Awarded at the end of each academic year in recognition of distinguished undergraduate research and writing in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Alfred G. Meyer Prize is named after former professor of political science and CREES Director Alfred G. Meyer.
CREES Faculty Associates may nominate an undergraduate paper at any time during the academic year, but before April 30th of each year. To nominate a student, please include a copy of the nominee’s writing and send to crees@umich.edu
The prize carries a $300 monetary award.
Alfred Meyer Prize Awardees
Robert Cameron Amiot, BA History and Philosophy, "The Unplanned Body in a Planned Economy." 2025-26
Olga Yatsenka, BA Comparative Literature, Minor in Ukrainian, “What’s Language Got to Do with It? Reimagining Language Ambiguity from Janka Kupala’s Tuteijshyya to Alhierd Baharevich’s Alindarka’s Children.” 2025-26
No prize awarded for the 2022-23 year due to too few nominations.
Daria Skalitzky, BA Slavic Languages and Literatures, “Переосмысляя классику: претексты, подтексты и интертексты романа Татьяны Толстой «Кысь».” ("Pereosmysljaja klassiku: preteksty, podteksty i interteksty romana Tat'jany Tolstoj «Kys'»), 2024-25
Nadir Gerber, BA Middle Eastern Studies, “Exhuming the Living and Posthumous Deaths: Identity, Culture, and Continuity in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan,” 2023-24
Drin Shapiro, BA History, “Did the Kosygin Reforms Succeed in Achieving Economic Efficiency?", 2023-24
Claudia Minetti, BA Public Policy, “Lawfare as a Constituent of Hybrid Warfare In the Russian-Ukraine Context," 2023-24
Ziqian Zheng, BA History, “Reimagining the Communist World: China and the 1956 Polish-Hungarian Crises,” 2021-22
Abigail Miya, BA History, “Diversity in Sixteenth Century Siberia,” 2020-21
Alexandra Paradowski, BA Philosophy, Political Science & Economics, and History, “Commemorating Poland’s Monumental Past: Law and Justice’s Deployment of Polityka Historyczna through the Institute of National Remembrance,” 2019-20
Yuting Chen, BA History, Political Science, and Sociology, “East European Economic Thoughts of Reform and their Strange Chinese After-Lives: Inter-organizational Networks, State Capacity, and Politics of Economic Reform in Post-Mao China," 2018-19.
Alexandra Paradowski, BA History and Philosophy, Politics & Economics, “Wiwat Konstytucja! Niech nas uczy nadal: An Analysis of the Interpretation of Poland’s Constitution of 3 May on the Eve of its Bicentennial," 2017-18.
Helena Ratté, BA History, “Multiple Displacements: Bosnian Refugee Journeys to Germany and Back, 1992-2016,” 2016-17.
Taylor Mitchell, BA History and International Studies, “Queer Identity and Socialist Realism: The Censorship of Queer Art and Life under Stalin and Beyond,” 2015-16.
Alexandra Newton, BA Anthropology and Political Science, “Of Hustlers and Housekeepers: Private Security Work in Bucharest, Romania,” 2015-16.
Katheryn Johnson, BA History and Russian, “No Poppies Grow: The Formation of a Group Identity and Fighting Myth of the 339th American Regiment in Archangel, Russia, 1918-1919,” 2014-15.
Anastasia Tkach, BA REES and Political Science, “Democratic Borderlands: The European Union and Conditionality in Ukraine,” 2013-14.
Alina Charniauskaya, BA REES and Political Science, “Explaining Variations in Democratization in Post-Soviet Europe: Case Studies of Belarus and Ukraine,” 2012-13.
Daniel Chardell, BA REES, History, and Political Science, “Lessons from Russian Roads Less Traveled: Vytegra, Politics, and Provincial Paradigms,” 2011-12.
Delvina Kolic, BA Political Science and History, "Architects of Independence and Their Political Instrument: The European Union. A Study of Montenegro and Kosovo on Their Paths to Independence," 2010-11.
Garrick Williams, BS Aerospace Engineering, “Georgy the Victory-Bringer: Marshal Zhukov and the Soviet High Command,” 2007-08.
Jonathan Talbert, BA Economics and Political Science, “Transition Culture through a Social Lens.” 2007-08.
Vlad Beronja, BA Comparative Literature, “Between Memory and Psychoanalysis: National Identity in Poland and Yugoslavia,” 2006-07.
Natasha Beranek, BA REES and Anthropology, 2005-06.
Katie Wroblewski, BA History, 2003-04.
