The Midwest Slavic Association and the Center for Slavic and East European Studies are excited to announce that the 2017 Midwest Slavic Conference (MWSC) will be hosted at The Ohio State University, Friday-Sunday, April 7- 9, 2017. The conference will open with a keynote address by Anne Garrels, author of the book, Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia. Following the Friday keynote presentation, on Saturday and Sunday there will be panel discussions in all disciplines related to Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Eurasia and Southeastern Europe. The deadline to submit an abstract is Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.
Anne Garrels has a distinguished career in journalism. She was the Moscow Bureau chief for ABC and a State Department correspondent for NBC. She switched from TV to radio in the 1980s and served as NPR’s Moscow correspondent. Her time as a journalist has earned her many awards, including a George Polk Award and the Edward R. Murrow Award. In her latest book, Garrels went outside of Russia’s major metropolises to explore what life is like for other Russians. She studied the region of Chelyabinsk in central Russia, which was a formerly closed area during the Soviet era. Garrels spent twenty years visiting the region, meeting the locals and exploring different aspects of Russian life. Through a series of vignettes, her book paints a picture of the political and societal hardships experienced by a variety of individuals in Chelyabinsk. Following her address, Barnes and Nobles will be selling copies of Putin Country and Garrels will be available for autographs.
