**CANCELLED - CV-19 PRECAUTIONS** MONTREAL LECTURE: Alison Rowley - Putin Kitsch in America

McCall McBain Arts Building, McGill University, 853 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC
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**CANCELLED BY MCGILL UNIVERSITY DUE TO CV-19 PRECAUTIONS**

Join Alison Rowley for a RGTGM talk on the subject of her latest book, Putin Kitsch in America. The lecture is titled Who Needs Elvis When You Can Have Putin? The Russian President in American Popular Culture and will take place in Room 160 of the McCall McBain Arts Building, McGill University downtown campus.

Alison Rowley is professor of Russian history at Concordia University.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Vladimir Putin's image functions as a political talisman far outside of the borders of his own country. Studying material objects, fan fiction, and digital media, Putin Kitsch in America traces the satirical uses of Putin's public persona and how he stands as a foil for other world leaders. Uncovering a wide variety of material culture - satirical, scatological, even risqué - made possible by new print-on-demand technologies, Alison Rowley argues that the internet is crucial to the creation of contemporary Putin memorabilia. She explains that these items are evidence of young people's continued interest and participation in politics, even as some experts decry what they see as the opposite. The book addresses the ways in which explicit sexual references about government officials are used as everyday political commentary in the United States.