CEERES Signature Course

Every year, CEERES sponsors a graduate seminar that acquaints students with the big questions in the field and equips them to conduct interdisciplinary research. In 2025-26, Faith Hillis and Darya Tsymbalyuk co-taught “A Field on Fire in a World on Fire: The Future of Russian and East European Studies and the Broader Region.” Students explored recent work written in a decolonial vein, while also contemplating how to address the ethical and access challenges that those working in this field face. The class also featured visits from junior researchers doing exemplary work. Students produced capstone research projects that ranged from traditional papers to autoethnographies, from dramatic monologues to video essays aimed at the general public. Along the way, they built a strong cohort that remains an intellectual resource and a source of camaraderie! In 2026-27, the class will be taught by Anne Eakin Moss.

I greatly benefited from taking the CEERES Signature Course. The course challenged me to think about the region expansively and offered me a chance to branch out from my focus on history and engage with cross-disciplinary methods. I also gained a lot from our considerations of decoloniality and knowledge production. The final project allowed me to explore my own interests related to the region and develop a project that will help me in my future academic career (I designed a syllabus). Additionally, the CEERES Signature Course added to my experience at UChicago because it enabled me to build a community with other students as well as professors with interest in the region. Overall, this course proved invaluable to my studies, and I highly recommend this course to others.

-Elizabeth Tully, History PhD Student