Imagining Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Otherwise

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Russian Language Immersion Programs: Protesting the Conflict in Ukraine and the Response to Calls for Decolonization

Proposal

Russia's war against Ukraine has resulted in widespread calls to decolonize Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in English-speaking higher education and beyond. Informed by new imperial histories of Russia and decolonial critiques of higher education, this presentation will highlight new approaches in regional studies to curriculum development, instructional strategies, and the integration of cultural context into language programs. While reviewing ongoing challenges, this presentation will also ask what the conditions of possibility are for interrupting hegemonic ways of teaching and administration for the sake of a plurality of alternative approaches that center the interests of communities historically marginalized in regional studies and higher education.

Author

• Zsuzsanna Magdo, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Pittsburgh