Name: Stephen Kotkin | Stalin: Power, Geopolitics and Ideas (1.22.2015) by The Ellison Center at the University of Washington in Lectures 3
Duration: 42 min 58 s
Description: Princeton Russian history professor Stephen Kotkin presents a lecture based on his book Stalin - Paradoxes of Power 1878-1928 at the University of Washington in January 2015. Dr. Kotkin's visit was made possible by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies Center and the Department of History.

Lectures 3

On Wednesday, January 28, in a talk sponsored by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Princeton professor and Hoover fellow Stephen Kotkin discussed his newly published book Stalin, Volume 1: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928. Based on extensive research, the book is the first volume of his trilogy on the life and times of the Soviet dictator. Kotkin's biography focuses on Stalin's role in the Russian revolution and his subsequent rise to power within the Bolshevik hierarchy. It also situates Stalin's political career in the wider context of Russian and world history.

Stephen Kotkin Presents New Biography of Stalin

Princeton Russian history professor Stephen Kotkin presents a lecture based on his book Stalin - Paradoxes of Power 1878-1928 at the University of Washington in January 2015. Dr. Kotkin's visit was made possible by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies Center and the Department of History. 

Stephen Kotkin | Stalin: Power, Geopolitics and Ideas (1.22.2015)

On the eve of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) Football Club’s arrival in Seattle to face the Sounders in their final group match of the Club World Cup, the Director of the UW Global Sport Lab, Ron Krabill, sat down with two French scholars to discuss the European champions and their cultural and political significance within France and worldwide. Stéphane Mourlane (Professor of contemporary history and sport at the University of Aix-Marseilles) and David Do Paço (French Attaché for Academic Cooperation) explore PSG’s history as a fan-owned club, their purchase by the Qatari Sports Investments (QSI) Fund, and the evolution of their supporters from the glamor of the French elite to an increasingly global fan base. Special thanks to the Villa Albertine for making this conversation possible. Recorded June 19, 2025.  

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106; Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Photo credit: Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/by Leandro Neumann Ciuffo

French Views of the Cultural Significance of Paris Saint-Germain FC-UW Global Sport Lab (ep.4):

Lauri Malksoo gives the keynote address at the 2025 REECAS Northwest Conference, an ASEEES regional conference which takes place annually at the University of Washington. Lauri Mälksoo is Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu in Estonia and member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. During the academic year 2023-2024, he was fellow at the Institut d’études avancées (IEA) in Paris. He earned his law degree at the University of Tartu in 1998, his LL.M. at Georgetown University in 1999 and doctorate at Humboldt University Berlin in 2002. He has subsequently had fellowships at NYU School of Law, at the University of Tokyo and at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars (in Washington, DC). He is member of the Institut de Droit International and since 2021, of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. He is an editor-in-chief of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law (at Brill) and is member of the editorial board of the Review of Central and East European Law. Among his publications are monographs Illegal Annexation and State Continuity: The Incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR'(2nd ed., 2022, Brill) and Russian Approaches to International Law (OUP, 2015). He has published widely on the history of international law related to Russia and the Soviet Union, as well as on current developments and cases in international law.

Lauri Malksoo | Russia, the Soviet Union, and Imperial Continuity in International Law

On July 24, 2025, three members of the U.S. Sepak Takraw National Team gave a demonstration and talk at the University of Washington, thanks to support from the UW's Center for Southeast Asia & Its Diasporas. That same day Ron Krabill, Director of the UW Global Sport Lab, sat down with them as well as a software engineer based in Washington, D.C. who played Takraw in Tamil Nadu, India, and the Executive Director of the Cambodian-American Community Council of Washington, who also received a Master's in Southeast Asian Studies at the UW's Jackson School, to discuss how Takraw is a Southeast Asian indigenous game that in recent years has been spreading to other parts of Asia, Africa, and the U.S. In the U.S. it is an important activity that builds community and connects Southeast Asian migrants and refugees to their heritage in the region.

