European Humanities University (Vilnius)

Center for Advanced Studies and Education on Social Transformations in the Western Eurasia Border Region - Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine

Oleksandr Androshchuk
National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine - University of Washington
Ukraine: Regionalism, Political Representations, and Public Attitudes (1990s-2000s)

The project deals with the problem of regionalism in contemporary Ukraine, its cultural, political, ideological, and historical dimensions.

Alexei Krivolap
European Humanities University - University of Washington
Problems of Humanities Education On-Line

Project is about teaching strategies in E-learning (distance learning). Main question is How we can organize courses in humanities discipline on-line?

Elena Matusevich
European Humanities University - Columbia University
Border Studies Curriculum Development: Construction of Cultural Identity in Belarus

This research will enable collaboration of border and media studies courses to develop programs beyond traditional disciplines.

Tatiana Pavlova
Belarus Institute of Law - University of Washington
Comparative Analysis of Belarusian and Ukrainian National Identities

National identity plays a significant role in social transformation of any borderline region. Comparative analysis of Ukraine and Belarus can show major differences as to how identity creation can influence transformations.

Volha Shatalava
Polish Academy of Sciences - Stanford University
Belarusian and Ukrainian Post-Soviet Nations: Two Versions of Nation-Building

My research will focus on content of Belarusian (political) and Ukrainian (ethno-linguistic) nation-building projects, their content, weak and strong points.

Anton Shynkaruk
Rivne Institute of Slavonic Studies - Stanford University
Crisis Communication Management in Modern Ukrainian Foreign Policy

Multivector (vagueness) of Ukrainian foreign policy linked with necessity to decide emerging stable crises. Efficiency of such activity depends on position of national elites, professional activity of foreign policy institutions, and influence of global and international media.

Ala Svet
Free International University of Moldova - University of Washington
Russian Minority Impact on the Republic of Moldova

The problem of national minorities refers not only to the internal sphere, but also to the external policy of state. Protection of national minorities' rights is the issue of protecting human rights on the international level and regional cooperation. Growth of ethnic minority consciousness has a strong influence on the interstate relations and regional cooperation.

The Center for Perspective Scientific Research and Education in Social and Humanitarian Sciences (CASE) is run under the auspices of the European Humanities University with financial support from the Carnegie Corporation, New York, and administered by the American Councils on International Education (ACIE), the American Center for Education and Reseach (ACER), and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER). It was founded with the mission to assist in updating the scientific research system in the fields of social sciences and humanities, the development of the professional community in the region, the creation of scientific connections, and the mobilization of intellectual and professional resources for studying processes of social transformation in the border zone consisting of such countries as Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova.

The social, economic, political and cultural transformations occuring in Central and East Europe over the last decade have led to new geopolitic configurations and in particular the formation of such regions as the border zone of Central-East Europe. This western part of the former USSR is located in a zone of interest to both European concerns and the post-Soviet (Eurasian) space.

The complexity and ambiguity of transformation processes in the given region demand new approaches to research and teaching. One of these approaches is border studies, in which the border zone is considered to be a space of special civilizational, political, economic, and cultural interaction.

Border zone research is a relatively new area of social sciences and humanities. Its framework includes research on various political, social, cultural, and economic phenomena from the point of view of fluctuating influences defined by the specificity of the border zone. The entire region including Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, is considered to be the border zone (the Land Between), within the framework of the project, insomuch as they define the features of the transformational processes occuring here.