Tuesday, November 3, 20264:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Bunche Hall, Rm 10383
The UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies hosts a quarterly graduate student lecture and mixer. Anatoli Ulyanov (UCLA Department of Anthropology) will deliver a lecture entitled "What Makes You Killable? Language and Enemy-Making in the Russo-Ukrainian War" on Tuesday, November 3 at 4pm, to be followed by a student mixer open to all UCLA students and lecture attendees. Please register to join us.
About the Talk
Two days into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a blindfolded prisoner of war is ordered to say one word: palianytsia, the name of a Ukrainian loaf of bread. He fails, and a rifle butt is promised in return. In the weeks that followed, the same test spread to checkpoints, shelters, and city streets — and it could not tell an invading soldier from a Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizen.
Violence is not an event. It is a process. Before people are killed, they are made killable. This lecture follows that making through the language of the Russo-Ukrainian war: from a loaf of bread to a pig and a dog fused into a single verdict of disgust and threat, to a homophobic slur turned into a name for the enemy. What does it take for a human being to become someone it is acceptable to kill?
Access promotional video
About the Speaker
Anatoli Ulyanov is a linguistic anthropologist and documentary filmmaker at UCLA. He studies how language, images, and sound make enemies and render people killable, with a focus on the Russo-Ukrainian war. His article "Palatal Violence: Sonic Gatekeeping and Enemy-Making in Wartime Ukraine" appeared in the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology in 2026. In his research, he combines close interpretive analysis with computational instruments of his own design. Before academia, he served as Head of Media at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv and led multilingual analysis of antisemitism, hate speech, and extremist content for a Google/YouTube content-safety project. A CERS Research Fellow (2025, 2026), he collaborates with the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate and the California Civil Rights Department on hate-crime prevention.
Venue
Bunche Hall Room 10383
(10th Floor, accessible via elevator and stairs)
11282 Portola Plaza
Los Angeles, CA
Restrooms available on 10th and 11th floor. Gender-neutral wheelchair accessible restrooms available on Floor 1 of Bunche Hall and multi-stall wheelchair accessible restrooms available on Floors 1-3 of Bunche Hall.
Parking
Nearby parking is available at Parking Structure 5 and Parking Structure 3.
Guest drop/Ride-share drop off is closest at the turnaround at the front of Royce Hall located at: 10745 Dickson Court, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Accessible parking: If you have accessibility needs, you may park in the Pay-By-Space/Visitor Parking area on the rooftop (level 5) of this structure and proceed to the Self-Service Pay Station machine to pay by credit card.
Sponsor(s): Center for European and Russian Studies, Department of Anthropology