In February 2022, Russian missiles rained on Ukrainian cities and tanks rolled towards Kyiv to end Ukrainian independent statehood. President Zelensky declined a western evacuation offer and rallied the army and citizens to defend Ukraine. What are the roots of this war which has devastated Ukraine, upended the international legal order, and brought back the spectre of nuclear escalation? How is it that these supposedly “brotherly peoples” became each other’s worst nightmare? In Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Divergent States, Maria Popova and Oxana Shevel explain how over the last thirty years Russia and Ukraine diverged politically ending up on a catastrophic collision course. Russia slid back into authoritarianism and imperialism, while Ukraine consolidated a competitive political system and pro-European identity. As Ukraine built a democratic nation-state, Russia refused to accept it and came to see it as an “anti-Russia” project. After political pressure and economic levers proved ineffective and even counterproductive, Putin went to war to force Ukraine back into the fold of the “Russian world.” Ukraine resisted, determined to pursue European integration as a sovereign state. These irreconcilable goals, rather than geopolitical wrangling between Russia and the West over NATO expansion, are – the authors argue – essential to understanding Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Nargis Kassenova is a senior fellow and director of the Program on Central Asia at the Davis Center. Prior to joining the center, she was an associate professor at the Department of International Relations and Regional Studies of KIMEP University (Almaty, Kazakhstan). She is the former founder and director of the KIMEP Central Asian Studies Center (CASC) and the China and Central Asia Studies Center (CCASC). Kassenova holds a Ph.D. in international cooperation studies from the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University (Japan). Her research focuses on Central Asian politics and security, Eurasian geopolitics, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, governance in Central Asia, and the history of state-making in Central Asia.  Temur Umarov is a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. His research is focused on Central Asian countries’ domestic and foreign policies, as well as China’s relations with Russia and Central Asian neighbors. A native of Uzbekistan, Temur Umarov has degrees in China studies and international relations from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, and Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He holds an MA in world economics from the University of International Business and Economics (Beijing). He is also an alumnus of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center’s Young Ambassadors and the Carnegie Endowment’s Central Asian Futures programs. This webinar will be moderated by Scott Radnitz (Director of the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington).

David Ost is a professor of Politics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. He has written widely on eastern Europe, with a focus on Poland, labor, class, democracy, and the radical right. His books include Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics, Workers After Workers’ States, The Defeat of Solidarity, and the edited collection “Class After Communism.” Recent articles include “Why (Which) Workers Often Oppose (Which) Democracy?”, “REN PILL Politics in Poland,” and “The Surprising Right-Wing Relevance of the Russian Revolution.” He is currently finishing a book titled “Red Pill Politics: Fascism and Right-Wing Populism.”

When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine just before dawn on 24 February 2022, it marked his latest and most overt attempt to brutally conquer the country and reshaped the world order. Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times and the foremost journalist covering the country, was there on the ground when the first Russian missiles struck and troops stormed over the border. But the seeds of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the West were sown more than a decade earlier. This is the definitive, inside story of its long fight for freedom. Told through Miller’s personal experiences, vivid front-line dispatches and illuminating interviews with unforgettable characters, The War Came to Us takes readers on a riveting journey through the key locales and pivotal events of Ukraine’s modern history. From the coal-dusted, sunflower-covered steppe of the Donbas in the far east to the heart of the Euromaidan revolution camp in Kyiv; from the Black Sea shores of Crimea, where Russian troops stealthily annexed Ukraine’s peninsula, to the bloody battlefields where Cossacks roamed before the Kremlin’s warlords ruled with iron fists; and through the horror and destruction wrought by Russian forces in Bucha, Bakhmut, Mariupol, and beyond. With candor, wit and sensitivity, Miller captures Ukraine in all its glory: vast, defiant, resilient, and full of wonder. A breathtaking narrative that is at times both poignant and inspiring, The War Came to Us is the story of an American who fell in love with a foreign place and its people – and witnessed them do extraordinary things to escape the long shadow of their former imperial ruler and preserve their independence.

