CREECA Lecture Series Podcast

"Since 1989 – Poland’s Democratic Experience" with Donald Pienkos, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. LECTURE DESCRIPTION: In 1989, Poland, thanks primarily to the efforts of the Solidarity movement, emerged from 44 years of Soviet domination to establish a new system of representative democratic government. Given its people’s extremely difficult situ...

"Guns to Butter: Economic Perceptions and Policy Preferences in Russia" with Maria Snegovaya, Visiting Scholar at George Washington University and a postdoctoral scholar at the PPE program at Virginia Tech. LECTURE DESCRIPTION: Scholars on “rally ’round the flag” often argue that by invoking the danger of external threats in times of economic hardship, leaders can rally the public around the gover...

"On Civilization’s Edge: A Polish Borderland in the Interwar World" with Kathyrn Ciancia, Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. LECTURE DESCRIPTION:As a resurgent Poland emerged at the end of World War I, an eclectic group of Polish border guards, state officials, military settlers, teachers, academics, urban planners, and health workers descended upon an eastern b...

“Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: Revisiting the International Military Tribunal on its 75th Anniversary” with Francine Hirsch, University of Wisconsin – Madison. Please note that this CREECA Lecture was given as part of the Area Studies Lecture Series presented by the 2018-2021 U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies grant recipients for R...

"Toxic Crimes Project: Legal Activism Against Environmental Destruction in the Conflict in Eastern Ukraine" with Dr. Freek van der Vet, Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights. LECTURE DESCRIPTION: War often destroys the environment – either directly when armies poison foliage as a military strategy or indirectly, when toxins leak from bombed industrial sites. In the “Toxic Cr...

This podcast is a recording of the CESSI Virtual Alumni Panel which took place on October 24. Featured Alumni were Kiiyha Gray, Katka Showers-Curtis, Stu McLaughlin, and Matt Brown. The first part of the panel is a brief introduction to CESSI while the second part is a Q&A with our panelists.

"Perestroika's Dark Side: Nationalism, Racism and Crisis on Moscow Streets at the End of the Soviet Union" with Jeff Sahadeo, Professor at Carleton University. LECTURE DESCRIPTION: Migration from the Soviet South (Caucasus and Central Asia) to the capital, Moscow, dramatically increased in the 1980s. Newcomers sought to take advantage of top-quality education, professional opportunities and to tra...

"A Small State on the Global Scene: Bulgaria’s ‘Developing World’ in the 1970s" with Theodora Dragostinova, Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University. LECTURE DESCRIPTION: In the 1970s, officials and intellectuals in communist Bulgaria launched an ambitious program of international cultural outreach. Paris, Vienna, London, Munich, and New York City all hosted spectacular exhibitions...

"Putin's Constitutional Amendments - 2020" with Ekaterina Mishina, Independent Legal Scholar. LECTURE DESCRIPTION: At his 2020 Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed substantial amendments to the Russian constitution. The proposed referendum would allow Putin to serve as the President until 2036, give the Russian Constitutional Court the power to nu...

“The Fall of Europe’s Last Dictator” with Yuliya Brel of the Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research at the University of Delaware LECTURE DESCRIPTION: Belarusian citizens elected their first president in 1994. Within the next 26 years, A. Lukashenko ran for the presidency five more times. With the exception of the first presidential election, the outcomes of all other consecutive electi...

“Moral Future: Halal Businesses in Central Asia” with Aisalkyn Botoeva of the George Washington University LECTURE DESCRIPTION: How do people in Central Asia understand the Islamic Economy and enact its principles in their day-to-day lives? In her 18-month research in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, she explored a wide range of sites within the burgeoning Islamic Business sector, from high-visibility f...

“When is home? Exploring Kazakhstani Koreans’ notions of place and homeland” with Dr. Elise Ahn, International Projects Office, UW-Madison July 23, 2020 ABSTRACT: The collective memories of Central Asian Koreans have not been fully explored, particularly in connection to notions of “homeland” and identity. This lecture explores the linkages between participants’ family histories regarding the Kore...

