Media




‘Primary Sources in Teaching: Collaborations Between Libraries and Faculty’

In the fall of 2017 Professor Žmolek taught History Matters: The Russian Revolution of 1917. This course will be taught again in the Spring of 2019. The documentary archive Socialism On Film is used for this course for films. On April 24, 2018, Mike was invited to take part in this webinar, hosted by Ben Lacey of Adam Curtis, to discuss the usefulness of online archives in university teaching. Joining Mike on this panel were: Dr. George Oberle (George Mason) and Kelsey Waters (Cal State Fullerton).

Audio available: click here. Also available on Youtube.

Russian Revolution 100 Years On‘The Russian Revolution 100 Years On’

2017 marked the hundredth anniversary of the Russian revolution. That tumultuous century saw Russia reject the Romanov dynasty which had ruled for over three hundred years and embrace a new ideology whose leader, Vladimir Lenin, would become the head of the world’s first communist state. The world watched as the Soviet Union re-created a Russian-dominated empire, lost millions of lives to purges and terror, withstood the onslaught of Nazi Germany, faced off against the West during the Cold War, then dissolved, with Russia re-emerging under Vladimir Putin as a central player in global power politics. On November 21, 2017, International Programs at UI presented a WorldCanvass panel titled ‘The Russian Revolution 100 Years On’ hosted by Joan Kjaer. The panel began with a summary overview of how the October 1917 Revolution played out in St. Petersburg by Mike Žmolek, followed by UI colleagues Anna Barker and Nathan Platte discussing Russian art from the revolution through socialist realism,William Reisinger and Michaela Hoenicke Moore, discussing Russia on the world stage today.

Audio and transcription available: click here. Press: review | op-ed

Seven Myths About Immigration

Seven Myths About ImmigrationMass movement of peoples across border is here to stay, and the numbers are only bound to increase even more dramatically. On November 3, 2016, Mike gave a presentation on 'Seven Myths About Immigration' to the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, challenging popular claims about immigration and focusing on the US-Mexico border. This talk challenges seven myths fueling the rising tide of hysteria by exploring often-ignored truths about immigration, starting with the re-structuring of the global labor market during the past several decades of neoliberal globalization.

Video available: click here.