Faculty Colloquium Series: Stephen Riegg (HIST) 9/29/2020
“Cocooned in the Caucasus: Dreams of French Silk at Russia’s Edge in the 1820s and 1830s“ Zoom Meeting information: Meeting ID: 918 8314 3307 Password: Riegg https://tamu.zoom.us/j/91883143307?pwd=UGxaM3g5WkFwblVGYTYxNHBVNEpCZz09 Dr. Stephen Riegg Assistant Professor, History, 2020-21 Glasscock Faculty Research Fellow Abstract: This paper is a section of a broader chapter on the entrepreneurial activities of Western European […]
“Cocooned in the Caucasus: Dreams of French Silk at Russia’s Edge in the 1820s and 1830s“
Zoom Meeting information:
Meeting ID: 918 8314 3307
Password: Riegg
https://tamu.zoom.us/j/91883143307?pwd=UGxaM3g5WkFwblVGYTYxNHBVNEpCZz09
Dr. Stephen Riegg
Assistant Professor, History, 2020-21 Glasscock Faculty Research Fellow
Abstract:
This paper is a section of a broader chapter on the entrepreneurial activities of Western European businesspeople in the Caucasus region of Imperial Russia in the early nineteenth century. Tracing the evolution of the tsarist government’s stance toward a mechanized silk-making firm established by the Frenchman Edouard Castellaz, the paper elucidates a rare episode of economic experimentation at Russia’s edge, one Western and Russian private entrepreneurs drove and the state backed. In looking at the often-conflicting Russian attitudes toward Castellaz’s project, this essay explores how imperialism and economic policy were entangled in the empire’s peripheries. Instead of weighing exploitation against growth, however, it aims to foster a discussion of the ideology, politics, and procedures that the autocracy applied to the industrial development of its borderlands.
The Faculty Colloquium offers faculty an opportunity to discuss a work-in-progress with faculty and graduate students from different disciplines. By long-standing practice, colloquium presenters provide a draft of their current research, which is made available to members of the Glasscock Center listserv. Each colloquium begins with the presenter’s short (10-15 minute) exposition of the project, after which the floor is open for comments and queries. The format is by design informal, conversational, and interdisciplinary.
The paper is available to members of the Center’s listserv, or by contacting the Glasscock Center by phone at (979) 845-8328 or by e-mail at glasscock@tamu.edu.
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