Between Cooperation and Conflict: Imagining the American and Soviet 'Other'

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores the multifaceted ways in which the United States and the Soviet Union imagined, represented, and engaged with one another throughout the 20th century. From the early Soviet fascination with American industrialization and modernization to the Cold War-era academic exchanges, the papers in this panel illuminate the complex interplay of ideology, politics, and culture in shaping mutual perceptions. Meredith L. Roman delves into how Black radicals in the U.S. envisioned Soviet emancipatory policies as a counterpoint to American anti-Blackness. Iana Shchetinskaia re-evaluates the paradoxical dynamics of U.S.-Soviet academic exchange during the Cold War, highlighting the coexistence of cooperation and conflict. Together, these papers offer a nuanced understanding of how representations of the "Other" were constructed, contested, and mobilized in the service of political, social, and intellectual agendas.

Sub Unit

• International Relations, Security Studies, Foreign Policy

Chair

• Lyubov A Ginzburg, Independent Scholar

Papers

• Freedom Not Far Distant: 'Brother Lenin' and Soviet Emancipatory Policies in the Black Radical Imagination - Meredith L Roman, SUNY Brockport

• Conflict and Convergence: U.S.-Soviet Academic Exchange during the Cold War (1960-1970s) - Iana Shchetinskaia, SUNY Binghamton

Discussant

• Joshua A. Sanborn, Lafayette College