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106; Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Building the Sport of Sepak Takraw (aka “Kick Soccer”)-UW Global Sport Lab (ep.5)

Zaria Court is a newly-opened sports, entertainment, and cultural district located next to Amahoro Stadium and BK Arena (home of the Basketball Africa League) in the heart of Kigali, Rwanda. Zaria Court seeks to become a model for African urban development centered around sports and related activities. Join the Director of the Global Sport Lab, Ron Krabill, as he sits down with Che Rupari, Brand and Campus Manager for Zaria Court Kigali, and UW professor Ben Gardner to discuss the challenges and opportunities of using sports and sports infrastructure for economic development, tourism, and nation building in post-genocide Rwanda.

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106; Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Sport in Post-Genocide Rwanda-UW Global Sport Lab (ep. 6)

Nikita Gicanda is the newly elected Commissioner of Women’s Football for the Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA) and the founder of Local Champions Africa, an organization dedicated to the empowerment of women and girls through sport. Nikita sat down in Kigali with Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, and Layan Arrabi, a mathematics major at the University of Washington Bothell who participated in a study abroad program with Ron which focused, in part, on sport as a tool for development. They discussed the work of Local Champions, the ways in which sport can help empower women and girls, and the challenges and opportunities for women’s football in Rwanda today. Recorded on Sept. 19, 2025. 

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106
Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Women’s Empowerment Through Football in Rwanda-UW Global Sport Lab (ep.7)

Dr. Tracie Canada is the author of Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football (2025) and the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. She is a Black feminist anthropologist and ethnographer whose research uses sport to theorize race, kinship and care, gender, and the performing body. Tracie joined Dr. Alvin Logan, Jr., the Director of Unite.Ed at the University of Washington and a former Huskie football player, and Dr. Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, to discuss her research and what it tells us about how black players experience college football, masculinity and care, and the changing dynamics of college sports today. Recorded on November 6, 2025.

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106; Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1


Big-Time College Football and the Everyday Lives of Black Players-UW Global Sport Lab (ep. 8)

Jackson School Director Danny Hoffman and Ellison Center Director Guntis Šmidchens engage in an insightful discussion with special guest speaker Dr. Alexander Vindman on current geopolitical affairs, US democracy, and the Russo-Ukrainian War. 

This podcast was recorded on November 10th, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. 

This conversation was supported by the Jackson Foundation and the Ellison Center. 

Dr. Alexander Vindman | Russia, Ukraine, and the US Today

Evangelicalism is not new in American political life. But the second Trump administration coincides with a surprising development in the role of Christian faith in the nation’s politics.  The once fringe notion of Christian Nationalism now sits squarely at the point of intersection of American culture, politics and the economy.  Danny Hoffman, Director of the Jackson School of International Studies, interviews Jim Wellman, Professor and former Chair of the UW's Comparative Religion Program, which is housed in the Jackson School, on what Christian Nationalism means and the tensions it creates in faith communities and secular politics. Wellman's latest book is "High on God: How Megachurches Won a Nation," published by Oxford University Press in February 2020.
Recorded Nov. 7, 2025

Christian Nationalism and Evangelicalism in American Political Life

Hoover research fellow Stephen Kotkin discusses Conquest’s revelatory work on life behind the Iron Curtain,  noting that Conquest definitively established the colossal scale of Soviet horrors, correctly identified their source in Marxist ideas and practices, and underscored the legions of Western dupes who retailed Soviet lies, beginning when Stalin was alive and decades thereafter.

Stephen Kotkin on Robert Conquest’s Conquering the Former Soviet Union

Stephen Kotkin's masterful biography of Joseph Stalin has a very keen analysis of the outbreak of the First World War.  I discuss some of the relevant points made.  We draw some general conclusions from these lessons.

Rolling The "Iron Dice":  Outbreak Of The First World War

The Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington promotes in-depth interdisciplinary study of all major post-communist subregions - Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltic region, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and Russia - in order to understand the legacies of the imperial and communist past as well as to analyze the emerging institutions and identities that will shape Eurasia's future. 

We share audio of interesting and relevant events hosted by our Center. 

Stephen Kotkin | Stalin: Power, Geopolitics and Ideas (1.22.2015)

The Ellison Center at the University of Washington

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