Welcome to a new academic year!
The prospect of gradually returning to a full campus life has infused us with renewed energy and a hopeful outlook for the coming months. As always, CERS programs aim to enhance our understanding of the deep global history and dynamic contemporary interconnections of the European and Russian regions. This is a particularly exciting moment given recent and upcoming elections across the continent, continuing economic and political fallout from Brexit, and vivid debates across the region on populism and illiberalism, migration and the latest refugee frontlines, xenophobic and racial discrimination, Covid-19 impacts and (post)pandemic politics.
Our public programming will track these and other significant events and debates in the public sphere with invited lectures from scholars, artists, and others from UCLA, the nation, and abroad. We also resume our quarterly graduate lecture series, which showcases the work of outstanding students and recent graduates in all disciplinary areas of European and Russian Studies. We continue our close collaboration with other centers at the International Institute on the talk series, "Black Lives Matter: Global Perspectives", emphasizing global and comparative perspectives on the pursuit of racial justice. While our public events will remain entirely remote during the fall quarter, we anticipate more opportunities to see each other in person in the winter and spring quarters, particularly on special occasions such as the Van Tilburg Annual Lecture in Dutch Studies and the Center’s forthcoming 65th anniversary.
We launch this year’s event series on October 15 with our 3rd annual lecture organized in collaboration with the Wende Museum, a timely examination of “Old and New Forms of Pronatalism and Gender Inequality in Illiberal Hungary” by UCLA alumna Éva Fodor, Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Co-Director of the Democracy Institute at the Central European University in Vienna/Budapest.
We also begin the new year with an important change at CERS, as Sanja Lacan, our longtime program and outreach coordinator, has taken a new position as managing editor of the Heritage Language Journal at UCLA's Center for World Languages. We thank Sanja for her many years of excellent work at CERS and wish her all the best as she embarks on an exciting new chapter of her career. Our team will soon be reconstituted with the arrival of our new program coordinator, Lenka Unge, whose combined qualifications in administration, communication, and European Studies will strengthen the quality of our staff resources once more. Please join us in bidding a heartfelt farewell to Sanja and a warm welcome to Lenka!
Looking forward to an exciting year, we invite you to stay tuned for upcoming event announcements and to stay connected by following us on Facebook and Twitter @UCLACERS.
Laurie Kain Hart, Director
Liana Grancea, Executive Director