Discover What the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Has to Offer
Throughout the year, the Center hosts a dynamic lineup of events and programs designed to engage Ohio State students, faculty, and staff, as well as K–14 educators, students, and the broader public. From thought-provoking lectures and film screenings to academic workshops and conferences, our offerings span a wide range of topics and disciplines.
Whether you're passionate about history, politics, culture, linguistics or the arts, and no matter which country in the region sparks your interest, there’s something here for everyone.
Explore some of our annual highlights below—and don’t forget to visit our Upcoming Events page to see what’s happening soon!
Annual Events
Midwest Slavic 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 25 panels are held each year with over 150 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.
The call for proposals for Midwest Slavic is typically released in mid-October of each year. Be sure to sign up for the CSEEES the Day newsletter to hear about it first!
Ohio Undergraduate Olympiada of Spoken Russian
In partnership with other Ohio colleges and universities, CSEEES helps to organize the Undergraduate Russian Language Olympiada. This competition is an opportunity for Russian language students from all over Ohio to practice and show off their Russian speaking skills. The one-day event is usually held early in the spring semester at a participating college's campus. Students compete with each other in three rounds of competition: an oral interview, poem recital, and topic presentation.
Information and registration for the undergraduate olympiada is typically released in January.
Graduate Student Lectures
Since 2016, CSEEES has supported graduate student lectures as a professional development opportunity for students and as a way for them to share their research and interests with other peers and faculty. Graduate students from all OSU departments are welcome to submit a proposal so long as the topic has some focus on East European and/or Eurasian studies. This lecture happens twice each academic year with one lecture occurring during autumn and one in spring.
Details on how to submit a talk proposal are sent via email at the beginning of each semester. If you are a graduate student interested in presenting one of these lectures, please email Alicia Baca (baca.31@osu.edu) to be added to our graduate student listserv.
CSEEES Alumni Lecture
More information coming soon!
CSEEES Graduate Choice Speaker Lecture
Each year CSEEES' MA students are invited to select a speaker and/or topic of their choice to add to the Center's lecture series. This event typically occurs during the spring and topics range from translation, history, literature, bioethics and more.
More information on the 2026 Graduate Choice Speaker will be available in spring 2026.
K-14 Events and Programs
Ohio K-12 Olympiada of Spoken Russian
In partnership with the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, CSEEES helps to organize the K-12 Russian Language Olympiada. This competition is an opportunity for Ohio K-12 students who are studying the Russian language to practice and show off their Russian speaking skills. The one-day event is usually held in during early spring semester at The Ohio State University campus in Columbus. Students compete with each other in three rounds of competition: an oral interview, poem recital, and topic presentation.
Information about this event is typically released in December and most often sent directly to Russian language teachers in Ohio. if you are a K-12 educator who teaches Russian in Ohio or the parent of a K-12 student who is studying Russian, please email Alicia Baca at baca.31@osu.edu to request more information.
K-14 CSEEES Annual Teacher Training Workshop
Each academic year CSEEES organizes an annual teacher training workshop to provide teachers with the knowledge and resources to bring effectively Eastern European and Eurasian content into the classroom. The workshops familiarize teachers with the histories, cultures, and languages of Eastern Europe and Eurasia in order to develop the global competencies of students. This then enables students to connect historical events across countries and time periods, recognize and assess themes in literature and the arts, and analyze the events of today from a variety of perspectives. The workshops also provide teachers with contact hours, books, classrooms resources and guidance on other sources of information.
This workshop typically occurs during the fall semester with program and application information being released during late summer/early fall.
K-14 Global Fellowship Program
The Area Studies Centers of the Office of International Affairs (the Center for African Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, CSEEES, the East Asian Studies Center, and the Middle East Studies Center) have partnered together since 2017 to organize the annual K-14 Global Fellowship program. The program’s aim is to connect teachers from across the United States in a series of discussion group sessions that focus on contemporary issues from a global perspective. The sessions are led by regional experts and will engage K-14 educators in a series of guided readings, lectures, and group discussions to increase their knowledge of the global dimension of salient issues affecting the world in order to prepare them to lead discussions about these issues back in the classroom.
This program occurs during the the academic year with program and application information being released during mid-spring semester.
K-14 Global Teacher Seminar
The Summer Global Teacher Seminars are week-long seminars that aim to inform teachers about global issues and provide pedagogical training to help teachers incorporate new content into their curricula. Seminar themes are selected to align with Ohio education content standards. Seminars deepen teachers’ understanding of an issue by going through detailed case studies from around the world, specifically Africa, East Asia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
This seminar occurs during the summer with program and application information being released during mid-spring semester.