Contrary to Putin’s expectations, most Ukrainians responded to Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine by a stronger attachment to their country and nation. One element of this attachment is an embrace of the national language at both the symbolic and communicative levels. Not only did Ukrainians come to love their language more than before, but they also started to speak it more often in their everyday lives. Or so they say. Volodymyr Kulyk is Head Research Fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He has also taught at Columbia, Stanford and Yale Universities, Kyiv Mohyla Academy and Ukrainian Catholic University as well as having research fellowships at Harvard, Stanford, Woodrow Wilson Center, University College London, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and other Western scholarly institutions. His research fields include the politics of language, memory and identity as well as political and media discourse in contemporary Ukraine, on which he has widely published in Ukrainian and Western journals and collected volumes. Professor Kulyk is the author of four books, the latest of which is Movna polityka v bahatomovnykh kraïnakh: Zakordonnyi dosvid ta ioho prydatnist’ dlia Ukraïny (Language Policies in Multilingual Countries: Foreign Experience and Its Relevance to Ukraine) that was published in Kyiv in 2021. Currently he is an Adjunct Professor, Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, Stanford University.

Mutations of “Lenin” The Sacred Core of Sovereignty: Soviet, Post-Soviet, Anti-Soviet Alexei Yurchak is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley. His interests include political anthropology, linguistic anthropology, science and technology studies, anthropology of the image and Soviet and post-Soviet studies. He is the author of the award-winning book, Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. He is currently finishing a book on the political, scientific and aesthetic histories of Lenin’s body that has been maintained by a unique laboratory science for a century.

Józef Piłsudski, Founding Father of Modern Poland, and his Plan for Ukrainian Independence Joshua D. Zimmerman is Professor of History at Yeshiva University in New York, where he holds the Eli & Diana Zborowski Chair in Holocaust Studies and East European Jewish History. He is the author of Józef Piłsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland(Harvard, 2022), The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945(Cambridge, 2015), which appeared in Polish translation in 2018, and Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892-1914 (Wisconsin, 2004). He is also editor of two contributed volumes: Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922-1945 (2005), and Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its Aftermath (2003). Zimmerman’s articles in the popular press have appeared in The Washington Post, Politico, The Daily Beast, The Times of Israel, The Kyiv Post, Engelsberg Ideas, and Rzeczpospolita (Warsaw).

The lecture will focus on the current political developments in Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In response to thousands of civilian deaths and destruction of the country, the international community has imposed fierce sanctions targeting every sector of the Russian economy. The war has created a new reality and changed the relations between Russia and the European Union from the ground. Was it possible to avoid the war? How are the refugees from Ukraine received and how did the conflict change lives of the people in neighboring countries? What will be the impact for Europe in near future? Dr. Martin Nekola, Ph.D. received his doctorate in Political Science at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. His research is focused on non-democratic regimes, the era of Communism, Czech communities abroad and the East-European anti-communist exiles in the USA during the Cold War. From time to time he participates in the election observation missions organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He is the member of Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), he is the author of more than three hundred articles and has published twenty-four books. He is also Czechoslovak Talks Project coordinator. This event is sponsored by the Honorary Consulate of the Czech Republic, the Department of History and the Ellison Center for Russian, East European & Central Asian Studies, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.

The Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington presents the first talk (12/1/2022)in the 2022-2023 REECAS Lecture Series on Russia in the Arctic. Valeria Vasilyeva (Ph.D. in Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences) is a research fellow at the Center for Arctic Social Studies, European University at St. Petersburg, Russia. Currently, she is a Fulbright visiting scholar at Boise State University. Her research focuses on mobility practices, social construction of space, and perception of infrastructure in the Russian North. She has conducted fieldwork in several regions on the Arctic coast, but her primary region of interest is the Taimyr Peninsula.

