Image

ABERDEEN, S.D. – Dr. Steven Usitalo of the Northern State University College of Arts and Sciences will attend national and international conferences on the topic of genocide in Omaha, Neb., and Paris, France, this semester.

Usitalo, professor of history, will attend an educational forum titled “Vectors of Violence: Persecution and Complacency in Nazi Germany and the Great Plains,” at the University of Nebraska-Omaha March 27-28. University educators from Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana are targeted for this seminar, an effort by the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., to enrich pedagogy on the Holocaust (and genocide more generally) across the Plains states and the Midwest.

Usitalo will also attend a conference on “The Legacies of the Romani Genocide in Europe: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives” at the Musée national d'histoire de l'immigration in Paris this May. Usitalo plans to write a scholarly paper on the representation of the Roma (and the genocide of the Roma) in postwar Soviet culture for this conference.

Usitalo was invited to these conferences after traveling to Washington, D.C., in January to attend the Mandel Center’s Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar

Usitalo is a specialist in Russian and Soviet history, the history of science and the history of film. A recipient of several research grants, Usitalo has co-edited an anthology on Russian history and published a monograph on the Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov. At present his research focuses on Russian/Soviet and Armenian film and on curiosity and collecting  specifically, the development of Russia’s first museum in the early 18th century.

He earned a B.A. in history from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; completed the master's program (certificate received) in political history from the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland; earned an M.A. in Soviet and East European studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario; and received a Ph.D. in history from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

About Northern State University

Northern State University is a regional university that offers outstanding academics and exceptional extracurricular activities at an affordable price on a safe, welcoming campus. Northern State recently announced its Educational Impact Campaign, with a goal of raising $45 million for a new South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, new athletic and recreation fields, and an on-campus regional sports complex. Once the campaign is complete, NSU will be the recipient of more than $100 million in privately funded building projects and scholarships within a decade. To learn more, visit NSU Admissions.