Thomas Lahusen
Professor of Comparative Literature and History
Affiliations: CERES
PhD, Lausanne, Switzerland [EE/Rus]
Contact Information
Email: thomas.lahusen@utoronto.ca
Phone: 416-946-8965
Web: http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/ceres/profile/thomas-lahusen/
Office: 319 N Munk School of Global Affairs
Leave Status: N/A
Bio & Research
Research interests: the multi-faceted experiences of “real socialism” and other forms of “totalitarian” culture during the twentieth century. Publications include: How Life Writes the Book: Real Socialism and Socialist Realism in Stalin’s Russia (1997) and the following co-edited collections: Late Soviet Culture: From Perestroika to Novostroika (1993), Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s (1995), Socialist Realism without Shores (1997), What Is Soviet Now? Identities, Legacies, Memories (2008), and a number of special journal issues, including “Aube Rouge: Les Années Trente en Extrême-Orient soviétique” (Revue d’etudes slaves, 1999), “Harbin and Manchuria: Place, Space, and Identity” (South Atlantic Quarterly, 2001), “Harbin: Histoire, Memoire et Difference” (Revue d’etudes slaves, 2001). Production and direction of documentary films, including The Province of Lost Film (2006-08); Komsomolsk mon amour (2007); The Photographer (2008); The Interim Country (2010-11), In Search of Roubakine (2012), all produced by Chemodan Films (www.chemodanfilms.com). Present work: a monograph devoted to the history of Soviet film exhibition and on two documentary films; the first is devoted to the state-wide effort in the People’s Republic of China to use digital media for education and entertainment in geographical areas and social settings where positive state presence has declined; the second deals with the “memory industry” relative to the remembrance of former foreign residents of North-East China, including Japanese, Russians, Poles, and the Jewish diaspora.
