WEISER CENTER FOR EUROPE & EURASIA 2019-20 Weiser Centers Annual Report | 14 2019-20 Weiser Centers Annual Report | 15 WEISER CENTER FOR EUROPE & EURASIA From the Director The Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE) Leadership Workshops, as well as one U-M the II commencement address, and participated and its affiliated centers—the Center for European graduate student to attend the 2020 GLOBSEC in many WCEE activities. Highlights from her Studies (CES); the Center for Russian, East Forum in May. While this opportunity was also fellowship year include her weekly radio show, European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES); and the cancelled, we plan on developing our partnership broadcast in Russia from U-M and engaging Copernicus Center for Polish Studies (CCPS)—had with GLOBSEC in the future. student interns; and a webcasted conversation a very stimulating year. In spite of event and between herself, our students, and Alexei Navalny, program cancellations due to the global pandemic, WCEE is also the proud sponsor of the Bratislava- Russia’s main opposition leader. Dr. Albats’ visit 2019-20 was filled with rich programming, new based “Boundless” leadership workshop for young was incredibly fruitful and we hope to be able to initiatives, and expanding partnerships. Slovak women. We provided a $5,000 grant to host fellows for a full year in the future. support one U.S.-based trainer to teach in the In addition to featuring cutting-edge new research, program in November 2020. Student Fellowships and Internships we organized lectures and roundtables on the Summer funding from WCEE and its affiliated yellow vest protests in France, Brexit, Polish Weiser Professional Development Fellowship centers was awarded to 12 graduate students, parliamentary elections, and censorship in the The Weiser Professional Development Fellowship for a total of $31,500. Because of current travel Russian media. We also collaborated to offer a continues to be a signature WCEE program. Eight restrictions, we extended the time to project lecture series on the environment. Speakers and fellows from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, completion until September 30, 2021. events in that series focused on changing patterns North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, and of consumption and the increasing production of Uzbekistan joined us in 2019-20. They worked on Unfortunately, our popular summer internship three U-M faculty will visit Regensburg for short waste in post-communist Eastern Europe, the research projects with faculty from LSA, the Ford program was also affected by the pandemic. We research stays over the next three years. WCEE politics of ecological disasters, and the effects School of Public Policy, and the Ross School of had placed 25 students in 17 organizations in will host one visiting scholar from Regensburg of climate change on indigenous populations of Business. Spring Fellows’ projects were disrupted Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, for 4-6 weeks as soon as travel to Ann Arbor is Northern Europe. Finally, our centers curated an by COVID-19 and they remained in Ann Arbor well Germany, Hungary, Kosovo, Poland, Russia, possible. exhibit of collages by Polish-Lithuanian artist Stasys beyond their planned stay. We kept them engaged Slovakia, and Ukraine. We managed to shift a and co-sponsored an exhibit on Migration in Europe, as fully as was possible. small number of these internships online, and we *** both held in our International Institute Gallery. offered to postpone the internship opportunities Because of travel restrictions, we are suspending for eligible students to next year. So far a third We are grateful to our multiple partners and Democracy Training Workshop the program in 2021. Weiser Professional have confirmed their participation in summer collaborators across the university and around the We continue to work closely with the U-M William Development Fellows who were awarded 2021. world. Thanks to the flexibility and dedication of Davidson Institute and the Warsaw-based fellowships for Fall 2020 will visit in Fall 2021 the WCEE staff, in spite of the current challenges, Education for Democracy Foundation to organize instead. We will not hold another competition until New Initiatives we’re excited about our offerings in fall 2020: our NGO Leadership Workshops. Given the the global pandemic is behind us. CREES has received a grant from the United these include virtual roundtables on the impact importance of this program for the mission of States-Russia Foundation for a joint project with on COVID-19 in Europe and Eurasia, and on the WCEE and WCED, and given the high demand for WCEE Distinguished Fellow the Ford School for Public Policy’s International extension of the Black Lives Matter Movement to them, for the second year in a row we organized In 2018, we established the WCEE Distinguished Policy Center and Weiser Diplomacy Center, the region. two workshops. The first was held in October in Fellow position. The opportunity is designed to entitled “Developing Future Leaders in U.S.