Richard Stites Memorial Lecture Series

Richard Sites

The Richard Stites Memorial Lecture, held biennially is founded as a living memorial to Richard Stites (1931-2010), a giant in the field of Russian history who taught at Georgetown from 1977 until his death.  Every other year, a distinguished scholar will deliver the lecture to celebrate scholarship in the tradition of Richard Stites in the fields of history, Russian studies, cultural history, and the history of popular culture. Richard Stites’ many works in the Russian field swept across the imperial and the Soviet periods and innovated ways of linking cultural explorations to their political, social, and international contexts.

The lecture series is part of the program of the Russian History Seminar of Washington, DC, which Richard enriched as a founding member and treasured participant. It is supported by the Georgetown Institute for Global History and the CERES program also at Georgetown, to which Richard made so many lasting contributions.

The 4th Richard Stites Memorial Lecture, featuring Juliane Fürst (Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam) took place on October 27 from 5-7 pm, entitled “The Great Escape: Why Soviet Hippies did not Change the World.”

The third Richard Stites Memorial Lecture took place on 23 March 2018: Hubertus Jahn of the University of Cambridge, “Functions, Feast, and the Aesthetics of Empire: Russian Tsars Travelling in the Caucasus during the 19th Century.”

The second Richard Stites Memorial Lecture took place on 25 September 2015: Jeffrey Veidlinger of University of Michigan, “Six Million Jews in Peril: The Pogroms of 1919 in Ukraine.” (new window)

The Inaugural Richard Stites Memorial Lecture took place on 7 November 2013: Alfred J. Rieber of the Central European University, “The Struggle Over the Eurasian Borderlands: La longue durée.”

Richard’s humanity, humor, joie de vivre, and endless interest in people continue to inspire historians, colleagues, students, and his many friends.  Among the most eloquent memorials to Richard Stites—the man, scholar, friend, colleague, and teacher—were those written and compiled by his colleagues and friends.

Publications from Richard Stites include:

  • The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism, 1860-1930 (Princeton University Press, 1978, 2d ed. 1991)
  • Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Social Experiment in the Russian Revolution (Oxford University Press, 1989, 2d ed. 1991)
  • Awarded the Wayne S. Vucinich 1989 prize volume of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies   
  • Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900 (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
  • Serfdom Society and the Arts (Yale University Press, 2008)

Your support of the Richard Stites Memorial Lecture fund is most appreciated and honors the memory of Richard and his remarkable life.

Contribute to the Richard Stites Memorial Lecture Fund.  After clicking the link, select “Other” and write “Richard Stites Fund” in the box. Donors may also call Georgetown’s Gift Processing department directly to make a gift by phone at 1-202- 687-1789.