The University of Chicago has been teaching about the CEERES region since 1903, when courses in Russian language and area studies were first offered. Samuel Harper, a Russian specialist and the son of William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago, made the university one of the nation’s major centers for training in Slavic studies in the years before the Russian revolution. The center now known as CEERES has been in existence since 1965, and it continues to coordinate instruction and facilitate research about Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern/Central Europe, including the Arctic, Balkans, Caucasus, and Central Asia. CEERES faculty offer a wide array of regional languages, including Polish, Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian, Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Yiddish, Armenian, Uzbek and Kazakh. At present, CEERES has particular curricular strengths in Russian/Soviet/East European, Caucasian, and Central Asian history and culture; Slavic literatures; cultural anthropology; comparative literature; linguistics; film and art history; and political science and political economy. CEERES faculty also have expertise in international relations, economics, law, and sociology.

The Center does not itself offer a separate master's degree; however, the Center strongly supports the development of students by offering joint programs with other departments in the University. An interdisciplinary B.A. program is offered in Russian and Eastern European Studies and interdisciplinary M.A. degrees are available through the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) and the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) with concentrations in CEERES languages and area studies. In addition, the Center cooperates with the Committee on International Relations in providing a master's program in international relations with specialization in Russia and Eastern Europe.