NewsNet Archive

The NewsNet Archive below contains links to issues from August 2006 through 2021. If you are seeking issues that have been published since January 2022, see the Current Issues page. Past issues of NewsNet from 1960 to 2006 and its predecessor titles are available in digital format by subscripton from East View Information Service.

(Please note that these are fairly large files; if they don’t open in your browser, try using the ‘Download’ button that will appear in the upper right to save to your computer and open directly in your PDF reader.)

2021 ISSUES

October – The October 2021 issue of NewsNet is now available. It includes “Russian Winemaking: Back to the Future?,” by Stephen V. Bittner (Sonoma State University); “The Making of a Modern Digital Archive,” by Julie Reines Chervinsky (Blavatnik Archive Foundation); “What Does Post-Socialism Taste Like?,” by Tyler Adkins (Princeton University.) We also congratulate the recipients of the 2021 ASEEES Prizes and announce the newly expanded 2022 Stephen F. Cohen-Robert C. Tucker Dissertation Fellowships. As always, the NewsNet includes Personages, Publications, Institutional and Affiliate Group News, and In Memoriam. To read the version designed for tablets, phones, and other smaller devices, please click here.

August – The August 2021 issue of NewsNet is now available. It includes “US-Russian Relations, Nord Stream, Germany, and Ukraine,” by Margarita M. Balmaceda (Seton Hall University); Citation detailing the achievements of the 2021 ASEEES Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Award recipient, Don Raleigh; “Teaching the 1648 Moscow Uprising in 2020,” by E. Thomas Ewing (Virginia Tech); “SRAS: 25 Years of Innovation,” by Renee Stillings (SRAS); and a full listing of our many travel grant recipients As always, the NewsNet includes Personages, Publications, Institutional and Affiliate Group News, and In Memoriam. To read the version designed for tablets, phones, and other smaller devices, please click here.

June – The June 2021 issue of NewsNet is now available and includes: “Revisiting the ‘Contours of Race, Racialization, and Race-Making’ in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies,” by Elana Resnick, UC Santa Barbara, Sunnie Rucker-Chang, University of Cincinnati, and Chelsi West Ohueri, University of Texas, Austin; “Summing Up Poetry: A Case Against Packaging,” by Ainsley Morse, Dartmouth College; “Supporting Precarious Scholars in Eastern Europe: Addressing Barriers to Publishing in US & UK,” by Janine Holc, Loyola University Maryland; “New Lease on Life for Physiological Collectivism? Reading Bogdanov in the Time of COVID,” by Felix Helbing, University of Pittsburgh. Please join us in congratulating the 2021 ASEEES Dissertation Grant & Internship Grant Recipients as well as the 2021 ASEEES Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Fellowship Recipients. As always, the NewsNet includes Personages, Publications, Institutional and Affiliate Group News, and In Memoriam. We’ve also shared a letter by the ASEEES Board President, Sibelan Forrester. To read the version designed for tablets, phones, and other smaller devices, please click here.

March —Includes excerpts from an interview with Eliot Borenstein (New York U) on his book, Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism (Cornell U Press, 2019), winner of the 2020 Vucinich Book Prize, by Diana Dukhanova (College of the Holy Cross); “Building a Network of Support for Undergraduate Students of Color Interested in REEES” by Amarilis Lugo de Fabritz (Howard U), Colleen Lucey (U of Arizona), Krista Goff (U of Miami), Kelly Knickmeier Cummings (Howard U); “Uncomfortable Conversations: On Preparing BIPOC University Students for Study in Russia” by Thomas Jesús Garza (University of Texas at Austin); and “‘You’re doing it all wrong:’ Course Revision and Planning in mid-career – True Confessions” by Christian Raffensperger (Wittenberg University). In addition, we have our usual features and the 2021 ASEEES Prizes Call for Submissions. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

January —“Rightward Populist Rebellion in East Central Europe: Anxieties, Proselytization, and the Rebirth of Mythical Thinking” by Jan Kubik (Rutgers University/University College London); “The 2020 Professor Purges in Retrospect: ASEEES Concerns & Advocacy Plans” by Rebecca Mitchell (Middlebury College) & Steven Seegel (University of Northern Colorado); “Finland Forgotten: A Historical Case of (Unconscious) Cognitive Bias?” by Malcolm L. G. Spencer; “Gaming Russian and Soviet History” by Barbara C. Allen (LaSalle University). Also in this issue, the 2020 Executive Director’s Report by Lynda Park, the full list of 2021 ASEEES Board of Directors & Committees, and the Affiliate Organizations’ 2020 Prize Winners, in addition to our usual features. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

