Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Description:
The Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES) at the University of Kansas (KU) has been a U.S. Department of Education (ED) Title VI Comprehensive National Resource Center since 1965. KU has offered Russian language since 1943; area certificate since 1959; and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree since 1968. KU offers PhDs with regional concentration in all core disciplines. CREES graduates more U.S. Army Foreign Area Officers than any other National Resource Center (NRC) program.

Mission:
To meet the national need for specialists by producing students with advanced language and area studies training, providing professional mentoring, enhancement, and study/research abroad opportunities; to support students and faculty in their research and intellectual development as outstanding teachers, scholars, and mentors; to be a local, regional, and national resource, providing outreach, support services, and information to other KU units, K-12, post-secondary, business, media, government, military, and community constituencies.

Degree Programs, Languages, Disciplines, and Faculty:
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) co-major and minor; Master of Arts (M.A.) in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Balkan, general East European, and general Eurasian tracks. PhD in all major disciplines, including Slavic Languages and Literatures with capacity to teach 11 area languages. Nine AY (7 graduate and 2 undergraduate) and 5+ Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships awarded annually. Study abroad in Croatia, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine. 64 core and affiliated faculty members, including 14 language specialists, 20 humanists, 17 social scientists, eight in professional schools and five in the libraries; 8-12 visiting foreign scholars each year.

Library:
460,000 volumes of Slavica, 3,000 serials; two professional Slavic bibliographers (five professional library staff); the major Slavic collection between Illinois and California-Berkeley.

Enhancement and Outreach Activities:
1) Over 70 events annually including lectures, workshops, plays, films, roundtables, and conferences;
2) K-12 Teacher training and newsletters; curriculum development; and video resources for K-16;
3) Online Content (www.crees.ku.edu; www.ku.edu/~herron; www.silkroad.ku.edu);
4) Translation and support services for business, government, media, military, and local community;
5) Sponsor of The Russian Review, the leading interdisciplinary journal on Russia past and present;
6) Fellows Program for area specialists at Kansas Regents, Big 12, and Great Plains institutions;
7) Collaboration with Central Slavic Conference, Mid-America Consortium for International Education, Haskell Indian Nations University, Robert Dole Institute of Politics, Kansas State University, Foreign Military Studies Office and Command and General Staff College (Ft. Leavenworth), International Relations Council, and others.

New Initiatives for 2010-2013:
1. Language Training:
• Seed in Beginning-Advanced Tajik/Farsi (with the Center for Global and International Studies)
• LAC Grants for REES faculty teams to design FL modules for high-int./adv. students in content courses
• Biennial REES-related LCTL workshops on proficiency-based development (with UW)
• Development of on-line LCTL instruction for survival and adv.-level maintenance in Slavic and Turkic FL
• Central Eurasian Summer Studies Institute (CESSI): new, 3-yr rotating CA LCTL consortium with high-qual. teacher training, FL instruction, and cultural program (UW, CU, KU, StanU, UW/Seattle, GU, OSU)
2. Area Studies Training:
• Seed in Cultural Geography in Rus and CA areas: Culture and security curriculum
• REES annual UG Honors Colloquium; biennial UG Summer Honors Workshop
• New course competition with on-line capability, related to annual themes (see “outreach events”)
3. K-12 Teacher Training:
• Expansion of CREES free, high-quality, web-based course materials & lesson plans; FL grammar books/glossaries; Slavic Great Plains database; expansion of on-line course offerings
• Biannual collaborative NRC/SOE/CIBER K-14 curriculum workshops, in keeping with KS K-12 standards
4. Outreach Events:
• 2010: CREES 50th anniversary weekend, August 26-29, 2010
• 2011: 150th Anniversary of KS Statehood: “Kansas and the World” with SMA/NRCs conference on migration
• 2011: All-NRC Conference, “After Empire: Nations and Identities,” on post-Soviet and post-colonial societies
• 2012: CREES/NRC/CGIS/ES collaborative conference and new curriculum on environments and resources
• 2013: all-NRC conference with Fort Leavenworth and National World War I Museum on rethinking World War I
• Biennial REES and REES-rel. BA/MA professionalization workshop (with UT, UW)
5. Evaluation and Assessment:
• CGIS/NRC outreach event tracking
• CGIS/CTE/IS/GAP/NRC UG international cultural competencies tracking
• FLAS proficiency tracking, introducing 4-skill pre-course and post-course testing for 2nd and 3rd year, student eportfolios, OPI training of priority-FL faculty to assess student proficiency to adv. level.
• Biennial tracking of REES and FLAS alumni/ae on employment, use of FL/AS knowledge and skills in job
6. FLAS:
• Train 7 graduate and 2 undergraduate AY; 3 G and 2 UG in summer