VIRTUAL EVENT: (Re)Placing Chernobyl

The discussion roundtable will gather prominent speakers, including the director of the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” (2019) Johan Renck, to unpack the complexities that emerged in process of staging the Chernobyl disaster in the twenty first century. How could one explain the unexpected popularity of the series? What kinds of historical narratives informed the miniseries and what stories were left out? Can “Chernobyl” help us understand the issues that the nuclear industry is facing today?

The discussion will also explore the social, political and cultural consequences of the “Chernobyl” miniseries. A major source of inspiration for the discussion was VIlnius itself – the city where most of the Emmy-winning series came to life, not without the help of local artists and creatives. So, while nuclear tourism is booming in Ukraine, the real-life place of the disaster, the Lithuanian filming locations, where the ex-soviet Ignalina nuclear power plant "performed" the Chernobyl disaster and districts of Vilnius stood in for Pripyat, are quickly catching up. Does nuclear cultural heritage and nuclear tourism enhance public awareness and should they be promoted? Is there a risk of displacing the actual consequences of the catastrophe with captivating cultural imagery? In all, the discussion will seek to explore the relationship between culture, imagination, science and how these shape the legacy of Chernobyl.

Please join the virtual event here

Speakers

• Simon Evans, Director of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), UK
• Paul Josephson, Professor of History, author of many books and articles on the Russian nuclear physics and technology, Colby College, USA
• Michael N. Goddard, Reader in Film, Television and Moving Image, Westminster School of Arts (WSA), UK
• Tatiana Kasperski, PhD in Politics, political scientist specialising in the memory of Chernobyl, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
• Alena Ledeneva, Professor of Politics and Society at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of University College London, UK
• Lucia Pietroiusti, Public Programmes Curator at the Serpentine Galleries, curator of the Golden Lion-winning Lithuanian Pavilion in Venice, interested in art and the environment,UK
• Johan Renck, Film director, awarded with the Emmy Award (2019) for his work on the mini-series "Chernobyl" (2019), USA/SE
• Vitaly Strigunkov, visual artist, Lithuania 
• Simon Watson, Senior Lecturer of Electronic Nuclear Engineering & Robotics, the University of Manchester, UK

Discussion chair

• Dr Egle Rindzeviciute, Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology, Kingston University London, UK

Organisers

• Dr Egle Rindzeviciute, Kingston University London
• Peter Zusi, Associate Professor of Czech and Comparative Literature, head of FRINGE Centre for the Study of Social and Cultural Complexity, UCL
• Juste Kostikovaite, Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in the UK
• Programme 
• Please see the full programme and bios here

The discussion will also be LIVE streamed on This Is Tomorrow's website, Facebook profile and YouTube channel. Find the Facebook event here.

All welcome. Event link will be announced in this website - do not hesitate to contact us if you need assistance on the day. Please follow this FAQ link for more information. All our events are free but you can support the IAS here.