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.

Midwestern states map with superimposed photo of the Red Square.

Upcoming Conferences

2025 Midwest Slavic Conference

April 4-6, 2025 - Columbus, OH

2025 Conference Panel Schedule

The Midwest Slavic Association and The Ohio State University’s (OSU) Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (CSEEES) are pleased to announce the 2025 Midwest Slavic Conference to be held in-person in Columbus, OH on April 4-6, 2025. 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 authenticity. 

The desire for the authentic emerges from a complex interplay of cultural, historical, and social factors, often stemming from a longing for connection to one's heritage and identity. In a world increasingly dominated by globalization and mass production—processes that have both human and machine dimensions—many find themselves yearning for narratives, artifacts, and practices that resonate with their cultural origins and lived experiences. At the same time, forces in society today and in the past, including governments and non-government actors, sometimes look to “sell” items and storylines as “authentic” when they are anything but and have distinctly manipulative and often malign aims. Why do people desire the authentic and what values underlie that desire? Conversely, what motivates people to produce inauthentic products or narratives? We welcome papers that will examine these concepts as we explore how the tension between authenticity and inauthenticity affects perceptions of the peoples, cultural practices and histories of Eastern Europe and Eurasia.

The conference will open at 5:30PM on Friday with a keynote address by Dr. Mikhail Epstein (Emory U.). Building on the keynote address, a plenary panel will follow on Saturday morning. 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 full C.V. in a combined, single PDF file using our submission portal by 11:59 PM EST January 24th, 2025. 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. Online participation is not available and all potential presentations are expected to happen in person.

Registration is required to attend all conference events and activities. 

Deadlines

  • Abstract and C.V. Deadline: Friday, January 24, 2025
  • Notification of Acceptance: Monday, February 17, 2025
  • Scheduling Conflicts Due: Friday, February 21, 2025
  • Panels Announced: Monday, February 24, 2025
  • Final Papers to Chair: Monday, March 24, 2025
  • Presenter Registration Deadline: Monday, March 31, 2025

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*

Registration for general attendees can also be purchased by cash or check and online with a valid credit card during the weekend of the conference. However, prices will be increased to $70 per person for general attendees beginning Friday, April 4.

*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 after panels are announced on February 24. Donated registrations will be available on a first come, first served basis.

2025 Co-Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

  •  Academic Studies Press; the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at Ohio State U.; the Hilandar Research Library at Ohio State U.; and the Mershon Center for International Security 
    Studies at Ohio State U.

Silver Sponsors

  • Bard College; the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at U. of Texas at Austin; and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard U.

Bronze Sponsors

  • The Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at U. of Michigan; the Department of History at Ohio State U. and the Department of Linguistics at Ohio State U.

Special Events: Friday, April 4

Opening Reception and Keynote Address with Dr. Mikhail Epstein (Emory U.)

Friday, April 4, OSU Faculty Club, Grand Lounge on the 1st Floor (181 S Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210) 

  • Opening Reception and MWSA Officer Announcement, 5:30PM-6:30PM
  • Keynote Address, 6:30PM-8:00PM
"New Russian Apocalypticism" by Dr. Mikhail Epstein (Emory U.)

This keynote address will analyze a dangerous pseudo-religious ideology that has emerged in post-Soviet Russia, combining Orthodox Christianity, Eurasianism, radical nationalism, and apocalyptic beliefs. The talk explores how this ideology justifies and even glorifies destruction, viewing it as a path to salvation. Through analysis of works by Vladimir Sharov and Alexander Dugin, Prof. Epstein demonstrates how this apocalypticism differs from traditional religious thought by merging Christ and Antichrist, sanctifying violence, and viewing nuclear annihilation as a purifying force.

In his address, Prof. Epstein examines several key aspects of this ideology: the theological justification of terror, the concept of "sanctimony" (holy fury against perceived enemies), and the Eurasianist philosophy that views Russia's mission as hastening the end of the world, paying particular attention to how this mindset manifests in contemporary Russian Orthodox Church teachings and state policy, especially vis à vis nuclear weapons. He draws connections between historical Russian religious movements and current political rhetoric, showing how traditional apocalyptic thinking has evolved into a dangerous fusion of religious fervor and military capability.

The speaker argues that this ideology presents a grave danger not only to Russia but to humanity as a whole, as it combines metaphysical death-worship with actual means of mass destruction.

