Under Georgian born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (transliterated from Georgian) or Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (transliterated from the Russian variant), better known to the world as Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union reached the zenith of authoritarianism. This lecture examines how historians have debated the origins of Stalinism and the legacy of Stalinism after his death. Historians variously trace the origins of Stalinist policies to a Tsarist legacy, the violence of the First World War and the civil war that followed it, Communism or Marxism as an ideology, Bolshevik belief, or a combination of factors. The lecture then turns to debates on the nature of “De-Stalinization” under Nikita Khrushchev and the apparent return to authoritarianism after Khrushchev’s death.

Tracy McDonald is an historian of Russian and the Soviet Union at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She is the author of Face to the Village: The Riazan Countryside Under Soviet Rule, 1921—1930 (University of Toronto Press, 2011), co-editor with Daniel Vandersommers of Zoo Studies: A New Humanities (McGill-Queens University Press, 2019), and co-editor with Heather DeHaan and Dan Healey of Other Voices in Soviet History: Collected for a Devil’s Advocate (McGill-Queens University Press, 2024). In 2019-2020, she curated an art exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art under the title, “Animals Across Discipline, Time, and Space,” which ran from 4 January until the first Covid lockdown in March. McDonald was one of the three founding members of the independent documentary-film company, Chemodan Films. Between 2004 and 2009 she participated in the making of four films including Province of Lost Film, Uprising, and Photographer.

If you didn’t already know how Agatha Christie and Archaeology were connected, then this lecture by Canadian archaeologist Dr. Amy Barron is your chance to learn how the great mystery novelist’s life is revealed within the pages of her books. Her love of the Middle East and the life she lived with her famous archaeologist husband provided the basis for some of her greatest novels including, Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and Murder in Mesopotamia. Dr. Barron will discuss Christie’s life, travels, and the fabulous ancient sites whose mysteries she helped uncover.

Amy Barron received her PhD at the University of Toronto in the field of Mesopotamian history and archaeology, specializing on the military history of Iron Age Assyria. She has excavated predominantly in the Middle East but has travelled widely studying the archaeology of various remote parts of the world from Peru to China. Amy has taught archaeology, ancient history and classics at the universities of Toronto and Guelph and presently teaches museum studies in Fleming College’s post-graduate program. She has worked in the museum world for over 30 years and loves sharing her passion for the past.