Dean LaRue presents his lecture, "How Does the EU Actually Work and How Is It Changing in the Face of Russian Aggression in Ukraine?" on Aug. 17, 2022. This lecture was part of the 2022 EU Policy Forum for Educators. More information about the workshop, as well as the visual Presentation Slides accompanying this lecture can be found here: jsis.washington.edu/euwesteurope/ed…cator-workshop/ A complete transcript of the podcast is also available at the above link. Dean LaRue is a Senior Lecturer for the Center for West European Studies and European Union Center in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Mr. LaRue holds a Master of Arts in Policy Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Global Trade, Transportation and Logistics from the University of Washington. He is a member of the founding team for the West Coast Model European Union, the primary instructor for the UW’s European Union Policy and Simulation course since 2005, and a former Outreach Coordinator for CWES/EUC. Mr. LaRue is a former US Foreign Service Officer for the United States Information Agency and International Product Manager for Amazon.com. The EU Policy Forum is supported by The UW Jackson School of International Studies’ Erasmus+ funded Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, the Center for West European Studies, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the World Affairs Council. This lecture was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Scott Montgomery presents his lecture, "EU Economic and Energy Responses to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine" on Aug. 17, 2022. This lecture was part of the 2021 EU Policy Forum for Educators. More information about the workshop, as well as the visual Presentation Slides accompanying this lecture can be found here: jsis.washington.edu/euwesteurope/ed…cator-workshop/ A complete transcript of the podcast is also available at the above link. Scott L. Montgomery is an author, geoscientist, and affiliate faculty member in the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. He writes and lectures on a wide variety of topics related to energy (geopolitics, technology, resources, climate change), American politics, intellectual history, language and communication, and the history of science. He is a frequent contributor to online journals such as The Conversation, Forbes, and Fortune, and his articles and op-eds are regularly featured in many outlets, including Newsweek, Marketwatch, The Huffington Post, and UPI. He also gives public talks and serves on panels related to issues in global energy and their relation to political and economic trends and ideas of sustainability. For more than two decades, Montgomery worked as a geoscientist in the energy industry, writing over 100 scientific papers and 70 monographs on topics related to oil and gas, energy technology, and industry trends. Montgomery is the author of 12 books and is currently pursuing several areas of research, including the role of Enlightenment ideas in present-day American politics, as well as the future of petroleum and its role in geopolitics and climate change. The EU Policy Forum is supported by The UW Jackson School of International Studies’ Erasmus+ funded Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, the Center for West European Studies, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the World Affairs Council. This lecture was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Glennys Young presents her lecture, "Russia's War Against Ukraine: Teaching Opportunities and Challenges" on Aug. 17, 2022. This lecture was part of the 2021 EU Policy Forum for Educators. More information about the workshop, as well as the visual Presentation Slides accompanying this lecture can be found here: jsis.washington.edu/euwesteurope/ed…cator-workshop/ A complete transcript of the podcast is also available at the above link. I am a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union. Over the course of my career, I have become increasingly interested in the USSR’s involvement in transnational movements and processes, whether political, social, cultural, or economic. I have also pursued research interests in the history of Communism and world history. In addition to the books mentioned below, I’ve published articles on a number of topics in Soviet social and political history. My first book, Power and the Sacred in Revolutionary Russia: Religious Activists in the Village (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), examined the Bolshevik project of cultural transformation through a case study of peasants’ responses to the Soviet anti-religious campaign. In 1999, the book was awarded Honorable Mention for the Hans Rosenhaupt Memorial Book Prize from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. In 2011, I published The Communist Experience in the Twentieth Century: A Global History through Sources (Oxford University Press. Through a collection of carefully selected documents, some presented for the first time in English translation, the book seeks to provide an