Midwest Slavic Conference

General Information on the Conference

Each year the Midwest Slavic Association and CSEEES partner together to host the Midwest Slavic Conference. The conference has been held on the OSU campus since 2003 and is normally held in the spring. Participation is open to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars from across the United States and abroad. Approximately 30 panels are held each year with over 250 attendees from institutions throughout the country and internationally. Conference events include a keynote address, reception, and panels covering film, political science, culture, history, linguistics, and many other disciplines and that focus on all countries and regions of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Upcoming Conferences

2024 Midwest Slavic Conference

April 5-7, 2024 - Columbus, OH

2024 Conference Panel Schedule

Register for the Conference

The Midwest Slavic Association and The Ohio State University (OSU) Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (CSEEES) are pleased to announce the 2024 Midwest Slavic Conference to be held in-person at OSU in Columbus, Ohio on April 5-7, 2024. The conference committee invites proposals for papers on all topics related to the Slavic, East European and Eurasian world, particularly those related to the theme of Cold Wars past and present. The impact of Cold War-era tensions can still be felt in many parts of Eastern Europe and Eurasia and the effects continue to shape political and social landscapes. We welcome papers that will examine the ways in which the Cold War has influenced political ideologies, relationships with the West, and ongoing conflicts and pressures in the region. The conference theme will provide students and scholars with the opportunity to discuss these complex political and social dynamics.

The conference will open with a reception at the OSU Faculty Club (181 S Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210) from 5:30PM-7:00PM followed by the keynote address from 7:00PM-8:30PM by Dr. Richard Herrmann (Ohio State U.). Building on the keynote address, a plenary panel will follow on Saturday morning from 8:30AM-10:15AM at the Blackwell Inn and Conference Center (2110 Tuttle Park Pl., Columbus, OH 43210). Panels by conference participants will then be held on Saturday from 10:30AM-4:45PM and Sunday from 8:30AM-11:45AM. 

Abstract and Panel Submissions

Please submit a one-paragraph abstract and C.V. in a combined, single PDF file using our submission portal by 11:59 PM EST February 2nd, 2024. Undergraduate and graduate students are strongly encouraged to participate. Interdisciplinary work and pre-formed panels are encouraged. Proposals for individual papers are also welcome. Have questions? Please send all inquiries to cseees@osu.edu.

Registration is required to attend all conference events and activities. 

Deadlines                                                                                                                     

• Abstract and C.V. Deadline: February 2                                            
• Notification of Acceptance: February 19                                           
• Scheduling Conflicts Due: February 21                                                                    
• Panels Announced: February 23                                                     
• Final Papers to Chair: March 22 
• Presenter Registration Deadline: April 1

Registration Fees

Registration is REQUIRED to attend all conference events and activities. Registration will include entry to all conference panels as well as all special events listed in the Special Events section below.

• Student Presenters: $35*
• Faculty/Independent Scholars: $50
• General Attendees: $25*

*Donated Registrations for Young Scholars of Slavic Studies

Want to support up and coming scholars in our field? This year we have created an option for faculty and independent scholars to donate conference registration(s) for undergraduate and graduate students who are participating as presenters or general attendees. This will allow students to enjoy the conference to the fullest extent.

Students who are interested in receiving a waiver code for donated registrations should email CSEEES at cseees@osu.edu. Donated registrations will be available on a first come, first served basis.

Special Events

Opening Reception and Keynote Address with Dr. Richard Herrmann (Ohio State U.)

Friday, April 5, OSU Faculty Club, Main Dining Room on the 2nd Floor (181 S Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210) 

• Opening Reception, 5:30PM-7:00PM
• Keynote Address, 7:00PM-8:30PM

"Cold War: Then and Now" by Dr. Richard Herrmann (Ohio State U.)

The Cold War of the Twentieth Century emerged from world war and amidst the global transition from empires to nations, the internationalist resistance to this, and ideological contests over what forms of governance are best.  When it ended, many scholars attributed this to a shift in the balance of power that compelled the Soviet Union to retrench.  Other scholars emphasized the importance of leaders, especially Mikhail Gorbachev’s decision to defuse a spiral conflict.  Neither Western hawks nor doves anticipated the end of the Cold War, yet few of them changed their views despite the surprising development. Theodore Gerber finds in his 2023 study of the field, similar competing perspectives with again no one persuading anyone else or updating their preconceptions.  This may result from the inherent limitations in history-based research, how we infer motives, and estimate power.  It may also reflect a failure to lay out our logic and test our explanations by turning them around and forecasting the future and then learning when they prove wrong.  The Cold War of the Twenty-First Century is emerging from competing expectations evident at the end of the last one, with many then predicting global convergence to common values and norms, and others predicting once the unipolar moment of the 1990s passed, a clash of civilizations.  In the Cold War today, it appears Russia is determined to assert a competing conception of world order that rejects convergence, dismissing it as Western primacy.  Rather than dwell on what I wish for or think should happen, I will offer predictions for what I think will happen in Ukraine, Russia, and the East more generally, offering briefer remarks on where U.S and NATO policy will go.  I hope by doing this I can post expectations that can be learned from as history unfolds.

Plenary Panel: “Echoes of the Cold War: Past and Present Perspectives Across the Regions”

Saturday, April 6, 8:30-10:15AM, Pfahl Hall, Room 302 Blackwell Inn and Conference Center (2110 Tuttle Park Pl., Columbus, OH 43210)

"Futurity, Nostalgia, and the (New) Cold War in Contemporary Television" by Dr. Julia Keblinska (Ohio State U.)

