Jan. 24, 2019<\/p>\n
Russian-American activist, author and journalist Masha Gessen will present \u201cThe Future is History\u201d at Northern Arizona University in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The talk, based on Gessen\u2019s award-winning novel of the same name, takes place 7 p.m. Jan. 27 in Prochnow Auditorium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a rare opportunity for students at NAU to be exposed to such an active, intellectual mind, fearless journalist and also LGBTQ advocate, especially in the regions of Eastern Europe,\u201d said Bjorn Krondorfer, <\/strong>director of the Martin-Springer Institute<\/a>. \u201cThe talk will center on how the imagination of individuals and entire societies are shaped by what we remember, or the stories we can tell about what we remember.\u201d<\/p>\n Described as Russia’s leading LGBT rights activist, Gessen will cross various disciplines, in the talk, which will be relevant to students in political science, journalism, history, international affairs, women and gender studies, photography, anthropology, humanities, health sciences, education, criminal justice, ethnic studies and sociology. Having lived as a journalist in Moscow with family ties to Polish and Russian Jewry during the Holocaust and Stalin\u2019s reign, Gessen explores issues of political choice.<\/p>\n “Totalitarian regimes aim to make choice impossible,\u201d Gessen said. \u201cWhat interests me now is that I think resistance can take the shape of making a choice, even when the choice is framed as one between unacceptable options.\u201d<\/p>\n As a regular contributor to The New York Times, <\/em>The New Yorker, <\/em>The Washington Post, Harper\u2019s Bazaar, <\/em>The New York Review of Books, <\/em>Vanity Fair and Slate, Gessen follows the threats to democracy in Europa and America. Gessen also has appeared on Trevor Noah\u2019s \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d and \u201cFull Frontal with Samantha Bee.\u201d<\/p>\n Gessen\u2019s talk at NAU, facilitated by the Martin-Springer Institute, is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"