Midwest Slavic Conference

We do not provide lodging for any participants at the conference. We encourage undergraduate and graduate students to apply for travel grants from their home universities to cover all travel costs. If any documentation is needed to apply for funds, please email cseees@osu.edu.

Lodging options include:

• The Blackwell Inn (on-campus) 
• Fairfield Inn and Suites (off-campus)
• Graduate Hotels Columbus (off-campus, ask for OSU Visitors Rate for 10-20% discount, offers bike rentals)
• Hilton Garden Inn (off-campus)
• Holiday Inn (off-campus, offers shuttle transportation)
• Holday Inn - Staybridge Suites OSU (off-campus)
• Homewood Suites (off-campus)
• Hyatt House Columbus (off-campus)
• Hyatt Place (off-campus)
• Red Roof Inn (off-campus)
• Spring Hill Suites (off-campus, offers shuttle transportation)
• Varsity Inn South (off-campus)

For those driving to campus, self-pay parking is available at parking garages close to the conference site in the Lane Avenue Garage and the Tuttle Garage.

A variety of taxi cab services also operate in the Columbus metro area, as well as Lyft and Uber.

• Yellow Cab of Columbus – (614) 444-4444
• Columbus Taxi Service – (614) 262-4444
• Blue Cab Company – (614) 236-4444
• Acme Taxi – (614) 777-7777
• Orange Cab – (614) 414-0000
• United Taxi – (614) 449-9999

You should prepare a presentation of 15-20 minutes in length, generally material that can be covered in an 8-10 page paper. If presenting or reading from a paper, be aware that reading directly from a paper is less engaging. Try to make eye-contact with the audience and not read word-for-word from the paper. Each panelist will present, then questions and discussion led by the chair will be at the end of the panel. Be respectful of other panelists' time to allow equal discussion and time for all members. Send your presentation materials to the panel chair promptly and do not send them longer versions of your paper, what you send them should represent what you will present at the conference. The conference rooms will each have a projector and internet access. Attendees should bring their own laptops and any special cords needed for connecting to a/v equipment. You can use PowerPoints or another presentation program, film clips, or other visual aids. Please prepare a backup in case you encounter any issues accessing your presentation. The conference site will have staff on hand to help. If you have any questions about a/v or software in the conference rooms, please email cseees@osu.edu in advance.

There are many dining options located in easy walking distance from the conference location, the Blackwell Inn and Conference Center. Below are a few close options but by no means is it an inclusive list.

• Buckeye Donuts-1998 North High St
• Buffalo Wild Wings- 2151 N High S
• Charleys Philly Steaks- 1980 N High St
• Chop Shop- 2159 N High St
• Chipotle Mexican Grill - 2130 N High St
• Donatos- 2084 N High St
• Diaspora-2118 North High St
• Dunkin Donuts- 2060 N High St
• McDonald's-1972 North High St
• Moe's Southwest Grill- 2040 N High St
• Noodles and Company-  2124 N High St
• Panda Bear Express-  2044 N High St
• Panera Bread- 300 W Lane Ave
• Pita Pit-1988 North High St
• Qdoba Mexican Grill-1956 North High St
• Red Chili-1948 North High St
• Sbarro-1990 North High St
• Subway- 2187 Neil Av
• Starbucks -  2130 N High St
• Tommy’s Pizza-174 W Lane Av
• Varsity Club Restaurant & Bar- 278 W Lane Ave
• Waffle House, 1712 North High St.
• Wendy's-2004 North High St
• White Castle-2106 N High St

Knowledge Bank is a digital repository maintained by OSU's University Libraries. Conference participants can elect to have their abstracts, papers, and PowerPoints included in Knowledge Bank. Within Knowledge Bank, CSEEES has created a community for the Midwest Slavic Conference that contains programs and participants' materials. Knowledge Bank is accessible through the University Libraries' website and is open to everyone, including those not affiliated with OSU. Papers are searchable and downloadable, helping to increase the impact of the conference and providing a way to spread participants' work. Learn more about the Knowledge Bank.

Check out CSEEES' community today!

Friday, April 5 - Sunday, April 7, 2024 

2024 Co-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

Keynote address: "Cold War: Then and Now" 

• Presented by Dr. Richard Herrmann (Ohio State U.)

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

• "Futurity, Nostalgia, and the (New) Cold War in Contemporary Television" by Dr. Julia Keblinska (Ohio State U.)
• "Reimagining Yugoslavia: Lessons for Today's World" by Brano Mandić (Editor in Chief and Founder of Normalizuj.me)
• "Glasnost and the End of the USSR" by Jeffrey Trimble (Board of Directors Chair at Eurasianet) 

Friday, March 24 - Sunday, March 26, 2023 

Co-sponsored by The American Councils for International Education, The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at The Ohio State U., The Havighurst Center at Miami U., The Society for Slovene Studies, U. of Pittsburgh’s Summer Language Institute, and U. of Washington's Roma Boniecka Endowed Program for Slovene Studies.