inside look at how people around the world subjectively experienced, and contributed to, global communism. My current book project is entitled The Return: From the Soviet Union to Franco’s Spain in the Cold War, under contract with Oxford University Press, England. The Return reveals the unrecognized political, social, and cultural shockwaves of the Cold War repatriation of Spanish nationals who had been catapulted to the USSR as refugees and exiles in the Spanish Civil War, or as soldiers who fought for the Nazi Wehrmacht in World War II. What makes the Spanish case distinct with respect to numerous others involving post-World War II repatriations from the USSR is that it involved civilians and military personnel, including prisoners of war. As well, the repatriation of Spanish nationals constituted the largest repatriation of civilians from the USSR to a country in Western Europe during the Cold War. Although the repatriation of Spaniards—both Red Army POWs and civilians—began during World War II, albeit in small numbers, the return of the Spaniards became an international issue beginning in the late 1940s, just as the Cold War was heating up. The book focuses on the seven expeditions of repatriates from the USSR to Franco’s Spain in the second half of the 1950s. The EU Policy Forum is supported by The UW Jackson School of International Studies’ Erasmus+ funded Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, the Center for West European Studies, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the World Affairs Council. This lecture was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Christopher Jones presents his lecture, "What to Do About Russia? Russia, the EU, and the International System" on Aug. 17, 2022. This lecture was part of the 2021 EU Policy Forum for Educators. More information about the workshop, as well as the visual Presentation Slides accompanying this lecture can be found here: jsis.washington.edu/euwesteurope/ed…cator-workshop/ A complete transcript of the podcast is also available at the above link. Chris Jones is an Associate Professor of International Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. His teaching focuses on NATO/Warsaw pact relations, post-Cold War security issues, and political economy of the post-Cold War era. The EU Policy Forum is supported by The UW Jackson School of International Studies’ Erasmus+ funded Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, the Center for West European Studies, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the World Affairs Council. This lecture was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Brendan Mcelmeel presents his lecture, "Russia vs. ‘Gayropa?’ Russian Cultural Politics since the Conservative Turn" on Aug. 17, 2022. This lecture was part of the 2021 EU Policy Forum for Educators. More information about the workshop, as well as the visual Presentation Slides accompanying this lecture can be found here: jsis.washington.edu/euwesteurope/ed…cator-workshop/ A complete transcript of the podcast is also available at the above link. Brendan Mcelmeel is a doctoral candidate at the Department of History, University of Washington. The EU Policy Forum is supported by The UW Jackson School of International Studies’ Erasmus+ funded Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, the Center for West European Studies, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the World Affairs Council. This lecture was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Eliot Borenstein is Professor of Russian & Slavic Studies and Senior Academic Convenor for the Global Network at New York University. He gave this talk as part of a lecture series hosted by the Ellison Center at the University of Washington.

The Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies presents "In Focus: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine" on March 7, 2022, a panel discussion with UW faculty and other guest speakers on the unfolding situation in Ukraine. Find resources for supporting Ukraine here: https://jsis.washington.edu/ellisoncenter/news/how-to-help-support-ukraine-suggested-organizations-for-donations/ Opening Remarks: Leela Fernandes, Director and Stanley D. Golub Chair, Jackson School of International Studies Moderator: Scott Radnitz, Herbert J. Ellison Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, and Director, Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies UW and Guest Speakers: Glennys Young, Chair, Department of History and Professor, Jackson School of International Studies Laada Bilaniuk, Professor, Department of Anthropology Ambassador John Koenig, Lecturer, Jackson School and former U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO in Brussels Chris Collison, Senior Program Manager, National Democratic Institute, Washington D.C. Sofiia Fedzhora, Ph.D. student, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and UW Fulbright Ukrainian Language Teaching Assistant (2021-2022) This panel is sponsored by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, and the Center for West European Studies.

