Lecture: «Re-reading Icons and Sacred Text in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Russia»

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow and American Center welcome you to watch a joint-presentation «Re-reading Icons and Sacred Text in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Russia» by Fulbright Scholars Ashley Morse and Justin Willson.
Ashley Morse is a PhD Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. In his dissertation, provisionally titled “Miracle, Mystery, Authority: The Rise of Governmentality in Early Modern Russia,” Ashley examines the intersection of politics and baroque poetics at court in seventeenth-century Russia. In his portion of the presentation, Ashley will discuss the controversial practice of rendering sacred text in verse and guide a comparative close-reading of the Slavonic Psalter and Simeon Polotsky’s Rhymed Psalter (late 17th c).
Justin Willson is a PhD Candidate in Art & Archaeology at Princeton University. Justin studies Byzantine and early Slavic art and aesthetics. His dissertation, “The Moods of Early Russian Art: A Belated Chapter of Byzantine Aesthetics,” explores the interpretation of art in 14th to 16th century Russia. In his segment, Justin will lead a workshop on formal readings of Russian and Byzantine icons through sets of Byzantine and Slavic diagrams and icon commentaries.