2020 ISSUES

October —”A Philosopher on the Streets of Belarus” by Tatiana Shchyttsova (European Humanities University & MAG); “Operation ASEEES and The Slavic Connexion’s Other Adventures” by Cullan Bendig, Samantha Farmer, Lera Toropin, Katya Yegorov-Crate (University of Texas-Austin); “Beyond Diversity: Integrating Racial Justice into REECA Studies” by Emily Couch; ”Is There Room for Early Modern Slavic Studies in the US & Canada?” by Ievgeniia (Zhenya) Sakal (Yale University); An interview with Oleh Kotsyuba about the New Books Website of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard; Spotlight on New Affiliate Group: The Working Group for Solidarity in REEES; Announcements of the 2020 ASEEES Prize winners and of the 2021 ASEEES Convention theme, in addition to our usual features. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

August —“A Voice from the Slavic Studies Edge: On Being a Black Woman in the Field,” by Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon (University of Pennsylvania); Winner of 2020 ASEEES Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Award announced; “Reflections on Our 2019 ASEEES Pedagogy Roundtables,” by Kathryn Julian (Westminster College) and Johanna Mellis (Ursinus College); “Responses of Libraries to the COVID-19 Pandemic & Implications for Research,” by Janice T. Pilch (Rutgers, The State University of NJ); “Collective Zoom Guilt and the Russian Studies Classroom,” by Kelly McGee (Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey); “What’s in a Name? Are We Slavic, East European, Eurasian, or All of the Above?” by Ani Kokobobo (University of Kansas); a Letter to ASEEES Members, lists of grant recipients, and all of our usual features.

June—“Conferences, Coronavirus, and the KGB: The Webinar Series on ‘The Political Police and the Soviet System: Insights from Newly Opened KGB Archives in the Former Soviet States’” by Michael David-Fox (Georgetown U); “The Screens of Academe” by Eliot Borenstein (NYU); “A Pandemic Dispatch from Brooklyn” by Brigid O’Keeffe (Brooklyn College, CUNY); and “The Fate of Graduate Research in a Time of Pandemic” by John Vsetecka (Michigan State University). We also congratulate our 2020 ASEEES Dissertation Grant, Internship Grant, and CTDRF Recipients. Finally, we included a letter from our ASEEES President Jan Kubik and the ASEEES Statement Condemning Systemic Racism and Police Brutality. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here

March—”The Transnational Turn in Russian Studies” by Connor Doak (University of Bristol), Kevin M.F. Platt (University of Pennsylvania), Vlad Strukov (University of Leeds); “On Slavic and Eurasian Studies in Japan” by Kimitaka Matsuzato (University of Tokyo / Moscow State University /Shanghai International Studies University); “Ruling Russia in China” by William Zimmerman (University of Michigan); To See Paris and Die, An Interview with Eleanory Gilburd, winner of the 2019 Vucinich Book Prize, by Sean Guillory (University of Pittsburgh). This issue also includes calls for submissions for many research grants, travel grants, book prizes, and awards. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

January—“Belief: Possibility and Its Discontents,” by Mark D. Steinberg (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); “Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute Launches New Contemporary Ukraine Program,” by Emily Channell-Justice (Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program); “Abolishing Academic Serfdom,” by Yulia Mikhailova (New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology). Additionally, the issue contains the Future of the Field Impact Report, the 2019 Executive Director’s Report, a listing of the 2020 ASEEES Board of Directors and Committees, and all of our usual features. We also congratulate the 2019 ASEEES Affiliate Organizations’ prize winners. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here

2019 ISSUES

October—“The Far-Right Reads Solzhenitsyn,” by Lynne Viola (University of Toronto); ASEEES Congratulates the Winners of the 2019 Prizes; “Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Disaster, An Interview with Serhii Plokhii,” by Andrew Jack (Pushkin House); “The Hoover Library and Archives at 100: Worlds in a Tower,” by Eric T. Wakin (Hoover Institution Library & Archives); Slavic Digital Humanities Pre-Convention Workshop and Events; New Committee for the Advocacy of Diversity and Inclusion; 2020 ASEEES Convention Theme and our usual features. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

