TEST REECAS Northwest Conference

REECAS Northwest, the annual ASEEES Northwest Regional Conference for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, welcomes students, faculty, independent scholars, and language educators from the United States and abroad.

REECAS Northwest, the annual ASEEES Northwest Regional Conference for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, welcomes students, faculty, independent scholars, and language educators from the United States and abroad.

REECAS NW Conference 2023

REECAS Northwest 2024

The 30th Annual Conference for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies

April 11-13, 2024

University of Washington

Seattle, WA USA

Call for Proposals open! Deadline February 5!

Keynote Speaker announced: Dr. Ted Gerber on “Why, how, and where should we study Russia in the face of war and decolonization?”

 

About the Conference

2022 Ellison Center Director Scott Radnitz speaking at the REECAS Northwest Conference

REECAS Northwest, the annual ASEEES Northwest Regional Conference for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, welcomes students, faculty, independent scholars, and language educators from the United States and abroad. Established in 1994, REECAS Northwest is an important annual event for scholars and students in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, with participant and partner universities from across the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. The interdisciplinary conference is organized by the University of Washington’s Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies. Sometimes abbreviated as “REECAS NW”, the conference was recognized as the official ASEEES northwest regional conference by the ASEEES Board of Directors in 2017.

The conference hosts many panels on a variety of topics from a wide diversity of disciplines including political science, history, literature, linguistics, anthropology, culture, migration studies, gender studies, LGBTQ studies, film studies and more.

Papers on Russia and all the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are welcome, including the Uyghur region in China (Xinxiang and elsewhere).

Call for Proposals

The REECAS Northwest Conference welcomes both individual paper proposals and also panel/roundtable proposals. Individual proposal submissions will be grouped into panels with a common theme.

  • Panel Proposals: Panel chairs should gather their individual panelist information (name, email, affiliation, presentation title) and submit that on behalf of all panelists using the Call for Proposals Form. Upon acceptance, individual presenters and chairs will be required to register separately for the conference using a distinct Conference Registration Form, which will become live after the proposal acceptance announcement date.
  • Individual Paper Proposals: Individuals who are not part of a pre-formed panel should submit their proposal using the Call for Proposals Form. Upon acceptance, individual presenters and chairs will be required to register separately for the conference using a distinct Conference Registration Form, which will become live after the proposal acceptance announcement date.

Please note that the REECAS Northwest Annual Conference is in-person only.

For further details and definitions, please see the conference paper and presentation Guidelines, Definitions, and Best Practices webpage.

Submit Proposal

Key Dates and Deadlines

  • Call for Proposals Deadline (abstract and C.V.): February 5, 2024
  • Notification of Acceptance: February 12, 2024
  • Panels Announced: February 19, 2024
  • Final Papers to Chair: April 1, 2024
  • Presenter Registration Deadline: April 1, 2024

Conference Registration

Registration is required for the REECAS Northwest Conference. ALL participants (accepted presenters and audience members) must register using the below online form.

  • Student Presenters: $25
  • Faculty/Independent Scholars: $40
  • General Attendees: $25

Registration Form Coming in 2024!

Keynote Speaker

Ted Gerber (University of Wisconsin)

Why, how, and where should we study Russia in the face of war and decolonization?

About the talk: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and associated calls for decolonizing the study of Eastern Europe and Eurasia (and de-centering Russia within it) pose significant practical, intellectual, and ethical challenges that have led to much soul-searching among scholars whose primary research focus has been on Russia. The speaker considers these challenges and proposes responses, drawing on an assessment of the state of Russian studies in 2022 he conducted for ASEEES, other recent studies and discussions of these topics, and three decades of experience as a researcher in the field. 

About the speaker: Theodore P. Gerber is Conway-Bascom Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also directs the Wisconsin Russia Project. He studies social stratification, migration, demography, housing public opinion, and other aspects of social and economic change in former Soviet countries. Recent publications include co-authored articles on collective memory of Stalin’s repressions in Russia (American Sociological Review), housing inequality in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine (American Journal of Sociology), how kinship networks affect small business performance in Kyrgyzstan (Journal of Comparative Economics), and the effect of internal displacement on subjective well-being in Ukraine (Social Forces). 

Conference Highlights

Translation Showcase | Dominique Hoffman – Translation in the Context of War: Why did Cecil Have to Die? And Why Does Ukraine Fight on?

