Dear friends, happy new year to you all!
We enter 2025 filled with optimism about the region we study and our talented students and faculty who continue to amaze me with their creativity and research.
Our continuing focus on Southeast Europe has been evident throughout the year, and we are pleased that our MA students had the opportunity this autumn to study with one of the premiere historians of the Balkan region in Dr. Theodora Dragostinova. In spring Dr. Sunnie Rucker-Chang—appointed last summer as Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Cultures—will bring the Balkans to undergraduate students in her Slavic 2345.10 course, Introduction to Balkan and South Slavic Culture, and Dr. Matthew Boyd has invited a Serbian poet to speak to his BCS classes in February. My own work with the Serbian Educational Alliance was highlighted at a conference celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Center for U.S. Studies at the University of Belgrade. Ambassador Christopher Hill also spoke at the conference in October, and as you see in the photo above, he invited me and other SEA participants to his residence that evening. I met an Ohio State alumna at the conference who is now pursuing an MA degree in Peace, Development and Security Studies at U of Belgrade. Our SEA Spring Lecture series (shared with Belgrade via Zoom) continues—please watch our website for details on how to tune in. As always, we are delighted to foster close and productive relationships between our institutions.
CSEEES continues to support student engagement at home and across the globe, and this year we were thrilled to contribute to student travel to the United Nations Climate Change Negotiations in Azerbaijan. Part of Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle’s co-taught (with Dr. Bart Elmore) History 4705, Seminar in the History of Environment, Technology and Science, the trip to Baku was shared with us through student Instagram takeovers. Check them out if you’re on social media!
The autumn semester was busy as always with guests, projects, outreach to community and classrooms. Our new Russian language instructor at Columbus International High School, our own Dr. Helen Myers, invited all manner of faculty and staff into her classroom this fall to share about places Russian language is used and Russia’s history with other countries in the region. I was able to describe a “field trip” I took to Brighton Beach in September, illustrated with photographs of Russian-language drug stores, book stalls, and doctor’s offices. We are grateful that our Title VI grant enables us to bring Russian language to high school students. That is the place to capture young Americans’ interest and begin to educate them about the region!
One of the ways the Center has been increasing our impact in recent years is by leveraging partnerships with other centers across the country. We are pleased to continue to contribute to the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies' newest In Focus virtual lecture series, this year entitled "Bodies in Focus: Power, Subjectivity and Practice in East European and Eurasian Studies.” Watch our website for forthcoming sessions, usually held at 11 AM on Fridays—and if you’re on campus, consider attending a “watch party” in Enarson Hall with assistant director Emma Pratt. We also participate in The Youth Activism and Resilience Book Club for Educators, part of the World Area Book Club, an ongoing virtual professional development initiative that brings K-14 educators together through discussions about books that cover a wide range of global topics. In the evening on February 4 author Sonya Bilocerkowycz will talk about her book On Our Way Home from the Revolution. Sonya is an Ohio State MFA alumna—if you haven’t read her book yet, I highly recommend it!
Other highlights this semester will include a symposium on integrating machine translation into translation practices, another visit from some of our Serbian colleagues to explore war games as pedagogy with the Mershon Center, and of course the Midwest Slavic Conference April 4-6, where we welcome Dr. Mikhail Epstein of Emory University and a host of students and colleagues from across the U.S. and the world for a conference themed Authenticity. The Midwest Slavic Association will accept proposals through January 24. Come join us to see what we have to say on that front—we’d love to see any and all of our Center friends there. We also plan an event on February 21—in conjunction with the GAHDT project Armed Conflicts and Im/mobility: The Courage, Creativity, and Resilience of People Remaining in Conflict and Disaster Zones—that will mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine. Certainly our understanding of the region we study has shifted due to this full-scale war. The current tragedy feels unprecedented, but we are doing our best to maintain perspective and to keep on keeping on—supporting students and colleagues and educating Ohioans about the complexities of our region.
Indeed, students remain a joyous part of our work as we nurture our FLAS students (both grad and undergrad), provide opportunities for them and a larger set of Ohio State and regional students, and get ready to select a new class of M.A. students for autumn 2025. Thank you for your support for and attention to CSEEES. It is a great honor to pursue our goals and serve our mission with faculty at our side.
With warmest greetings from Ohio State,
Angela