August—“Kazakhstan after Nazarbayev: Changes for Researchers,” by Sarah Cameron (University of Maryland, College Park); 2019 ASEEES Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Award winner announced; 3rd Biennial Summer Convention in Zagreb and Future of the Field Campaign reports; “Of Revolutionaries and Realists: Russian-Armenian Relations since the Velvet Revolution,” by Stephen Badalyan Riegg (Texas A&M University); Diversity and Inclusion Convention Travel Grant Announcement; Travel Grant Recipients and our usual features. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

June—“Who’s Laughing Now?: What Volodymyr Zelensky’s Presidential Win May Mean for Ukraine Studies,” by William Jay Risch (Georgia College); “War on the Academy: The Hungarian Government’s Crackdown on Research Freedom,” by Stefano Bottoni (Hungarian Academy of Sciences); 2019 Research Grant Recipients and Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Research Fellowship Recipients; and “21st-Century Approaches to Copyright Law,” by Janice T. Pilch (Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey).  For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

March—The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes: An interview with the film director, Andrei Nekrasov by Choi Chatterjee (California State University, Los Angeles); Losing Pravda, An Interview with Natalia Roudakova (2018 winner of Vucinich Prize) by Sean Guillory (University of Pittsburgh); Recent Preservation Projects from the Slavic and East European Materials Project by Judy Alspach (Center for Research Libraries); The Prozhito Web Archive of Diaries: A Resource for Digital Humanists by Misha Mel’nichenko (Prozhito Web Archive), Svetlana Rasmussen (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), and Susan Grunewald (Carnegie Mellon University). For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

January—includes “Presidential Performances” by Julie Cassiday (Williams College); 2018 Executive Director’s Report by Lynda Park; “Celebrating ASEEES: Our Field, Our Future” by Beth Holmgren (Duke University); “New M.S. in Global Media and Cultures at Georgia Tech” by Dina Khapaeva (Georgia Institute of Technology); Affiliate Organizations’ 2018 Prize Winners, and 2019 ASEEES Board of Directors & Committees. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, click here.

2018 ISSUES

October— As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of our organization’s founding and the 50th Convention, our October NewsNet features a series, entitled “Celebrating ASEEES,” that reflect on our history through the eyes of four AAASS/ASEEES Past Presidents: Reflections on the 1980s was written by Ellen Mickiewicz (Duke University); Marianna Tax Choldin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) reflects on the 1990s; William Rosenberg (University of Michigan) describes his Board Presidency in the 2000s, while Bruce Grant (New York University) takes us through the 2010s. We also congratulate the Winners of the 2018 Prizes and thank our 2017-2018 Contributors. This issue spotlights the Journal of Russian American Studies (JRAS) and the Society for Romanian Studies, as well as announces our 2019 Convention Theme and the Call for Papers for our 2019 Summer Convention. For a version best viewed on tablets/phones/e-readers, please click here.

August —“When the East Tries to Become the West,” by Lynn M. Tesser, Marine Corps University; 2018 ASEEES Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Award;  Spotlight: Bulgarian Studies Journal;  “Celebrating ASEEES: Reflections on the Inaugural Convention,” by Loren R. Graham, MIT; “Celebrating ASEEES: Reflections on the 20th and 25th Convention” by Patricia Polansky, University of Hawaii; 2018 ASEEES Convention Special Events; 2018 ASEEES Travel Grant Recipients; and our usual features.

June— “Prague Spring at 50” by Daria V. Ezerova (Yale University); “In Search of the ‘Perfect Collection’: Armenian Studies Collections at the UC-Berkeley Library” by Liladhar R. Pendse (UC Berkeley); “Collaborating across Centers and Disciplines: Pitt’s Central Eurasia Initiative” by Zsuzsánna Magdó and Nancy Condee (University of Pittsburgh); Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Research Fellowship Recipients; Member Spotlight: Dan Healey. [This version is available by clicking on the month title or by clicking here for a version best viewed on mobile devices.]

