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Letter from the Director by STEPHEN E JACKSON SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FALL 2006 Letter from the Director BY STEPHEN E. HANSON © ELLISON CENTER Prof. Herbert Ellison, Dean Ron Irving, Prof. Steve Hanson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer and Robert Huber and Sharon Wolchik of NCEEER. I am truly excited to be returning to the position of Director of the Ellison Center INSIDE THIS ISSUE for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies after a wonderful year of REECAS Northwest Conference Call for Papers ............................................................ 3 sabbatical leave here and at Oxford Recent Acquisitions to the REECAS Outreach Collection .............................................. 4 University. I would like to convey my Ellison Center Promotes Collaboration with Warsaw School of Economics .................... 5 deepest thanks to James Augerot of the JSIS Series: Hot Spots in Our World ............................................................................. 5 Department of Slavic Languages and Exit Festival: Bringing the World to Serbia .................................................................... 6 Literatures for his outstanding work as The Donald W. Treadgold Studies ................................................................................. 9 interim Director of the program in Application to Study a Less Commonly Taught Language ........................................... 10 2005–06. Thanks to his dedication— REECAS 2006 MA Graduates ..................................................................................... 10 and to that of our excellent staff team of Poppe Symposium Brings Together Central Asian Scholars and Students .................. 11 Marta Mikkelsen, the Center’s Associate The Silk Road Lecture and Seminar Series ................................................................. 11 Director; Allison Dvaladze, Outreach Women, Water and Weddings: A Summer in Tajikistan ............................................... 12 Coordinator; and Carrie O’Donoghue, Boris Yeltsin and Russia’s Democratic Transformation ................................................ 15 Program Coordinator—the transition Regional Press Institute 2006: The Current State of the Media in Russia .................. 16 Boba & Budlong Research Fellowships ....................................................................... 18 has been truly seamless. Central Eurasian Studies Society Conference Announcement ..................................... 18 Indeed, the REECAS program continues Vladimir Gross Memorial Endowed Fund ..................................................................... 19 to thrive in every way. First, we are Visiting REECAS Scholars ........................................................................................... 20 thrilled to announce that we have once Ellison Center News .................................................................................................... 21 again been successful in the most recent Ellison Center Endowment Fund ................................................................................. 23 continued on page 2 Upcoming REECAS-Related Events ............................................................................. 24 ELLISON CENTER continued from page 1 competition for Title VI National is coming to an extremely successful Resource Center grants from the US conclusion. From September 14–16, the Department of Education for the 2006– UW held a conference at Westminster Welcome to the following 2010 period. This grant will provide University in Tashkent, where many of new REECAS Faculty! programmatic support and graduate Uzbekistan’s leading scholars and several student Foreign Language and Area faculty in the University of Washington’s BOJAN BELIC, Lecturer in Slavic Studies (FLAS) Fellowships totaling program on comparative religion pre- Languages and Literatures approximately $2 million, and confi rms sented papers and shared ideas about the CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL, Assistant our status as one of the leading national history and future of religious interac- Professor in Architecture and Urban programs on Russia, East Europe and tions in Central Asia. US Ambassador to Planning Central Asia. Uzbekistan John Purnell gave the opening BARBARA CITKO, Assistant Professor Second, we proudly welcome the address, and high-ranking representa- in Linguistics National Council of Eurasian and East tives of UNESCO and the Uzbek European Research (NCEEER) to its new government also attended. Much of the SCOTT DAVIS, Professor in Public home in Seattle, where we plan to work credit for the success of this conference Health Studies goes to Professor Ilse Cirtautas, whose together in a new joint initiative uniting CHRIS DEMASKE, Assistant our research and educational expertise dedication to Central Asia’s peoples and cultures is legendary both here and in Professor in Interdisciplinary Arts to advance the fi eld of Slavic and and Sciences Eurasian studies. We celebrated this new the region itself. We will conclude our initiative with a three-day conference grant activities this spring with a fi nal IVETA GRINBERGA, Lecturer in on October 12–14, co-sponsored with follow-up conference in Seattle—but we Scandinavian Studies expect our new UW library in Tashkent Moscow’s ISE Center (Information. MARK JENKINS, Assistant Professor Scholarship. Education.) and the Centers will serve as the core of deeper scholarly in Drama for Advanced Study and Education collaboration with our Uzbek colleagues FREDERIC LORENZ, Lecturer in (CASE) Program in the Russian Federa- for many decades to come. International Studies tion, to discuss the topic of “Russia and Fourth, the REECAS faculty continues its Neighbors in an Era of Globalization”. to grow by leaps and bounds as a result of STEVEN PFAFF, Associate Professor The keynote address was delivered by growing interest in our region as well as in Sociology US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State generous support from the UW adminis- FLORIAN SCHWARZ, Assistant David Kramer. Thanks to NCEEER’s tration. Over the past two years, we have Professor in History support, too, the fi rst group of George added fully 12 new faculty to our ranks F. Russell Fellows from the Newly- (see box). This year, we will search for KRISTEN STILT, Assistant Professor Independent States arrived at the two new tenure-track positions, one in Law University of Washington this fall: specializing in Russian imperial history, VERONICA TAYLOR, Professor in Law Vladimir Melnikov of Tomsk State the other focusing on postcommunist Pedogogical Institute, Tatiana Pavlova security in Central Asia and the Caucasus; of Belarusian State University and Ala next year, we are scheduled to search for Svet of the State University of Moldova. a new faculty member specializing in As I look over this list of recent NCEEER’s President, Robert Huber, will East-Central Europe. achievements, I realize that I have only begin teaching UW courses on Russian Finally, all of us in the Ellison Center are scratched the surface of our dynamic foreign policy and US-Russian relations naturally very excited to celebrate the program, having failed to mention as of this winter quarter. We are pro- appearance in print of Professor Herb exciting new activities related to our foundly grateful to Bob and the entire Ellison’s new book from the University Polish Studies Endowment, our Baltic NCEEER team for these inspiring contri- of Washington Press, Boris Yeltsin and Studies program, our collaborative work butions, and will strive for our part to Russia’s Democratic Transformation. with the US Army War College, Professor support NCEEER’s mission of promoting We hope to spread the news far and wide Beth Kolko’s multiyear research project scholarly and policy-related research through a series of events, including a on Internet diffusion in Central Asia, on every aspect of Eurasian and East UW roundtable discussion on the Yeltsin the development of a digital archive of European politics and societies. era —with contributions by Professor Professor William Brumfi eld’s Russian Third, our grant from the US Depart- Ellison, Professor Judith Thornton and architecture photographs thanks to a ment of State’s Bureau of Educational and myself—on Wednesday, November 1, as NEH grant… Still, not being able to Cultural Affairs for partnerships with well as a special reception at the American cover everything happening in the Uzbek institutions of higher learning, Association for the Advancement of Ellison Center in a short newsletter piece designed to promote the study of Slavic Studies conference in Washington, is, I think, not such a bad problem to comparative religion in a tolerant spirit, D.C. on Friday, November 18. have! ◆ 2 REECAS NEWSLETTER CALL FOR PAPERS The Thirteenth Annual Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies Northwest Conference SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2007 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON – SEATTLE We are currently soliciting papers, panels or roundtable Funds are not available for scholars outside of the Pacifi c presentations for this one-day interdisciplinary conference. Northwest or residing outside the United States. Proposals from faculty, graduate students and members of If you would like to present at the conference, please reply the general public are all welcome. via e-mail or regular mail by Monday, January 15, 2007, Contributions are encouraged on literature, the fi ne arts, with your name and contact information, a paper title and the environment, post-Soviet foreign policy,
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