CEELBAS has developed multi-disciplinary, language-based research capacity around a number of key research themes through a programme of conferences, workshops and language projects, postgraduate scholarships, postdoctoral fellowships, mid-career training, as well as engagement with the user community and international networks.

The Centre integrates the scholarly capacities of the universities involved in order to generate a sustainable flow of highly trained area expertise. Its objectives are to set the research agenda for the study of its region and to inform policy making, nationally and internationally. The Centre gives the UK a leading global presence in the study of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and neighbouring regions.

Publications	Workshops & Language Projects	Research Themes	Postdoctoral Research
Postgraduate Research	Area Methods Virtual Tour	Knowledge Exchange	CEELBAS Region

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Publications

Over 250 research outputs have been produced as a result of the Centre’s activities – with many more planned or forthcoming – ranging from specific workshops and conferences to monographs, edited collections, peer-reviewed articles, journal special issues, electronic journals, interactive language learning websites and policy papers. A selection of publications is available at www.ceelbas.ac.uk/research/publications.

A full list of publications and other academic outputs is available on the ESRC Society Today website

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Research Workshops and Language Projects

The Centre organises and supports, across its Network, workshops and conferences to take forward the research agenda and engage with the user community. These events have brought together representatives from over 200 different UK and international institutions, including non-area specialists, up-and-coming academics and doctoral students, as well as established academic experts on the region and representatives from over 220 different business, public, private and third sector organizations.

In addition, the Centre supports projects to develop teaching materials and study resources across the full range of Slavonic and East European languages. These are made available for the long term through the open-access CEELBAS Language Repository.

• Forthcoming Workshops and Language Development Projects 2012/13
• Previously Funded Projects & Workshops: 2007/8
• Previously Funded Projects & Workshops: 2008/9
• Previously Funded Projects & Workshops: 2009/10
• Previously Funded Projects & Workshops: 2010/11

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Research themes

For 2012-2015 CEELBAS has identified five overarching research themes:

Transnationalism and the Translation of Cultures

The effects on the CEELBAS region of the global circulation of formal and informal cultural, political, economic and social practices; tensions presented by ethnic nationalism; memory and the construction of post-Communist identities; migration processes and experiences of migrant and diasporic communities; the impact of global and digital media on transition societies.

Human Sciences and Cultural Contexts

The relationships between science, politics and society, historically and in post-Communist societies; the relationship between expert knowledge and empire-, nation- and other community-building processes; the role of linguists in shaping formal and informal regulations of language usage; the role of science in managing multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism; and the role of history politics in shaping foreign and domestic policies in the CEELBAS region.

Beyond Text? Material, Visual, Digital, Sensory and Oral Cultures

Visual, oral, material, digital, symbolic, as well as textual/verbal, modes of communication in the CEELBAS region and their relationship to diverse and shifting political imperatives, historically and in contemporary global contexts; the role and impact of new digital social networks and communication in the region; models of consumerism that have operated historically in the region, and those that are now emerging.

Global Economic and Political Developments and Their Impacts on Eastern Europe and Russia: Problems and Opportunities

The evolving challenges being presented to the CEELBAS region by the global financial crisis and its economic, political and social consequences; the processes and outcomes of economic reforms in the region; opportunities presented by growing markets in Asia; interactions between countries in the region (both members of and those outside the EU) and the EU in its current period of crisis; looking to the future of culture, society and politics in the wider Europe; security, stability and political change within the region and in response to global events; comparisons with developments and prospects in other regions, notably Japan, South and North Korea and China, and North Africa and the Middle East.

Challenges to Health and Wellbeing in an Era of Uncertainty

Responses in the CEELBAS region to the major global challenge to sustain improvements in the health and wellbeing of populations; historical and contemporary studies of health and wellbeing; comparisons of health and wellbeing issues in the CEELBAS region with those in other countries.