The Ellison Center presents the panel, "Challenges to the Post-Cold War Order: Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan" on Feb. 1, 2022. Speakers: Oxana Shevel, Associate Professor - Political Science (Tufts University) Oxana Shevel is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Tufts University where her research and teaching focuses on Ukraine and the post-Soviet region. Her current research projects examine the sources of citizenship policies in the post-Communist states and religious politics in Ukraine. Her research interests also include comparative memory politics and the politics of nationalism and nation-building. She is the author of award-winning Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2011), which examines how the politics of national identity and strategies of the UNHCR shape refugee admission policies in the post-Communist region. Shevel’s research appeared in a variety of journals, including Comparative Politics, Current History, East European Politics and Societies, Europe-Asia Studies, Geopolitics, Nationality Papers, Post-Soviet Affairs, Political Science Quarterly, Slavic Review and in edited volumes. She is a member of PONARS Eurasia scholarly network, a country expert on Ukraine for Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT), and an associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. She currently serves as President of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) and Vice President of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN). Dmitry Gorenburg, Senior Research Scientist (CNA) Dmitry Gorenburg is an expert on security issues in the former Soviet Union, Russian military reform, Russian foreign policy, and ethnic politics and identity. His recent research topics include decision-making processes in the senior Russian leadership, Russian naval strategy in the Pacific and the Black Sea, and Russian maritime defense doctrine. Gorenburg is author of "Nationalism for the Masses: Minority Ethnic Mobilization in the Russian Federation" (Cambridge University Press, 2003), and has been published in journals such as World Politics and Post-Soviet Affairs. In addition to his role at CNA, he currently serves as editor of Problems of Post-Communism and is an Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. (Read more) Carol Williams, Journalist; Former LA Times Moscow Bureau Chief Carol J. Williams is a retired foreign correspondent living near Seattle with her husband and a tuxedo cat. She covered revolution and war for 30-plus years for Associated Press and Los Angeles Times, from USSR/Russia, Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine. She has been awarded more than a dozen international honors, including a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1994. Retired from mainstream journalism, she curates “World Briefing by CJ Williams” on Twitter @cjwilliamslat, writes foreign affairs commentary for Seattle website www.postalley.org, and speaks on press freedom and foreign policy at events held by civic groups, libraries and her alma mater, University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies. Moderator: Scott Radnitz, Ellison Center Director. This panel is hosted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Ellison Center Director Scott Radnitz presents his lecture "Revealing Schemes: The Politics of Conspiracy in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region" on January 13, 2022. The lecture presents Radnitz's book by the same title, and is moderated by Jacqueline Miller, World Affairs Council of Seattle President and CEO, with Discussant Paul Stronski from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This lecture is part of the Ellison Center's 2021-22 Lecture Series, "Scheming and Subversion: Conspiracy in Post-Soviet Space." More information can be found at bit.ly/EllisonTalks2022 Scott Radnitz is the Herbert J. Ellison Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. His research deals primarily with the post-Soviet region and topics such as protests, authoritarianism, informal networks, and identity. His work employs surveys, focus groups, and experimental methodologies. His forthcoming book is “Enemies Within: The Global Politics of Fifth Columns,” edited with Harris Mylonas (GWU), and is under contract with Oxford University Press. His most recent book, “Revealing Schemes: The Politics of Conspiracy in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region” came out with Oxford University Press in 2021. It investigates why politicians in the region promote conspiratorial claims and what effects that has. His first book, “Weapons of the Wealthy: Predatory Regimes and Elite-Led Protests in Central Asia,” was published by Cornell University Press in 2010. Articles have appeared in journals including Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Democracy, Political Geography, Political Communication, and Post-Soviet Affairs. Policy commentary has appeared in Foreign Policy, The National Interest, The Guardian, Slate, and the Monkey Cage/Washington Post blog. He is an associate editor of Communist and Post-Communist Studies, a faculty member at UW’s Center for an Informed Public, and a member of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security (PONARS) in