REEESNe’s third annual FREE Student Conference was hosted by UMass Amherst on April 12th and 13th. It served as an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate (MA/pre-doctoral candidacy) students throughout the network to meet and to present their REEES-related research, internships, and other experience. It was held as an in-person conference for students at institutions in the northeastern U.S.. To the extent possible, REEESNe covered travel and accommodations for student presenters (from northeast universities and colleges) with financial need. Proposals for presentations were due by February 11th, 2024 at 11:59 pm Eastern, and after rigorous review by the Student Conference Organizational Group, selected presentations were organized into the following schedule.
Friday April 12 - Marriott Center
1:00 - 2:00 pm - Sandwich box lunch and welcome
2:00 - 4:00 pm - Amherst College collections trip
5:00-5:30 pm - Reception / Break
5:30-6:30 - Flash Presentations Part 1
6:30- 7:30 pm - Buffet dinner, with coffee and dessert
7:30-8:30 pm - Flash Presentations Part 2
Saturday, April 13 - Old Chapel
8:00-8:45 - Breakfast
9:00-10:30 - Paper Panel Session #1
* Ethnographies of Everyday Life in Eurasia and the US
* Contemporary Politics in Russia
* Language, Education and Social Policy in Central Asia
* Eurasian History - Then and Now
* Early Socialist History
* Russian/Eurasian Literature (Morning Panel)
11:00-12:00 Student Careers Panel
* Jeff Dunn, Research Coordinator at Crude Accountability (B.A. UMass Amherst)
* Jess Chen, Mass MOCA Graduate Curatorial Fellow (MA Student, History of Art, Williams College)
* Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, Contributing Writer/Commentator for Foreign Policy, the Moscow Times, the Kennan Institute’s Russia File, AP, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and BBC (doctoral student, History, The University of Pennsylvania)
* John Stachelski, Director of Prav Publishing’s Foundations of Eurasianism series (doctoral student, Slavic Languages & Literatures, Yale University)
12:00-12:45 - Buffet lunch
12:45-1:45 - Keytnote lecture by Nara Narimanova, Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative: “Resilience and Destruction: Exploring the Indigenous Crimean Tatars in Occupied Crimea and Destruction of Cultural Heritage Sites in Russia’s Full-Scale War in Ukraine”
2:00-3:30 - Paper Panel Session #2
* Contemporary Politics and Policy in Russia
* Eurasian Film, Poetry and Politics
* Late Soviet History and Implications for Today
* Soviet and Contemporary Politics and Identity in Eurasia
* War in Ukraine - Art, Identity, Emotion and Ideology
* Russian/Eurasian Literature (Afternoon Panel)
* Russian Celebrities, Education and Plays
4:00-5:30 Plenary: Perspectives on Russia’s Ongoing War in Ukraine
* Sergey Glebov, Professor of History, Amherst/Smith Colleges
* Valerie Sperling, Professor of Political Science, Clark University
* Yakov Klots, Associate Professor of Russian Literature, Hunter College; Founder of Tamizdat Project
5:30-6:00 - Music performance by
Burikes6:00-8:00 pm - Reception / dinner
