In February 2022, Russian missiles rained on Ukrainian cities and tanks rolled towards Kyiv to end Ukrainian independent statehood. President Zelensky declined a western evacuation offer and rallied the army and citizens to defend Ukraine. What are the roots of this war which has devastated Ukraine, upended the international legal order, and brought back the

Nargis Kassenova is a senior fellow and director of the Program on Central Asia at the Davis Center. Prior to joining the center, she was an associate professor at the Department of International Relations and Regional Studies of KIMEP University (Almaty, Kazakhstan). She is the former founder and director of the KIMEP Central Asian Studies

David Ost is a professor of Politics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. He has written widely on eastern Europe, with a focus on Poland, labor, class, democracy, and the radical right. His books include Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics, Workers After Workers’ States, The Defeat of Solidarity, and the edited collection “Class

When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine just before dawn on 24 February 2022, it marked his latest and most overt attempt to brutally conquer the country and reshaped the world order. Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times and the foremost journalist covering the country, was there

Contrary to Putin’s expectations, most Ukrainians responded to Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine by a stronger attachment to their country and nation. One element of this attachment is an embrace of the national language at both the symbolic and communicative levels. Not only did Ukrainians come to love their language more than before, but they

The Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington presents the keynote lecture of the 2023 REECAS Northwest Annual Conference. Alexei Yurchak is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley. His interests include political anthropology, linguistic anthropology, science and technology studies, anthropology of the image and Soviet

The Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington presents the first talk (12/1/2022) in the 2022-2023 REECAS Lecture Series on Russia in the Arctic. Valeria Vasilyeva (Ph.D. in Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences) is a research fellow at the Center for Arctic Social Studies, European University at

Dean LaRue presents his lecture, “How Does the EU Actually Work and How Is It Changing in the Face of Russian Aggression in Ukraine?” on Aug. 17, 2022. This lecture was part of the 2022 EU Policy Forum for Educators. More information about the workshop, as well as the visual Presentation Slides accompanying this lecture

Scott Montgomery presents his lecture, “EU Economic and Energy Responses to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine” on Aug. 17, 2022. This lecture was part of the 2021 EU Policy Forum for Educators. More information about the workshop, as well as the visual Presentation Slides accompanying this lecture can be found here: jsis.washington.edu/euwesteurope/ed…cator-workshop/ A complete transcript of

Glennys Young presents her lecture, “Russia’s War Against Ukraine: Teaching Opportunities and Challenges” on Aug. 17, 2022. This lecture was part of the 2021 EU Policy Forum for Educators. More information about the workshop, as well as the visual Presentation Slides accompanying this lecture can be found here: jsis.washington.edu/euwesteurope/ed…cator-workshop/ A complete transcript of the podcast