The Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES) will be holding the first of its annual Research Days. The plan is to have a combination of research panels, plenary sessions and informal workshops in order to explore the five research themes within CRCEES.

These are:
•    Aspects of identity and culture and their social, political and economic implications;
•    Economic and social transformation;
•    Political transformation and international relations;
•    Literary, cinematic and cultural developments in the area;
•    The politics of language.

The Centre, which was launched on 7 March 2007, is funded by the ESRC, the AHRC, the HEFCE and the SFC, and brings together the research activities of the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham, Paisley, St Andrews, Strathclyde, and Newcastle University. It also has established research links with the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic; Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary; Jagellonian University, Kraków, Poland; and REGION Independent Research Centre at Ul'ianovsk State University, Russian Federation.

Themes discussed:

The Research Forum, which will be an annual event, celebrated the research being carried out within the five CRCEES research themes:
•    aspects of identity and culture and their social,
•    political and economic implications; economic and social transformation;
•    political transformation and international relations;
•    literary, cinematic and cultural developments in the area; and
•    the politics of language.

Thus there were panels on such diverse topics as:
•    Political and Economic Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe;
•    Foreign Policy in the Putin Era;
•    Identities in the Former Yugoslavia;
•    Far Right Extremism in Russia and Myth in Contemporary Russian Culture.

Attendance and papers:

Those giving papers ranged from post-graduate students at the start of their career to established professorial staff. Over 80 delegates took part and it was a particular pleasure to welcome participants from three of the CRCEES international partners: Zbigniew Czubinski and Maciej Czerwinski from the Jagellonian University contributed papers, while Natalya Goncharova and Elena Omelchenko from Ul'ianovsk organised a panel; Marju Lauristin from Tartu took part in the plenary session.
 
The Keynote address was given by Professor John Micgiel, Director of the East Central European Centre at Columbia University, New York.

Taking the theme "'Witch-hunts' and 'Bear-baiting': Conservative Politics in Poland Today", Professor Micgiel, who also gave a paper in one of the panels, gave a detailed assessment of Poland's foreign and domestic politics, commenting on the present government's anti-Russian stance and giving a critical assessment of its approach to internal affairs; while lustration was seen as a positive policy, the approach to economic affairs was seen as contradictory.

Plenary session concludes the forum:
The Research Forum ended with a plenary session devoted to "The Impact of EU Accession on the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe". Among those taking part was Julia Szalai, from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who is currently working in the Department of Central and East European Studies as a visiting fellow.

Research Forum Programme

11-12 May, 2007
Kelvin Conference Centre, University of Glasgow.

First published: 13 January 2012

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