Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at UT
Our goal at the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies is to train UT students to become engaged citizens and inspired leaders, who can face a range of increasingly urgent contemporary global problems. The focus of our educational programs is on Russia and the states of Eastern Europe and Eurasia that have historically been in its shadow. We are acutely aware that understanding Russia is of critical importance to our national security, while the young democracies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are important regional players. Our center provides students from across the university with opportunity to better understand these societies through in-depth study of the languages, cultures, and politics of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Students’ educational journeys begin in our classrooms, but are often complimented by life-changing study abroad and research experiences from Serbia to Siberia. Our center and department offer as many scholarships as possible to help cover student overseas costs, but such costs are prohibitive for many first-generation and lower-income students. We are asking for your support to fund student overseas experiences in Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia.
Our students return from abroad as inspired and budding specialists, with expanded horizons and deepened language and subject expertise. See for example what our student Morgan Henson wrote about the upcoming Ukrainian elections after spending the summer of 2018 in Ukraine.
We are particularly proud of our alumni who go on to work in state service, policy, business, and academic fields. (Read about some of them on the Alumni Spotlights page of our website.) Their success would not be possible without the effective teaching of our faculty, who bring their own research on the region into the classroom and often accompany students overseas. But the world is the best possible classroom, and we will continue to work with our supporters to send our students abroad.
In order to sustain long-term funding for student scholarships our center is committed to building endowments focused on specific countries without our broader region. We are particularly focused on building our Polish Studies Endowment, to ensure that we can support all aspects of Polish Studies at UT in perpetuity. At present all endowment income goes to supporting student overseas experiences, such as our Maymester program in Warsaw this summer.
When you support Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Study Abroad Programs you change the lives of our students and help prepare them to be effective professionals and leaders in a globalized world.
Support our students by giving to the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies or to our Polish Studies Endowment.
Read more about our International Programs on our website.
Follow us on social media @UTCREEES on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.