison Leigh

December 17: Myroslava M. Mudrak, Reclaiming Ukraine’s Art for History