Keynote address: "Gothic Displacements and the Russian Imperial Conquest: Literary Cases of Finland and Ukraine" with Dr. Valeria Sobol (U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Plenary panel: "Fostering Community and Solidarity in a Time of Plague: Uniting Readers Across the Globe Through Russian Literature" by Dr. Anna Barker (U. of Iowa), "The Quotidian and the Crisis: Documenting the Immigrant Experience through Food Writing" by Dr. Philip Gleissner (Ohio State U.), and "Demopolitics, A Key to Understanding Modern Central-Eastern Europe and Beyond: Evidence from Poland" by Dr. Jarosław Szczepański (U. of Warsaw)

Friday, April 1 - Sunday, April 3, 2022

Co-sponsored by Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Keynote address: "Looking Across Species in the Anthropocene: Carnivores and Compassion" by Dr. Ian Helfant (Colgate U.)

Plenary panel: "Who Owns Icebergs? Seeking Multidisciplinary Solutions in a Legal Vacuum" by Dr. Matthew Birkhold (Ohio State U.), "What Can a Cosmic Collision Teach Us about Climate Change? The 1908 Tunguska Explosion and Environmental Perils of the Future" by Dr. Andy Bruno (Northern Illinois U.), and "Fighting "Future Famines" after the First World War" by Dr. Maria Fedorova (Macalester College).

Thursday, April 15 - Saturday, April 18, 2021

The 2021 conference was held in a virtual, online format. Information is available on the 2021 Midwest Slavic Conference Website.

Keynote address: “The Geography of Joy: Alex Dubas, Voices of Russian Happiness, and the Art of Translation”, by Dr. Yvonne Howell, University of Richmond

Plenary panel: “Manufacturing Consent: The Politics of Showmanship in Putin’s Russia” by Dr. Hannah S. Chapman, Miami University, “Temporalities of Concrete: Housing Imaginaries at the Margins of Europe” by Dr. Smoki Musaraj, Ohio University, and “War Memory as Entertainment in 21st Century Russia” by Dr. Karen Petrone, University of Kentucky

Sunday, September 13, 1:00 - 4:00PM EDT

Co-sponsored by The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Department of History OSU, Department of Linguistics OSU, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures OSU, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies OSU, the Undergraduate International Studies Program OSU, and University Libraries.

The 2020 Conference was originally scheduled for April 2020 but cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The originally scheduled conference keynote and plenary panel were held on September 13 online. No panels were held.

Keynote address: "Ordinary Apocalypse and Everyday Science Fiction" by Dr. Anindita Banerjee, Cornell University

Friday, April 5th - Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Co-sponsored by Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Department of History, OSU, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures OSU, The John Glenn College of Public Affairs OSU, and the Undergraduate International Studies Program OSU.

The 2019 conference had over 60 panelists and over 100 attendees. Papers, abstracts, and the conference program can be found in the conference's Knowledge Bank collection.

Keynote address: “A Farewell to an Empire Revisited” by Dr. Vitaly Chernetsky, University of Kansas

Friday, March 23rd - Sunday, March 25th, 2018

Co-sponsored by The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Center for African Studies, OSU, Center for Latin American Studies, OSU, Department of History OSU, Department of Political Science, OSU, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, OSU, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, OSU, East Asian Studies Center, OSU, The Global Mobility Project OSU, The John Glenn College of Public Affairs, OSU, The Mershon Center for International Security Studies, OSU, Middle East Studies Center, OSU , The Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, OSU, The Undergraduate International Studies Program OSU

Keynote address: "The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World" by Dr. Tara Zahra, University of Chicago

2018 Midwest Slavic Conference Knowledge Bank Community

Friday, April 7th - Sunday, April 9th, 2017

Co-sponsored by The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, The Center for Slavic and East European Studies OSU, The Department of Comparative Studies OSU, The Department of History OSU, The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures OSU, The Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies OSU, The Hilandar Research Library OSU, The Mershon Center for International Security Studies OSU, The Midwest Slavic Association, The Office of International Affairs OSU, The Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies OSU, and The Undergraduate International Studies Program, OSU.

Over 70 panelists presented at the conference with close to 150 attendees. Papers, abstracts, and program from the conference can be found in the conference's Knowledge Bank collection.

Keynote Address: "Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia, The Challenge of Covering Russia" by Anne Garrels

Programs from prior conferences can be found on CSEEES' Knowledge Bank community along with other materials from the conference.