- Bratislava for 25 participants of the Visegrád host a prominent scholar, public figure, or activist Russia Relations.” The two-year pilot program While I’m on sabbatical in 2020-21, Professor countries (Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary). at U-M for 4-6 weeks during the academic year. In funds student-driven professional development Johannes von Moltke will be acting director of The second workshop was to take place in 2019-20, we collaborated with the International opportunities that will prepare them for careers in WCEE, CES, and CREES. Professors Benjamin Warsaw in May, with 25 participants from nine Institute to fund a full-year fellowship. We had the U.S.-Russia relations. Paloff and Piotr Michałowski will replace me East European and Eurasian countries, but was privilege of hosting Dr. Yevgenia Albats, a Harvard- at the helm of CCPS for the fall and winter postponed until the global health crisis abates. trained political scientist who directs the only WCEE partnered with the University of semesters, respectively. I look forward to independent media outlet in Russia. In addition to Regensburg (Germany) in their application for a returning as WCEE director in July 2021. In addition to the NGO Leadership Workshops, we teaching two courses (“Russian Politics: The Rise Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European developed a new initiative with GLOBSEC, a global of the Secret Police State” and “Political Transition Studies grant on “Europe and America in the Geneviève Zubrzycki think tank based in Bratislava. We facilitated in Russia and Eastern Europe”), Dr. Albats gave Modern World: Transformation and Frictions of WCEE Director the attendance of nine alumni from past NGO lectures at WCEE and the Ford School, delivered Globality.” The proposal was fully funded, and 2019-20 Weiser Centers Annual Report | 16 2019-20 Weiser Centers Annual Report | 17 WCEE Distinguished Fellow Summer Grants for Research and Internships in Europe & Eurasia WCEE hosts a prominent scholar, public figure, or activist at U-M during the academic year. The fellow may Awarded to students for summer research or internships across the region of Europe and Eurasia. Because give a public lecture, teach a course, or otherwise participate in scholarship on campus. of current travel restrictions, awards were limited to graduate students who can apply the funding to research through summer 2021. Yevgenia M. Albats, editor-in-chief and CEO of The New Times and host of Absolute Albats on radio station Ekho Moskvy. Courses taught: Political Science 688 – Russian Politics: The Rise of the Police State (Fall 2019); Leah Bernardo-Ciddio, PhD Classical Art & Archaeology, “The Bracˇ Island Project” (Croatia); Jeffrey Bilik, PhD Political Science 489 – Authoritarian Backsliding in Post-Communist Countries (Winter 2020). 2019-20. Sociology, “Dormitory, Apartment, Market: Citizenship and Social Rights in Russia” (Russia); Genta Nishku, PhD Comparative Literature, “Literary Inquiries into Croatian Memory Politics and Historical Revisionism” (Croatia); Iride Tomazic, PhD Anthropology, “Crafting the Metallurgist(s)” (Serbia). Weiser Professional Development Program Fellows Grants awarded to faculty and artists at institutions of higher education in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kaliningrad (Russia), Kazakhstan, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Student Internships Serbia, Slovak Republic, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine for short visits to Ann Arbor to promote research Internship placements in Europe & Eurasia coordinated by WCEE. Because of current travel restrictions, collaboration with U-M faculty. only select virtual internships were possible in summer 2020. Sona Hakobyan, professor of philology, Eurasia International University, Armenia. “Event-semantics Analysis Luka Byrne, BA LSA, Mahatma Gandhi Human Rights Organization (Hungary/virtual); Sophia Cloherty, BA of the American Political Discourse on Armenian Remembrance Day and the Implementation of Curricula on English/History of Art, Museum of Nonconformist Art (Russia/virtual); Rasmi Davu, BS Biomolecular Science/ Discourse Studies.” U-M host: Kevork Bardakjian, Middle East Studies. March 2020. International Studies, Mahatma Gandhi Human Rights Organization (Hungary/virtual); Eneida Hysi, BA International Studies, Mahatma Gandhi Human Rights Organization (Hungary/virtual); McKenna Marko, PhD Meruyert Ibrayeva, assistant professor of philological science, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. “The