Welcome to another richly engaging year at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies! As you well know, our region continues to deeply impact security, trade, political trends, and cultural divisions worldwide. Amid this ferment, we at the Davis Center hold fast in pursuing our mission — educating and convening people eager to learn about this momentous part of the world in an intellectually vibrant, multidisciplinary place.
Our year kicks off with a double leadership change. This week, we’re thrilled to welcome our new executive director, Dr. Steven Solnick, whose relationship with the center stretches back nearly four decades, to the beginning of his graduate studies. I, myself, am honored and humbled to serve as the center’s new faculty director, entrusted to lead this storied institution, with its 77-year history, through a period of great uncertainty and great promise.
We are particularly excited for two new initiatives.
The first is a collaborative, year-long speaker series, “The Forum: Europe in a Time of War,” co-hosted with Harvard’s Minda De Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) and Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI). Europe’s largest land war since the time of the center’s founding deserves a central place in the work of scholars and practitioners alike. We are proud to make space for these critical conversations and invite the Davis community to join in!
Likewise, we are excited to hear more voices from among our vibrant post-graduate community at the Davis Center’s new research workshop. Here, scholars from across Harvard and the Boston area can share and hone works in progress, advancing original scholarship that helps better understand historical trajectories, cultural production and transformation, and contemporary problems facing the region.
All of us understand that our work now proceeds amid major new challenges, including intensifying financial pressures. One particular area of concern has been the termination of critical scholarship support to our students formerly provided by the U.S. Department of Education. The Davis Center team, together with colleagues across the university and supported by generous donors, has been working doggedly to mitigate adverse effects on our teaching and research mission, and we will continue to do so.
In this context, it is particularly heart-warming to see the center’s hallways bustling with our latest cohort of incoming students, pursuing master’s degrees through our Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia (REECA) