Calendar - Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES)

Apr 13, 2026: Book of Exercises II By George Seferis at 1957 E Street NW

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:15:00 -0400

Greece's first Nobel laureate, George Seferis (1900–1971), spent much of his career as a diplomat navigating a succession of crises—the Metaxas dictatorship, exile during World War II, the German Occupation, the Greek Civil War, and the Cyprus crisis. His death under the Junta became a moment of national mourning and resistance. Throughout these decades, he officially represented the Greek Prime Minister and King, serving across Europe and Africa while watching his country endure horrific losses from afar—a tension between duty and despair that left a deep mark on his writing.

Jennifer R. Kellogg will read selections of Seferis's tragic and satiric poetry from this period. Her translation of Book of Exercises II presents previously untranslated work that reveals the anguish and absurdity of the poet's personal and political life.

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Apr 22, 2026: The Social Roots of Authoritarianism at 1957 E Street NW

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0400

Why do citizens cooperate with a state that mistreats them? And why does that cooperation look so different from one place to the next?

In The Social Roots of Authoritarianism (Oxford University Press, 2024), Natalia Forrat offers a new framework for understanding how authoritarian power works at the grassroots level. Drawing on fieldwork across four Russian regions, she identifies two distinct models of authoritarianism rooted in how societies view the state. Where people see the state as their collective team leader, regimes consolidate through social conformity and solidarity. Where they see it as an outsider, regimes rely on clientelist bargains and transactional loyalty. These aren't just different flavors of the same thing — they produce fundamentally different political machines, electoral control patterns, and implications for what democratization would require.

Forrat’s theory challenges the use of conventional categories of competitive politics to understand authoritarianism. She shows that when a group bond between citizens and the state is present, state-society relations are driven not by competition among different groups seeking to use state resources to their advantage but by the collective pursuit of a just state and the conflict between this ideal and the reality of a repressive state. For democracy practitioners, the book carries an important implication: because different types of authoritarianism lack different elements of democracy, support efforts may need to set different goals and target different institutions depending on the kind of authoritarian society they are engaging with.

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Apr 24, 2026: Global Turmoil and Wartime Ukraine

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400

In this full-day conference, leading global experts will present new research and exchange perspectives on a wide variety of critical issues faced in wartime Ukraine. This year's topics will include the latest developments in the war, how the Iran war and US-Europe tensions are impacting Ukraine, trends in language use, what history can teach us, and what we can learn from Ukraine's experience countering Russian "hybrid war" tactics ranging from cyber aggression to disinformation. By featuring scholars and invited expert discussants, panels aim to present a deeper, more thoughtful discussion than is often heard in mass media, where oversimplified interpretations are common. The conference will be completely online so as to foster discussion with attendees around the globe.

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