From November 20-23, staff from the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE), the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES), and the Copernicus Center for Polish Studies (CCPS) attended and exhibited at the annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) in Washington, DC. This marked the second consecutive year for WCEE as a platinum sponsor of the convention, which is the largest annual gathering of scholars, practitioners, and publishers in the field.
The WCEE team showcased the many funding opportunities, public programming, and outreach initiatives offered by WCEE and its affiliated centers, CREES and CCPS. “It was amazing to interact with so many scholars from around the world who specialize in our field. This conference continues to be the best venue for spreading word about our unique student, postdoctoral, and visiting scholar fellowships,” remarked WCEE International Education Manager Birgitta Kohler.
CREES hosted a reception the second evening of the convention and welcomed over 50 guests including alumni, current students and faculty, and other friends of the center. CREES Director Elizabeth King presented on the latest developments at CREES, including recent notable guest speakers and the upcoming application deadline for the Masters in International and Regional Studies (MIRS)-REEES specialization. She was joined by CREES Assistant Director of Programs and Operations Liz Malinkin to raffle off CREES and Michigan t-shirts and other fun gifts to several lucky guests. “The reception provided a warm atmosphere to unite with colleagues, students, alumni, and friends of the Center to celebrate and reflect on our collective achievements and ideas for moving forward in the field of area studies,” King commented.
Additionally, WCEE sponsors an article prize through ASEEES, awarded annually at the convention for an outstanding English-language research article in the social sciences by a junior scholar published in a peer-reviewed journal. It is the association’s only article prize and carries a $1,000 cash award.
The 2025 prize was awarded to Jessie Barton Hronešová (University College London) for “The Uses of Victimhood as a Hegemonic Meta-Narrative in Eastern Europe,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies. Honorable mention went to Monika Rice (Lafayette College) for “Dr. Arnold Mostowicz: ‘Not alone in space.’ Moral Injury and the Quest for Extraterrestrial Redemption,” Jewish Culture and History.
CREES sponsors the Ed A Hewett Book Prize, which was established in 1994 in honor of distinguished University of Michigan alumnus Ed Hewett, and is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph on the political economy of Russia, Eurasia and/or Eastern Europe, published in the previous year. The 2025 prize was awarded to Anne O’Donnell for Power and Possession in the Russian Revolution (Princeton), with honorable mention to Nataliya Kibita for The Institutional Foundations of Ukrainian Democracy: Power Sharing, Regionalism, and Authoritarianism (Oxford).