Special Events: Saturday, April 5

“Shaping East European and Eurasian Culture and History: Forging Authentic Narratives Through AI, Media, and Storytelling Methods”

8:30-10:15AM, Pfahl Hall, Room 202 Blackwell Inn and Conference Center (2110 Tuttle Park Pl., Columbus, OH 43210)

Chair: Dr. Timothy Pogačar (Bowling Green State U., Midwest Slavic Association President)

Panelists

"Faking It: What Fictions of AI Reveal About the Future of Human Language" by Dr. Molly T. Blasing (U. of Kentucky)

This paper highlights literary and cinematic narratives as a means to understand and anticipate developments in human language as we increasingly rely on artificial intelligence tools.  Examining fictional works like Ted Chiang’s “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” (2010) and Pelevin’s iPhuck 10 (2017), and film and TV series such as Her (2013), Better than Us (Лучше, чем люди, 2018) and I’m not a Robot (2023), I will interrogate how writers, filmmakers, and AI innovators have imagined the sociocultural and linguistic evolution of human language. Large language models have already begun to change how we speak and write; what, then, can artistic representations tell us about the effects of these technologies on the future of language?  And how well do these fictional accounts imagine the real-world debates and empirical evidence emerging today around AI and sociolinguistics, critical literacy, functional language use, and philosophies of mind.  

"Media, mind, and authenticity" by Dr. Ludmila Isurin (Ohio State U.)

When thinking about authenticity, synonyms like rightfulness, validity, trustworthiness, and credibility come to mind. Are media reports about military conflicts involving the “other” are always trustworthy? In this talk, I will discuss findings from my recent project on the events of 2014-2018 in Ukraine and, specifically, the takeover of Crimea in 2014, and findings from my current project on the US and Russian media coverage of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Both conservative and liberal outlets in the United States and state-controlled and independent media in Russia were analyzed. The first study looked at how ideologically biased media, both in Russia and in the United States, have covered the takeover of Crimea in 2014, and how the individual minds, both in Russia and the United States, consumed this often biased and distorted information. The study examines this old phenomenon at the interface of conscious media distrust among individuals who subconsciously embrace these constructs, forming memories along the ideological lines promoted by the same institutions they question. 

In line with the previous study, the second study is based on the analysis of a few controversial events at the beginning of Russian invasion of Ukraine. As the analyses of the media coverage of both events have shown, there is no such a thing as unbiased/ authentic media. The main question remains to what extent the media outlets are biased and whether we can decipher some truth through reading conflicting reports from one side of the conflict (Russia) and from the perspective of the third-party, United States, that often echoes the information presented to them by Ukrainian authorities.

"Unsettling Contested Narratives: Storytelling and the Quest for an Authentic History" by Dr. Malkhaz Toria (Ilia State U., Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center at Harvard U.) 

Controversial and contested narratives of an “unmastered past" polarize societies and contribute to “memory wars” that, in certain cases, play a significant role in fueling armed conflicts. The Georgian-Abkhaz conflict (1992–1993) exemplifies such dynamics, where symbolic and military clashes over ethnic ownership of territories escalated into destruction, killings, and ethnic cleansing. The antagonistic historical discourses of both Georgians and Abkhaz largely draw on Soviet-era primordialist and ethnocentric historiographical traditions. These narratives evolved in parallel with growing interethnic tensions in post-Stalinist Soviet Abkhazia, reinforcing divisive historical interpretations.

However, history can be conceptualized not only through contestation but also through dialogue, which may facilitate conflict resolution in divided societies. Memory, as an essential element of social life, has the capacity to sustain democratic processes, but its impact depends on how it is used or “abused” as a political instrument. This presentation argues for an approach to historical dialogue that aligns with agonistic and democratic perspectives on the past. Such an approach aspires to an “authentic history": one that challenges deeply rooted historical assumptions, adheres to rigorous scholarly criteria, deconstructs historical myths, and fosters public spaces where historical hypotheses and conclusions can be critically examined. It entails embracing differences while rejecting totalizing narratives and represents a decolonizing effort aimed at disentangling historical knowledge production from [Soviet] imperial traditions. In conflict-torn societies where history is frequently instrumentalized to reinforce dominant narratives, the ability to reclaim one's own history (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012) and the challenge of delinking from imposed memory (Tlostanova & Mignolo, 2009) remain both severely constrained and profoundly liberating.