CESSI Alumni Research Panel with Nick Seay and Laura Tourtellotte “Reaping the Benefits of the Harvest: Towards an Applied Approach of your Central Asian Language Skills” Speaker: Nick Seay Nick Seay shares some of his research experiences, specifically as they relate to working with the Tajik language. He then shifts the conversation to talk more concretely about ways in which language learners c...

Dr. Madina Djuraeva talks about her 8-year long research on multilingualism among Central Asian young adults. She shares her fieldwork experience in both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan where she collected narrative data from over 60 student participants. Dr. Djuraeva also shares a number of her key research findings around the themes of morality, belonging, and education. Madina Djuraeva defended her P...

“An Uzbek Patron and the Limits of Eurasian Power” - Morgan Liu (The Ohio State University) Can the rich and powerful (“elites”) make society a better place? How can they transform structural problems and are there limits to what elites can accomplish for the common good? I present a case from Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan where an Uzbek grand patron claimed to act for the communal good by building urban...

After the fall of communism, regardless of debates on the nature of systemic change, most agreed on the importance of non-violence. In this paper, I argue that the year 1989 represented a revolution in the very idea of revolution—self-limiting, non-violent, and yet far reaching in impact. However, Cold War triumphalist narratives and Western liberal mis-readings have together misrepresented the le...

While recent findings suggest that violence during civil war can generate pro-social behavior, why do we often see polarization between groups based on ethnic, religious, or sectarian differences after conflict? What conditions explain why we see this in some cases, but not others? These questions matter, given that polarization complicates peacebuilding, affects post-war party politics, and may l...

Election forensics is a growing field of statistical techniques that can be used to detect suspicious patterns in election data. Researchers are increasingly turning to such methods to detect and evaluate potential manipulation in elections, both internationally and in the US. This lecture will present a brief overview of the state of the art, discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the election for...

Savelyeva explores the transformation of political culture in Russia from 2011-2019, describing a shift in attitudes toward protest, changes in the motivations and strategies of the opposition, and the burgeoning role of local activism in these movements.

Brel considers the post-communist development of the Republic of Belarus and suggests an answer to the question of why the country failed to democratize. Employing modernization theory, the presentation analyzes the connection between economic development and democracy, and between civil society and democracy. It also explores the idea that the absence of a strong national consciousness might have...

In this talk, Brooks will present an abbreviated statement of fact and personal experience dealing with the Supreme Commercial (Arbitrazh) Court of Russia from 1991 to 2016. He will tell the first-hand story of working with the Court as it reformed and adopted principles intrinsic to an independent, objective, and fair court system, and practices consistent with the rule of law, individual rights,...

The interconnected terrorist and criminal milieus are believed to be a critical destabilizing factor in today’s global security environment, yet the trafficking/terrorism nexus remains highly politicized and loosely applied concept. What is the nature of trafficking/terrorism connections and how do they vary across states? Does the trafficking/terrorism nexus amplify the threat of terrorist violen...

Popular understanding of modern authoritarianism lacks a satisfying explanation for the genuine popularity of autocrats, as many clearly enjoy enthusiastic support even in times of economic stagnation or decline. In their recently published book, Robertson and his co-author argue that part of the solution lies in unpacking the role of emotions in building support for rulers. Drawing on a unique pa...

In this talk Dr. Rucker-Chang employs a postcolonial frame to highlight how the depiction of Roma in post-Yugoslav film render them postcolonial “objects,” knowable by way of difference constructed through racial hierarchies, stereotypes, and culture.

In this lecture, Dr. Austin Charron discusses findings from his PhD dissertation concerning socio-spatial identities among residents of Crimea who were internally displaced to mainland Ukraine following Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014. Building on previous research into Crimean identities from before the annexation, Charron’s work examines evolving discourses of regional and national...