November 22, 2019
Associate Professor of History Mauricio Borrero, Ph.D. recently traveled to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, where he delivered a keynote address at the Seventh Siberian Historical Forum. Approximately 600 people attended the conference, including leading scholars of Siberian history from St. Petersburg and Moscow. Dr. Borrero was one of only five foreign scholars and the only U.S. scholar to attend. Along with other participants he was interviewed in local Krasnoyarsk news outlets, such as the newspaper Goroskie novosti and the television channel, TVK.
The conference coincided with the 400th anniversary of Yeniseisk, Siberia, one of the key forts founded in 1619 as the Russian consolidated its control of Siberia. As part of the founding anniversary, public historians in Yeniseisk are working to rebuild churches that were destroyed or allowed to decay during the Communist period, and are very much interested in establishing collaborations with other public history programs abroad.
Dr. Borrero’s keynote address on Siberia’s place in world history emphasized Siberia’s role as a Russian colony, connected it with colonial and post-colonial histories in other regions around the world. He applies the same emphasis to his teaching of HIS 1000C Emergence of a Global Society.