ASEEES Annual Convention
November 21-24, 2024
Boston, MA
The international forum organized by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) will foster a broad exchange of information and ideas, stimulating further research and sustaining the intellectual vitality of the field.

The Russia Program at GW is participating in the convention and looks forward to seeing you at our events!
Thursday, November 21
04:00 – 05:45 PM EST
Illiberalism(s)
Marlene Laruelle, The George Washington University
Maria Sidorkina, U of Texas in Austin
Xenia A. Cherkaev, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Germany)
Taras Fedirko, U of Glasgow (UK)
Ilia Matveev, UC Berkeley
Alexandra Simonova, Brown U
Liberalism traces itself back to the promise of liberation from very particular kinds of dependence, oppression, and state intervention (although it has relied on other kinds). Illiberalism is today emerging as a more and more coherent set of ideologies that promise liberation from liberalism’s (or, rather, neoliberalism’s) global expansion (Laruelle 2022). But this coherence is tenuous and possibly unachievable. Is there more to illiberalism than the seemingly endless diversity of anti-liberal, nonliberal or aliberal ways of escaping regimentation by liberal economic, political and discursive forms? If so, how did illiberalism’s coherence develop historically, and what significance does it have in the context of contemporary geopolitical transformations?

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Saturday, November 23
08:00 – 09:45 AM EST
Free and Online?

A Roundtable on the Opportunities, Costs, and Accessibility of Online and In-Person Networking in REEES and Beyond
Ivan Grek, The George Washington University
Kelly Knickmeier Cummings, Howard U
Maria Lvova, U.S. Russia Foundation
Ian MacMillen, Yale U
Searching online for the phrase “liberated by Zoom,” one finds countless pandemic-era commentaries, variously critical and uncritical of how meeting online might free participants of in-person gatherings’ temporal, spatial, economic, ecological, and health constraints and costs. Their opposing stances spotlight two disparities: in participants’ access to virtual and physical networking spaces; and in how comfortable, conducive, and safe the space from which one joins online is, vis-à-vis conditions at a potential physical meeting point. How have wars, disease, ecological imperatives, and affirmative action’s imperilment affected these disparities? In networking to support vulnerable and underrepresented populations in higher education, which prioritizations do our disciplines and institutions seemingly require, and what can we learn from others?

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12:00 – 01:45 PM EST
Liberation, Privatization, and the Triumph of Neoliberalism: Looking Back at the USSR's Transition from Planned Economy to Market Economy, 1990s
Ivan Grek, The George Washington University
Gregory Bernstein
Daniel Satinsky, Independent Scholar
Access to open market was a major driver of Russians’ strive to liberation after the collapse of the USSR. This round table discussion of Russian market reforms of the 1990’s will focus on developing an analytic framework to understand this period and its lasting impact on Russia. This panel involves scholars, entrepreneurs, and policymakers, who were directly involved in transforming Russian market in the 1990s.

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12:00 – 01:45 PM EST
The Evolution of the Putin Regime's Ideology
Marlene Laruelle, The George Washington University
Mikhail D Suslov, U of Copenhagen (Denmark)
Alexander Smoljanki, Integrum World Wide
Maria Snegovaya, John Hopkins U
The panel is devoted to the evolution the Putin regime's ideology in comparison to the dynamic of other contemporary autocracies. In the midst of the Third wave of democratization many observers believed that the ideological contestation between the West and Communism was over, concluding in the former’s victory and a renewed global ideological confrontation was barely a possibility. Accordingly, the assumption was that weltanschauung ideologies as methods of autocratic legitimation would become irrelevant and cast off for the lack of an alternative to the Western model. These assumptions led to a popular conclusion that today’s autocracies fundamentally differ from their twentieth century predecessors in that they are not ideologically driven. However, recent trends in Putin’s Russia seem to defy those expectations.

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Sunday, November 24
10:00 – 11:45 AM EST
Governance in Russia and USSR: National and Subnational Perspectives
Julian Gordon Waller, The George Washington University
Ora John Edward Reuter, U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Dima Kortukov, U of Alabama
Valeria Umanets, U of Pittsburgh
Alexei Rumiantsev, Indiana U Bloomington
The panel examines government structures in the Soviet and post-Soviet Russian contexts, encompassing national legislatures, municipal bodies, and political decisions made at these levels. It delves into the interplay between empowering reforms, regressive policies, policy-making decisions, deputies' activities and reputation, and official mobilizing efforts. The aim is to illuminate the context and consequences of significant policy decisions often overlooked, due to shifts in political agendas, perceived significance, and deliberate attempts to conceal them.

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