Dominique Hoffman is a translator and researcher focusing on literature, art, and cultural history. She has a degree in Russian Language and History from the University of Washington and a doctorate in Slavic Language and Literatures from the University of North Carolin at Chapel Hill. Dominique translates Ukrainian fiction and nonfiction from bothUkrainian and Russian — in the case of Olena Stiazhkina’s Cecil the Lion Had to Die, both in a single work. Her translation of Yaroslav Hrytsak’s Ukraine: the Forging of a Nation came out earlier this year, and the novel The Face of Fire by Aleksei Nikitin is forthcoming from the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Film | Golod (Famine) – A new (and swiftly banned) documentary film on famine in Russia in the 1920s

Historian and documentary contributor Douglas Smith presents Golod (Famine) a new documentary film from the U.S.-government-funded media outlet Current Time. Immediately banned by Vladimir Putin’s government, the film will be screened at REECAS Northwest, followed by a discussion. Dr. Smith was asked to be part of the Golod film project as the author of The Russian Job, which tells the forgotten story of American aid to the USSR during the famine there during the 1920s.

Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator. He is the author of six books on Russia and has a doctorate in history from UCLA. His book Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy was a bestseller in the UK. It won the inaugural Pushkin House Russian Book Prize in 2013, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and was chosen Book of the Year by Andrew Solomon in Salon. His 2016 biography Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs was a finalist for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Douglas’s new translation of Konstantin Paustovsky’s epic memoir, The Story of a Life, published by Vintage Classics in the UK in 2022 and by New York Review Books in the US in 2023, has received widespread critical praise. He recently launched a site dedicated to the film and movie archive of Major Martin J. Manhoff, a stunning, one-of-a-kind visual record of the Soviet Union in the Stalin years. Douglas is now at work on a book titled The City Without Jews, a history of the destruction of Jewish Vienna under the Nazis that highlights the remarkable story of Mignon Langnas.

New Book Roundtable | Details coming soon!

Conference Plenary | Details coming soon!

Conference Program | Coming in 2024!

Conference Program Coming in 2024!

Graduate Student Essay Prize

REECAS Northwest awards an annual prize for the best graduate student paper presented at the conference and nominates the winner for the ASEEES Beth Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize. For consideration, students must present their paper at the REECAS Northwest Conference and submit their paper through a process separate from conference registration. More details available in 2024!

Conference Hotel Updates coming in 2024!

Participants are required to make their own hotel reservations (including payment). The Ellison Center has secured a block of rooms at a discounted rate of $159 per night (shared double queen) plus taxes in the stylish Graduate Seattle Hotel, located just steps from the University of Washington in the University District. (Please scroll down to find discounted reservation link.)

We STRONGLY recommend you make your reservations soon as availability is limited. Please make your reservation by March 21, 2023 to secure the discounted rate. 

For hotel booking, please note the following:

  • Your Group Names is: UW – REECAS NW

  • Your first date of arrival is: 04/20/2023

  • Your last date of departure is: 04/22/2023

  • Your group rate of $159.00 for single and double rooms is valid for 3 days pre / post contracted dates based on hotel availability. In order to secure pre/post contracted dates, please book rooms using the booking link and email smujan@graduateseattle.com to extend the additional days you need.

There are two ways to make your university’s hotel reservations:

By Phone: Universities can make reservations by calling the hotel directly at 844-888-4723 between the hours of 8a.m. – 7p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. – 4p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.  To guarantee rate and room type, please ensure the name of the group, arrival date, and any other information needed is given at the time of reservation.

Online: Universities can make reservations online by clicking here. This method is best for individual room reservations as each room must be reserved via separate transactions. 

Other hotels in the U-District, please note that the discounted rate is not available at these hotels.

Marriott Residence Inn 

Silver Cloud Hotel

Watertown Hotel 

University Inn

Venue, Campus Maps, Parking, and Transportation

The REECAS Northwest Conference will take place in the HUB (Husky Union Building) on the University of Washington campus in Seattle. (4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA 98195)

MORE INFO HERE

Seattle Restaurants and Activities

There are a variety of restaurants and cafes located on the University of Washington campus and nearby.

MORE INFO HERE

Invitation Letter Request

(Accepted proposals only) – If you require a letter of invitation to present at the conference, please complete the below form.

Invitation Letter Form

COVID-19 Prevention and UW

Questions?

If you have questions not answered by this webpage, please contact reecasnw@uw.edu.

Free wi-fi is available for 2024 conference attendees. To access wi-fi, please log into the University of Washington network with:

UW Net ID: Coming in 2024!

Password: Coming in 2024!