Printer Friendly VersionThe SSRC has joined forces with Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies to form a Russian-American Working Group. The first planning meeting was held in Cambridge on May 20–21, and both Alexandra Vacroux and Cynthia Buckley attended, representing the SSRC. The Working Group concept is designed to create a core group of young academics who will meet twice a year to discuss issues of bilateral relevance. Topics include the post-Soviet space, the risk of food scarcity, the Arctic, and NATO expansion.
The end of the Cold War and the gradual disappearance of Cold Warriors left a vacuum of long-term relationships between Russian and American academics who are close to policy circles. The Working Group aims to create a new, stabilizing network of professional and personal colleagues who can inform policymakers in both countries.
May 11–14, the Eurasia Program, in collaboration with Georgetown University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), ran a Research and Policy Forum. The forum introduced young academics to ways in which they could communicate their research and analysis beyond academia. A public event at CSIS demonstrated to the student participants how one could communicate academic research to an interdisciplinary and interprofessional audience. Feedback from participants suggests that the Forum went extremely well and that the goals of training while building networks were both met and exceeded.
Dr. Cynthia Buckley joined the SSRC as director of the Eurasia Program as of August 1, 2010. Her varied research experience across the Eurasian region will serve the Eurasia Program well in the coming years and contribute significantly to the SSRC’s plans for reconfiguring its international work.
