Professor Michael Yonan gave the keynote lecture for the conference “Fragile Things: Material Culture from the Russian Empire” this past Friday, April 12. Yonan’s address was titled “From Material Culture to Materiality: Conceiving Meaning for Historical Things.” Organized by Yale University’s MacMillan Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, The Fragile Things conference explored how imperial violence highlights the fragility of objects, and challenges the frameworks by which we study the material culture.