School of Social & Political Sciences

Since 1949, staff affiliated with the University’s unit for the study of Eastern Europe and Eurasia—previously known as the Institute of Soviet & East European Studies and currently anchored in the Central & East European Studies (CEES) subject group in the School—have edited the scholarly journal Europe-Asia Studies. A true UofG icon, Europe-Asia Studies is the principal academic journal in the world focusing on the history and current political, social and economic affairs of the post-socialist countries of Europe and Asia.  

The year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the journal, which, until January 1993, was published under its original name—Soviet Studies. On 24 October, to properly celebrate this anniversary, the editorial team, led by Professor Luca Anceschi and Professor David Smith, held a one-day symposium to reflect on the journal’s past history, highlight its present challenges and outline the contours of the scholarly agenda to be tackled across the next 25 years of the journal’s history. ‘It’s a great opportunity to (briefly) interrupt our day-to-day editorial work, which is rewarding yet often grinding, and take stock of what the journal means to our CEES cohorts of staff and students, the wider university, and the global community of scholars who have an interest in Russia and Eurasia’, says Prof Anceschi, who has been the editor of Europe-Asia Studies since 2015.  

Leading voices in Eastern European and Eurasian Studies participated in the anniversary event. Juliet Jonson, Professor of Political Science at McGill University in Montreal and author of the award-winning book Priests of Prosperity. How Central Bankers Transformed the Postcommunist World, delivered the first keynote of the day, in which she reflected on the role that memory politics continues to play in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In the other main keynote of the day, Professor Jon Oldfield from the University of Birmingham, who leads the UKRI-funded Polarities & Regions Network + that sees the involvement of many CEES colleagues, reflected on the evolution of Language-Based Area Studies as a self-standing discipline in the British HE sector. Prof Oldfield highlighted the importance of combining language provision with inter-disciplinary teaching and research—two areas in which UofG and CEES more in particular have been at the forefront of the sector for more than 75 years.  

The symposium was also an opportunity to celebrate the journal’s long history: by welcoming back to the university colleagues who played major roles in building up Europe-Asia Studies’ stellar reputation, the journal’s editors—whose work is supported by Maggie Sinclair, Caroline Baptie, and Jill Dobson—intended to delineate a trajectory of continuity between the scholars of the past and the new generation of colleagues who have recently joined CEES, currently one of Europe’s largest centres focused on Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Hearing from colleagues who were part of the EAS editorial team in the 1980s and 1990s put in perspective the longstanding contribution that our journal has made to many scholarly conversations of the past, while identifying the main topics to be tackled in the years to come. 

At a time in which, unfortunately, the former Soviet Union continues to make the international news, there is desperate need for solid scholarship to steer the debate and properly inform policy-makers, students, and the general public. These agendas will very much shape what Europe-Asia Studies is committed to achieve in the next 25 years and beyond.  

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First published: 5 November 2024