Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Rebecca Slayton
Director, Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Additional Information
Program
Role
- Faculty
- PACS Core Faculty
- PACS Director
- PACS Steering Committee
- PACS Minor Field Instructor
- Einaudi Faculty Leadership
Contact
Email: rs849@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-8914
Book Talk: "Crucibles of Power: Smolensk Under Stalinist and Nazi Rule"
September 11, 2025
12:00 pm
TBD
Crucibles of Power: Smolensk Under Stalinist and Nazi Rule
During the Cold War, the Smolensk Archive held the only collection of Communist Party documents available to Western scholars, becoming the foundation for generations of scholarship on Soviet history. Crucibles of Power returns to the Smolensk Region with fresh eyes and fresh sources. Prizewinning historian Michael David-Fox traces the experiences of Smolensk residents between the interwar years and the end of World War II, a period during which the city and region passed from Stalinist rule to Nazi occupation and back. The result is a revelatory examination of choice and power under dueling forms of murderous totalitarianism.
Exploring the life-and-death decisions of a fascinating cast of characters—from young women in the Communist Youth League to a defense lawyer during Stalin’s Great Terror who became Smolensk’s collaborationist mayor during the German occupation—David-Fox shows how deeply the Stalinist and Nazi regimes relied on the cooptation of average citizens motivated by greed and need, but always within the orbit of ideology. Challenging today’s Russian nationalist narrative of heroic WWII resistance, he finds that large numbers of Russians aided the Nazi occupation of Smolensk in order to protect themselves, secure their own self-interest, or pursue vendettas against a Soviet state they found no less corrupt or oppressive than its German foe.
At a time when much of the world is tilting away from liberal democracy and toward authoritarianism, Crucibles of Power masterfully unravels the threads of dictatorial rule. Smolensk emerges as a laboratory for understanding the mechanics of both outright coercion and subtler forms of power, as well as the enabling behavior of ordinary citizens acquiescing to extraordinary crimes.
Michael David-Fox is the author or editor of fifteen books, including Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union and Showcasing the Great Experiment: Cultural Diplomacy and Western Visitors to the Soviet Union, 1921–1941. He is Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies and Professor of History at Georgetown University.
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Institute for European Studies
Peace Studies and Peace Science Minor Graduate Field
The minor graduate field of Peace Studies and Peace Science provides interdisciplinary opportunities for graduate students pursuing research degrees to deepen their knowledge of international security, the structure and function of multinational systems, and the general areas of conflict analysis, conflict management, and conflict resolution.
The peace science concentration emphasizes mathematical modeling and game-theoretic models, while the peace studies concentration emphasizes historical, institutional, and policy-oriented approaches. The minor concentrations are intended to complement basic study in such fields as government, history, anthropology, public affairs, industrial and labor relations, agricultural economics, city and regional planning, civil and environmental engineering, economics, operations research, psychology, sociology, and science and technology studies.
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Opinion: The Danger of "Preventative" War in Iran
David Cortright, PACS
“White House claims about the supposed success of US bombing in Iran are highly uncertain, but there is no doubt that unprovoked US and Israeli military strikes against Iran are a direct violation of international law,” says PACS visiting scholar David Cortright.
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Brume Dezembro Iazzetti
Reppy Fellow 2025-26
Brume Dezembro Iazzetti is a PhD student in the Department of Science and Technology Studies. She is currently working on a proposal on early trans medicine in Brazil, amid the Military Dictatorship period, crossing discussions on futurity, ethnographies of (and beyond) violence, and paths to reparative justice. Her Ph.D. research moves into present-day controversies on emerging medical and digital technologies, and questions on body plasticity and extraordinary body transformations, including in right-wing movements.
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Upsana Singh
Reppy Fellow 2025-26
Upasana Singh is a J.S.D. candidate at the Cornell Law School. She is also working as a research assistant with Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, Dr. Kaushik Basu. She holds an LL.M. from Cornell Law School with a focus on conflict resolution and restorative justice. She serves on the review board of the Indian Law Institute Law Review.
Prior to this, she served as an Assistant Professor of Law in India and practiced as an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi.
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Sebastian Restrepo
Reppy Fellow 2025-26
Sebastian Restrepo is a PhD student in the Department of City and Regional Planning. His research interests focus on the institutional arrangements to improve the implementation of peace agreements in conflict or post-conflict regions. He has more than fifteen (15) years of experience designing and implementing regional development programs.
Additional Information
Program
Role
- Student
- PACS Current Graduate Fellow
- Graduate Student
Contact
Email: sebas.restrepo85@gmail.com
Saomai Nguyen
Reppy Fellow 2025-26
Saomai Phuong Nguyen (they/she) is a PhD student in the Department of History, focusing on Asian/American history. Their research examines refugee transits and passages after the war in Vietnam, particularly the in-waiting site of the refugee camp and how the children of refugees come to remember, understand, and embody their parents’ displacement and resettlement through memory work and cultural productions.
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Or Aroch
Reppy Fellow 2025-26
Or Aroch is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology. His research focuses on education and childhood in the context of Israel/Palestine. He examines how educational processes and children’s experiences in conflict-ridden Israel transform amid war, political instability, and civic upheaval, with attention to processes of militarization and nationalization, negotiations over future visions and collective memory, and the role of democratic and peace education in these circumstances.
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Kyaw Hsan Hlaing
Reppy Fellow 2025-26
Kyaw Hsan Hlaing is a PhD student in the Department of Government. He studies comparative politics and international relations with a focus on political violence, insurgency, authoritarianism, and regime change, exploring dynamics of civil conflict and post-war transitions.