Message from the Presidents

Happy Anniversary! We’re excited to be with you to honor the impact and contributions of our association, to share our scholarship, to see old friends, and to look ahead to the Future of the Field.

Founded at a turning point in global relations, ASEEES continues to lead the field of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies with 3,200 active members and more than 10,000 following our news and announcements around the world. Membership began in graduate school for most of us, and we well remember the excitement of our first convention. Since then, we’ve collaborated on panels with our mentors and mentees and found paths to career advancement and inspiration for our research and teaching. Along the way, we’ve also made life-long friendships.

We’ve reached another turning point for our field, at which ASEEES can and should play a decisive role. Although the opportunities for and methods of studying Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia have grown dramatically, funding for the scholarship and teaching we do has fallen over the past three decades. ASEEES has a responsibility not only to nurture, but also to increase the quality of research and diversity of thought in our field. We need to encourage connections and collaborations with scholars from the region and to support scholars and research of all types – from different regions of the world, previously underrepresented groups, and institutions under threat.

The Future of the Field Campaign gives us the opportunity to create new initiatives on the basis of our shared intellectual and scholarly values, so that we actively shape the future of our field ourselves. We’re excited to give back to an organization that has given us an intellectual home and to help future scholars find their own place in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

We hope you’ll be inspired, as we are, to support this effort. A donation at any level makes a difference, and your participation in the Future of the Field Campaign is our goal. Strength lies in numbers, so please join us at the most generous level you can personally consider and help us to secure the Future of the Field.

Sincerely,

Anna Grzymala-Busse, Julie Cassiday, Mark Steinberg