St Petersburg and the Hermitage: Wonder and Opulence

    

Dr. Julia Zarankin 

Recently awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, Julia Zarankin holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. 

She has taught courses in Russian language, literature, and culture at Princeton, Stanford and the University of Missouri. Julia regularly teaches and lectures on a broad range of topics relating to Russian and European culture, literature, music, art, and film at Glendon College (LLIR), the Royal Conservatory of Music, University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies, St. Michael's College, Classical Pursuits, Later Life Learning at Innis College, and book clubs across the GTA. 

She recently held residencies at the MacDowell Colony and the Banff Centre and currently works as a writer, editor, and writing coach in Toronto.  Julia has published award-winning essays in magazines in the US and Canada.

St Petersburg and the Hermitage: Wonder and Opulence

We will examine the origins of St. Petersburg, Russia's grandiose and mesmerizing imperial capital, by investigating the city's construction undertaken by Peter the Great. We will also explore how Catherine the Great continued Peter the Great’s project of Europeanizing and modernizing Russia, and ultimately transformed St. Petersburg into a cultural capital. We will focus our attention on the Winter Palace and the inauguration of the Hermitage, Russia’s first museum dedicated to European art.

This event is part of the Spring 2016 Speaker series. Register for the Spring 2016 Event Series.