Midwest Slavic Association

About the Midwest Slavic Association

The Midwest Slavic Association is a regional affiliate of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). It has been promoting the study of Eastern Europe and Eurasia since the first Midwest Slavic Conference was held at Bowling Green State University in 1952. Since 2003, the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (CSEEES) has hosted and organized the annual Midwest Slavic Conference at Ohio State, its permanent location.

Current Officers:

  • President:  Dr. Tim Pogacar, Bowling Green State University
  • Vice-President: Dr. James McGavran, Kenyon College
  • Treasurer: Emma Pratt, Ohio State U
  • Conference Organizer: Alicia Baca, Ohio State U
  • Graduate Student Representative: Lejla Veskovic, Ohio State U

2023 Midwest Slavic Association Student Essay Prize Competition

In addition to its support of the Midwest Slavic Conference, the Midwest Slavic Association also runs an essay prize competition each spring for undergraduate and graduate students with support from ASEEES. Undergraduate and graduate students can submit a paper on any topic related to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies to the Midwest Slavic Association for consideration. Students should have participated in the Midwest Slavic Conference, or be from an institution in the Midwest (defined as any college or university in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). The best undergraduate paper received will win a one-year membership to ASEEES, and the graduate winner will receive a one-year membership to ASEEES, as well as being considered then for the ASEEES Graduate Student Essay Prize at the national level. The graduate winner of the ASEEES Student Essay Prize at the national level wins travel, lodging, and registration for the Annual ASEEES Convention and membership for the following year. The prize is presented during the awards presentation at the Annual Convention.

Undergraduate Papers

Undergraduate paper submissions can be in a variety of formats, including: conference paper, thesis, course paper, or article. They should be no longer than 20 double-spaced pages including notes and bibliography. Submissions must be submitted electronically and written in English. With your submission, please also include a short bio of the author, an abstract of the essay, and indicate the format of the essay.

Graduate Papers

Graduate essay submissions can be of several formats: expanded versions of conference papers, graduate level seminar papers, Master's thesis chapters, or dissertation chapters. The student should indicate what type of paper they are submitting and provide an abstract. Essays should have a minimum word count of 7,500 and a maximum word count of 14,000 (25 to 50 pages approximately) inclusive of footnotes and bibliography. Submissions must be written in English, double-spaced, and include footnotes or endnotes. With your submission, please also include a short bio of the author, an abstract of the essay, and indicate the format of the essay. Please visit ASEEES' website for full information on the national level competition.

All submissions are due on Monday, May 1, 2023 and should be emailed to cseees@osu.eduStudents who wish to submit an essay should have participated in the Midwest Slavic Conference, or be from an institution in the Midwest (defined as any college or university in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). With your submission, please also include a short bio of the author, an abstract of the essay, and indicate the format of the essay. Please visit ASEEES' website for full information on the national level competition.

The winners of the 2023 essay competitions are:

  • Undergraduate: Sascha Rohde, Carleton College, “The Fundamentals of Propagating State-Approved Nutrition: Building Cultural Touchstones in the Kniga o vkusnoi i zdorovoi pishche and Kulinariia
  • Graduate: Clayton Marr, The Ohio State University, "'The Angevin–Albanian Element in the Albanian Lexicon”

Previous Winners

2022 Midwest Slavic Association Student Essay Prize Competition

  • Undergraduate: Katie Frevert, Oberlin College, “'Kill the State in Yourself': Totalitarianism and the Illiberal Dissidence of Egor Letov”
  • Graduate: Tamara Polyakova, University of Wisconsin-Madison, "'Past Enemy, Future Ally: Nature as Actor in the Russian Civil War”

2021 Midwest Slavic Association Student Essay Prize Competition

  • Undergraduate: Helen McHenry, Ohio State University, “The Demilitarization of Kaliningrad”
  • Graduate: Moira O'Shea, University of Chicago, "'We took the national game and turned it into a sport':  Playing kok boru and re-inventing tradition in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan”

2019 Midwest Slavic Association Student Essay Prize Competition

  • Undergraduate: Alec Wood, Grinnell College, "Dionysian Ecstasy as Intrapsychic Narrative in Scriabin’s Late Sonatas"
  • Graduate: Madeline McCann, Indiana University, "The Neighborhood as a Site of Political Mobilization: Challenging Housing Renovation and Pension Reform in Moscow"

2018 Midwest Slavic Association Student Essay Prize Competition

  • Undergraduate: Josh Gold, University of Toronto, "Neo-Eurasianism and Russia's Minorities Question"
  • Graduate: Anna-Christine Grant, Carnegie Mellon University, "Social Reform on the Move: Nineteenth-century Penitentiary Agricultural Colonies,  from the Loire to the Neva"

2017 Midwest Slavic Association Student Essay Prize Competition

  • Undergraduate: Natasha Kadlec, University of Pennsylvania, "Strength through Weakness: Kenosis as Socialist Ideal in Pre-Revolutionary Gorky"
  • Graduate: Deirdre Ruscitti Harshman, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, "Cooking Up a New Everyday: Communal Kitchens in the Revolutionary Era, 1890-1935"

2016 Midwest Slavic Association Student Essay Prize Competition

  • Undergraduate: Adam Broeckaert, Lafayette University, "The Ability of New Member States to Dictate the EU Agenda: The Case of Poland's Geopolitical Agenda"
  • Graduate: Ognjen Kojanic, University of Pittsburgh, "Countering the Exclusion of the Working Class through Worker Ownership in Neoliberal Croatia"