March — “Applying Post-Socialist Studies outside Post-Soviet Space: The Many Washington, DCs” by Johanna Bockman (George Mason University and Institute for Advanced Study); “Interview with Benjamin Peters, Winner of the ASEEES 2017 Vucinich Book Prize” by Stephen Hutchings (University of Manchester, UK); “The William Brumfield Russian Architecture Digital Collection: From Database to Semantic Web” by Michael Biggins and Theo Gerontakos (University of Washington, Seattle); “Spotlight: Johnson’s Russia List” by David Johnson; and 2018 ASEEES Prizes Call for Submissions. [This version is available by clicking on the month title or by clicking  here for a version best viewed on mobile devices.]

January — includes “Betraying the Revolutions?” by Anna Grzymala-Busse (Stanford University); 2017 Executive Director’s Report by Lynda Park; “From Slavic Languages and Literatures to Russian and East European Studies at Penn” by Mitchell A Orenstein (University of Pennsylvania); Affiliate Organizations’ 2017 Prize Winners; 2018 ASEEES Board of Directors & Committees; our usual features and a schedule of upcoming webinars. [This version is available by clicking on the month title or by clicking here for a version best viewed on mobile devices.] 

2017 Issues

October — includes “Article Written: 1917 for 2017,” by Kristin Romberg (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); “The Russian Revolution from Behind Bars,” by Andy Bruno (Northern Illinois University) and Mark D. Steinberg (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign); “A Journey of a Thousand Years,” by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews); “Revolution Every Day,” by Robert Bird (University of Chicago), Christina Kiaer (Northwestern University), and William Nickell (University of Chicago); “Events at the Art Institute during the ASEEES 2017 Convention,” by Kathleen Tahk (The Art Institute of Chicago); three member spotlights of ASEEES doctoral dissertation research grant recipients; 2016-2017 Contributors to ASEEES; and the 2018 ASEEES Convention Theme. In addition to our usual features, we are proud to announce the 2017 ASEEES Prize Winners.  

August — includes “Broadening Career Opportunities and Training for PhDs: A Discussion at ASEEES,” by Melissa Bokovoy (University of New Mexico); three “alt-ac” career Member Spotlights from Elana Jakel (US Holocaust Memorial Museum), Faith Wilson Stein (Stanford University Press), Daniel Peris (Federated Investors); and “Portable Practices of Critical Social Inquiry: Taking East Central Europe Global,” by Jonathan Larson (Grinnell College).
In addition to our usual features, we are proud to announce the 2017 Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies award recipient.  

June — includes “Central Asian Islam Outside a Soviet Box,” by Morgan Y. Liu (The Ohio State University); “Opening the Vaults: Art Folios & Resources of the Hoover Institution Library,” by Michael Herrick (Hoover Institution); “The Lost Archive of Major Martin Manhoff,” by Douglas Smith; and “The Prague Spring Archive Project,” by Ian P Goodale (University of Texas). In addition to our usual features, we are proud to announce the Cohen-Tucker Research Fellowship Recipients. [This version is available by clicking on the month title or by clicking here for a version best viewed on mobile devices.] 

The June issue is intended to be available primarily online and is not mailed except on request.

March — includes “Misbehaving Women and the Russian Revolutions of 1917,” by Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild (Harvard University), “They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide: An Interview with Ronald Grigor Suny,” by Norman M. Naimark (Stanford University), “Contingent Faculty and Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies: A Report by ASEEES Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession,” by Sharon A. Kowalsky (Texas A&M University-Commerce), and “Celebrating Crime and Punishment at 150,” by Kate Holland (University of Toronto) and Katherine Bowers  (University of British Columbia). Additionally, the issue includes ASEEES Prizes Calls for Submissions, announcements about the First Book Subvention and Mentoring programs, and our regular features. [This version is available by clicking on the month title or by clicking here for a version best viewed on mobile devices.] 

The March issue is intended to be available primarily online and is not mailed except on request.

January— “Area Studies and the ‘False Song of Globalism’” by Padraic Kenney, Indiana University; 2016 Executive Director’s Report by Lynda Park; “Reading Mayakovsky in São Paulo: Boris Schnaiderman and the Legacy of Russian Studies in Brazil” by Cassio de Oliveira, Portland State University; Affiliate Organizations’ 2016 Prize Winners; 2017 ASEEES Board of Directors & Committees; and our regular features