Eurasia. He teaches the following courses: States, Markets, and Societies; Contemporary Central Asian Politics; Post-Soviet Security; Interdisciplinary Survey of Eurasia; Failed States; Research Design and Methods; and Social Movements and Revolutions. This lecture is hosted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Visiting Scholar at Cornell University Azamat Gabuev presents his lecture "Stalin as a Neo-Pagan Deity in Contemporary Russia" on Dec. 8, 2021. The word "cult" has been used with regards to Stalin since a famous report made by Khrushchev "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences". But in post-soviet Russia it returns from political to primary religious meanings. Regardless of his lifetime atheism, Stalin is often associated with mysticism. He became a character of mythologies of neo-pagan religions such as Rodnovery and Assianism. At the same time, the cult of Stalin grew under the veil of Russian Orthodox Church. Not being canonized as a saint, he was depicted in icons, murals and acts in folk-hagiography. Moreover, there are authorized concepts such as “Mystic Salinism” by Alexander Prokhanov. Thus, Stalin could be described as a common deity for separate cults. Azamat Gabuev was born in 1985 in Vladikavkaz. In 2011 he has earned PhD (kandidat nauk) in Law from Kutafin Moscow State Law University. He has been living in Moscow since 2015, where he works as a lawyer. His stories have been published in Russian literary journals including Darial, Oktiabr, and Druzhba Narodov, as well as Russian Esquire. He has been longlisted for two literary prizes in Russia: the Neformat prize in 2009, and the Debut Prize in 2011. In 2018, EKSMO published his first book A Cold Day in the Sun, which was shortlisted in 2019 for the Fiction35 literary prize. Azamat Gabuev is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Cornell University for the fall semester 2021. This lecture is hosted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The Ellison Center presents the panel "Feminist Anthropology of Old Europe: Celebrating the Centennial of Marija Gimbutas" on April 30, 2021. This panel was part of the virtual 2021 REECAS Northwest Conference. Find more information about the conference here: jsis.washington.edu/ellisoncenter/reecas-nw/ Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994), Professor of European Archaeology and Indo-European Studies at UCLA, wrote numerous popular and controversial books about the prehistoric gods and goddesses of Old Europe. Her research was a source of inspiration for environmentalist, feminist, neo-pagan, and other social movements on both sides of and transgressing the “Iron Curtain.” Born in Lithuania, educated at the Universities of Vilnius, Tübingen and München, Gimbutas immigrated to the United States to teach at Harvard University before moving to the West Coast. This roundtable celebrates the Centennial of her birth. Moderator & Organizer: - Guntis Šmidchens, Kazickas Family Endowed Professor in Baltic Studies; Associate Professor of Baltic Studies; Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington-Seattle. Panelists: - Rasa Navickaitė, Visiting Lecturer, Central European University; Navickaitė's 2020 dissertation examines the transnational reception of Gimbutas’s work and persona in diverse feminist and women’s activist contexts on both sides of the “Iron Curtain.” Among her other publications are “Postcolonial Queer Critique in Post-Communist Europe -Stuck in the Western Progress Narrative?” Tijdschrift Voor Genderstudies (2014); “Under the Western Gaze: Sexuality and Postsocialist ‘Transition’ in East Europe,” in Postcolonial Transitions in Europe (2015), and numerous articles and essays in Lithuanian scholarly publications. - Ernestine Elster, Associated Researcher, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archeology; Elster was a graduate student of Marija Gimbutas and participated in four of her archeological expeditions. She has authored numerous publications on Italy and Greece in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, among them Excavations at Sitagroi, a prehistoric village in northeast Greece (1986), coauthored with Marija Gimbutas and this panel’s discussant Colin Renfrew. - Colin Renfrew, Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge; Renfrew was a friend and colleague of Marija Gimbutas. He is author of many articles and books, among them Before Civilisation: The Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe (1973); Transformations: Mathematical Approaches to Culture Change (1979); Archeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins (1990); Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in Archeology (2000); and Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind (2008). This panel is cosponsored by the Lithuanian Culture Institute, the University of Washington Baltic Studies Program and the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies. The 2021 REECAS Northwest Conference, an ASEEES Regional Conference, is organized by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. Image courtesy of Ernestine Elster. From left to right, Ernestine Elster, Colin Renfrew, and Marija Gimbutas in 1986 at the publication celebration for the first volume of the Sitagroi excavations.