This talk will particularly emphasize the role of oral histories, life stories, and storytelling as pathways toward an authentic history. By ensuring that the voices of “ordinary” people - alongside decision-makers - are preserved, this approach addresses critical gaps left by traditional historical sources. It amplifies the voices of marginalized groups, including ethnic and religious minorities, residents of peripheral regions, and vulnerable segments of society, such as women. In doing so, it enriches our understanding of significant historical events and transformations. By integrating insights from critical historical studies, memory studies, and oral history, this presentation scrutinizes conceptual frameworks for challenging reductive, divisive, and conflictual narratives. It explores multiperspective, inclusive, and balanced approaches to the past and diverging memories in the context of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.

1:30-3:00PM - Session 2, Pfahl Hall, Room 230

Panel Chair: Dr. Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Ohio State U.)
Participants:

  • Michelle McKenzie (Riverside Research, Ohio State U.)
  • Elliott Nowacky (Indiana U., Bloomington, U. of Texas, Austin)
  • Elise Stephens (Internews, Middlebury College)

Join us for our career roundtable for soon-to-be and recent graduates. If you would like to learn about careers beyond the professoriate in our field, drop on in! The speakers on this roundtable represent a range of professions including higher education administration, the national security sector, and video game development.

3:15-4:45PM, Pfahl Hall, 2nd Floor Foyer

CSEEES is pleased to announce the 2025 Midwest Russian, East European and Eurasian (REEE) Undergraduate Digital Poster Forum. The forum will take place on Saturday, April 5, 3:15-4:45 PM on the second-floor foyer of the Blackwell Inn and Conference Center as a part of the 2025 Midwest Slavic Conference. The research forum will highlight the work of undergraduate students who are conducting guided research on any topic in any discipline related to the Eastern European and Eurasian regions. Participating students will design a digital poster to present their original research at the forum and will be expected to give a short oral presentation on it to judges. 

2025 Poster Presentations

  • "Do Not be Deceived: the Danger of Bad Faith in 'The Meek One'" by Isabella Marie Folio (Bowling Green State U.)
  • "Expert Designs or Fragile Understanding? The Competence of American Diplomacy and Influence in the Creation of the First Yugoslav State" by Matthew Ployhart (Clemson U.)
  • "Chernobyl Crisis" by Cristina Sirbu (Gustavus Adolphus College)
  • "‘El Menen Jer Kindiktesh’: Mining Nationalism in the Kyrgyz Republic" by Isaac Steinmeyer (The College of Wooster)

2025 Judges

  •  Dr. Molly T. Blasing (U. of Kentucky)
  • Dr. Malkhaz Toria (Ilia State U., Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center at Harvard U.) 

5:00-5:30 PM, Pfahl Hall, 2nd Floor Foyer

All registered conference attendees receive membership through their registration fee!

Join the Midwest Slavic Association (MWSA) for our annual meeting! MWSA supports Slavic, East European, and Central Asian studies in the Midwest region of the U.S. and beyond. We'll discuss ideas for future conferences, provide updates, and more. This year will also be welcoming our incumbent President, Vice-President, and Graduate Student Representative. We hope to see you there!

To learn more about MWSA, please visit our webpage.   

6:30-8:00 PM, The O on Lane

This event is for undergraduate and graduate students ONLY.

We inviting participating and attending undergraduate and graduate students for our annual student mixer starting at 6:30PM. This will be a wonderful opportunity for our emerging scholars to meet and network with their peers in an informal setting. This year's mixer will be hosted by CSEEES' Graduate Student Representative, Luke Bendick. Shareables and non-alcoholic beverages will be covered by CSEEES.

6:30-8:00 PM, Budd Dairy Food Hall

This event is for faculty and independent scholars ONLY.

Join the CSEEES and MWSA staff for our faculty and independent scholar mixer starting at 6:30PM. This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet and network with colleagues in an informal setting. 

General Conference Information

We do not provide funding for 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.

2025 Room Blocks

CSEEES has reserved a block of 25 rooms at the Staybridge Suites: Columbus OSU-Medical Center (3125 Olentangy River Rd, Columbus, OH 43202). A 20% discount will be applied to anyone booking for April 4-6 using the link below (no code needed). Rooms are available on a first come, first served basis. 

Book Now!

Other lodging options include:

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.

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.

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!

Prior Conferences

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" 

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, 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

Prior Conference Programs

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