The Centre encourages:

• Disciplinary, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and comparative research
• Contemporary as well as historical approaches to the above themes
• Strong international participation and close engagement with policy making communities
• Collaboration and interaction with other LBAS Centres

CEELBAS Research Themes 2006-2011:

• Cities (e.g. urban development and urban experiences)
• Health, Wealth, Welfare and Demography
• Migration and Diasporic Citizenship
• New Dimensions of Social Inequality
• Contemporary Cultural Processes (e.g. film, mass media and cultural consumption, youth cultures)
• Polish Foreign Policy
• Knowledge-based Economies and Societies (e.g. R&D, E-government)
• International Relations, Security and Energy Politics
• Identities and Solidarities (e.g. regional, national and transnational, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexualities, the dynamics of trust)
• Political and Economic Processes (e.g. democratisation and integration)

International Conferences at UCL:

• Launch Conference (April 2007): East European Area Studies: Setting the Research Agenda

• Dissemination Conference (June 2011): Research without Frontiers: inter-university cooperation in East European area studies

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Postdoctoral research

In 2006-2011 seven Postdoctoral Fellowships were appointed by the Centre to develop key research themes. A specific focus of these Fellowships was the development of, and reflection on, new approaches across and between disciplines. Thus, these Fellows advanced the Centre’s specific research objectives and, just as importantly, contributed to the development of multi- and interdisciplinary area studies in general. These appointments covered the following themes:

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies:

• Cities and Urban Experience in Eastern Europe Jan 2007 to Dec 2008
• Health and Welfare in Eastern Europe May 2007 to May 2009
• Migration and Diasporic Citizenship Jan 2009 to Sept 2011

University of Oxford, Russian and East European Studies:

• Social Inequality in Eastern Europe April 2007 to April 2009
• Cultural Processes in Eastern Europe from 1 April 2007

University of Birmingham, Centre for Russian and East European Studies:

• Polish Foreign Policy April 2007 to Oct 2009
• Economies of Central and Eastern Europe March 2009 to Sept 2011

Society, Culture and Politics of Eastern Europe Conference
A joint conference was organised by the first five CEELBAS Postdoctoral Fellows in December 2008 at the University of Oxford, desinged to to take forward the Centre’s agenda and create new research synergies. View podcasts and further details.

A selection of postdoctoral research posters were produced for the Centre's international conference Research without Frontiers in June 2011 and are available below (click to enlarge):

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Postgraduate research

The Centre has provided 38 M.Res / M. Phil and 32 PhD / D.Phil studentships to fund research relating to its key research themes, or combinations thereof, as they relate to the region.

View list of CEELBAS Studentship holders and their research topics

The CEELBAS postgraduate research and training programme has also included a series of workshops on research ethics and an annual Russian Archives Training Scheme.

A selection of postgraduate research posters are available below (click to enlarge):

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Area Methods Virtual Tour: Reflections on Fieldwork In Eastern Europe and Russia

An online guide has been produced by CEELBAS Postdoctoral Fellows to assist postgraduate students in their research projects on Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. This is a Learning Space in which the Fellows draw on their own experiences to offer ideas and possible approaches to some of the common challenges encountered during the research process in the CEELBAS region. Sections cover: Accessing the ‘field’, Generating qualitative data, Ethics and power relations, and Language in cross-cultural research.

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Knowledge Exchange Partnerships and Events

CEELBAS has Knowledge Exchange Partnerships in place with:

The BEARR Trust (NGO supporting health and welfare in Russia and Eurasia)
Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs)
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The Russo-British Chamber of Commerce
Russian Media House (the UK’s largest Russian publishing company)
The Wider Europe Network (forum for discussion on European Neighbourhood Policy)

Together we organise various user-focused roundtables and conferences to share and disseminate CEELBAS expertise and to cross the boundaries between academic research and the economic and public policy fields. In addition, CEELBAS-supported workshops and academic events have involved representatives from over 150 different business, public, private and third sector organizations.

View full overview of the CEELBAS Knowledge Exchange programme

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Region

CEELBAS research covers all the countries of Central, Eastern, South-Eastern Europe and the Baltic, Russia, as well as Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea sub-region, including Turkey.

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