This talk examines the appearance of “New Cold War” thematics, aesthetics, and discourses in television to question the “newness” of this contemporary geopolitical confrontation and extract the theoretical implications of its historical framing. The increased appearance of Cold War themes in popular culture predates the more recent deterioration of diplomatic relations between these “Easts” and “Wests.” This popular culture interest in the historical conflict thus also suggests a steady, if at times muted, undercurrent of cultural anxiety inflected by the uncertain end of the “first” Cold War. The complex temporal relationship between nostalgia and futurity, the old and the new conflict, is registered in the narrative structures, aesthetic styles, and medial concerns of contemporary television programs like the German Deutschland 83/86/89 series (2015-2020), Polish Netflix program 1983 (2018), and the “ur-text” of the Cold War renaissance in the US, The Americans (2013-2018).

In conversation with a group of scholars I recently brought together in a panel on global television and the (New) Cold War, I will report and respond to the freshest scholarship on the media of the New Cold War and suggest theoretical and comparative approaches that can help us understand how popular culture imagines a future defined by a Cold War idiom. By thinking across borders, regional and geopolitical, I will show how tropes of the Cold War become ways of negotiating contemporary difference in “former” Cold War states. Hashing out the anxieties (and potentially, desires) of the Cold War thus becomes a mode of thinking about the anxieties and desires of the present and future across national and regional boundaries.

"Reimagining Yugoslavia: Lessons for Today's World" by Brano Mandić (Editor in Chief and Founder of Normalizuj.me)

When delving into discussions about the Cold War, attention typically gravitates towards superpowers and the politics of imperial conflict on the grandest scale. However, what perpetuates a state of political tension in the world is not solely the ambitions of major superpowers but also the compliance of smaller countries. In this context, former Yugoslavia stands out as a distinctive blend of political substance and a creative vision for global peace, despite lacking the strength and size typically associated with such endeavors. The pertinent question is whether today's world provides a conducive framework for such aspirations and if its encouraging a true plurality of voices on the international stage. Contemplating experiences akin to Yugoslavia's in today's polarized world may seem even more challenging, given the evident crisis of state sovereignty, and the fact that many UN members passively observe the world sliding into bloc division.

While Yugoslavia was once an active political contributor emerging from the Europe's periphery, its six successor states now struggle to forge their own political identities. Conditioned by the economic and political landscape of the late neoliberal era, the post-Yugoslav countries serve as a paradigmatic example of the governance crisis in a globalized world. This crisis is marked by a deficiency in political sense, imagination, and responsibility during a time of historic turmoil. Considering all of this, it appears that the Yugoslav episode can serve as an inspirational example for scholars, historians, and politicians alike as they grapple with the complex questions of contemporary world politics.

"Glasnost and the End of the USSR" by Jeffrey Trimble (Board of Directors Chair at Eurasianet) 

The twilight of the Cold War coincided with the bold but ultimately failed efforts by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to revitalize and reform the USSR. My talk will explore one of the most exciting and impactful of Gorbachev’s reforms, which so captivated the world that its name – glasnost – found its way into English and other languages. Glasnost – most often translated as “openness” or “transparency” – helped shape global opinion about Gorbachev and the USSR and even influenced government policy decisions, including in the United States, as the Soviet Union stumbled toward dissolution in 1991. 

I will explore glasnost from two perspectives: its domestic impact within the Soviet Union, and its effects on international attitudes and actions toward the USSR. My observations and conclusions will draw on my personal experiences and reporting in the USSR as Moscow bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report magazine from 1986 to 1991. I will explore what glasnost was – an unprecedented period of flourishing public debate and media pluralism within the USSR and in international reporting about the Soviet Union – and what glasnost was not: unfettered freedom of speech in the USSR and truly independent domestic Soviet media. I conclude that glasnost, launched as a Kremlin-controlled information policy to further Gorbachev’s aim to reinvent the USSR, ultimately fueled dissatisfaction not only with the Soviet leader and his reforms, but with the entire construct of the Soviet Union – thereby hastening the collapse of the system and dismantling of the largest country in the world.

Lunchtime Screening: José Limón’s Missa Brevis with Mara Frazier (Ohio State U.)

Saturday, April 6, 12:15-1:15PM, Pfahl Hall, Room 302 

• A light lunch will be served to attendees. Attendance is free for registered conference attendees, but sign-up is required due to room capacity.
• Presented in partnership with the Polish Studies Initiative, Limón Dance Company, and the Ohio State Department of Dance.

New Roundtable: Exploring REEE Careers Beyond Academia 

Saturday, April 6, 1:30-3:00PM, Pfahl Hall, Room 330

Chair: Dr. Theodora Kelly McGee (Denison U.)
Speakers: 

• Alicia Baca (U. of Colorado - Boulder, Ohio State U.)
• Eric Connelly (Ohio State U., Riverside Research)
• Dr. Sara Ceilidh Orr (Ohio State U., Moonstream)

Midwest Slavic Association Meeting

Saturday, April 6, 5:00-5:30 PM, Pfahl Hall, 3rd Floor Foyer

2024 Co-Sponsors

The Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies at Ohio State and the Midwest 
Slavic Association would like to thank this year’s sponsors.

Gold Sponsors

• The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at Ohio State U. and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State U.

Silver Sponsors

• Academic Studies Press, the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at U. of Texas at Austin, the Department of Linguistics at Ohio State U., the Hilandar Research Library at Ohio State U., Kenyon College, and the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute at Indiana U., Bloomington

Bronze Sponsors

• The Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at U. of Michigan, the Department of Political Science at Ohio State U., and the Summer Language Institute at U. of Pittsburgh