Jessica Pisano, Author at Public Seminar

Democracy

The Only Way War in Ukraine Can End

On Jessica Pisano’s Staging Democracy and the function of political theater

March 28, 2023 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb, James Miller and Jessica Pisano

Zelenskyy’s approach to political leadership has been focused on creating conditions that allow people to self-mobilize and self-govern....

<strong>The Only Way War in Ukraine Can End</strong>

Europe & Central Asia

Notes on Kharkiv

An ethnographer’s reflections on communication in wartime

February 22, 2023 • by Jessica Pisano

In this war, resistance to Russian aggression is equipped and organized and supported as much through volunteer networks as through the generous but slow-walked bankrolling from European countries whose promises and delays Ukrainian linguistic inventiveness has come to describe as “Macroning” and “Shultzing around.”...

Europe & Central Asia

The Politics of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Peter J. Hoffman, Nina Krushcheva, Jessica Pisano, and Everita Silina discuss the conflict and its consequences

March 16, 2022 • by Nina Khrushcheva, Jessica Pisano, Everita Silina and Peter Hoffman

This conversation between Peter J. Hoffman, Nina Krushcheva, Jessica Pisano, and Everita Silina was organized by The New School’s Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs, with an eye towards bringing light to different angles and perspectives on this conflict. It occurred on March 1, 2022, and has been ...

Democracy

Performances of Democracy

An excerpt from Jessica Pisano’s Staging Democracy

March 6, 2022 • by Jessica Pisano

This book is about performances of democratic politics in Russia and Ukraine: why people take part in such performances, how they are related to economic change, and how they affect the meanings that attach to political participation. ...

North America

Yes, Putin cares about Trump’s impeachment trial — but not for the reason you might imagine

He has another target in mind

February 4, 2020 • by Jessica Pisano

But the Kremlin does not need assistance from Trump -- much less from Rudolph Giuliani -- to find or manufacture dirt in Ukraine about Trump’s political rivals. Russia has highly trained professionals for that: kompromat, or compromising material, and blackmail are key Kremlin tools. Trump’s claim that he was concerned about corruption in Ukraine makes sense ...

Yes, Putin cares about Trump’s impeachment trial — but not for the reason you might imagine

Democracy

Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump

The word is weighted with different meanings in Ukraine.

February 4, 2020 • by Jessica Pisano

And yet, as some Republican members of Congress have noted, in his televised Sept. 25 meeting with Trump, when asked about the now-infamous July 25 phone call in which Trump asked for a favor, Zelensky said “nobody pushed me.” Why would Zelensky claim that “nobody pushed” if military aid was indeed on the ...

Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump

Democracy

Trump says he was looking for corruption in Ukraine — where President Zelenskyy was known for mocking corruption in Ukraine

Like Trump, Zelenskyy was a showman before he entered politics. So what does he stand for?

February 4, 2020 • by Jessica Pisano

Zelenskyy’s career as a showman reveals Ukrainians’ shared sense of moral values, frustration with politicians’ corruption and national solidarity in the face of Russia’s politics of division. I’ll explain below. Zelenskyy emphasized shared values Trained as a lawyer, Zelenskyy made his name in the Russian-speaking world through competitive improvisational comedy, on a ...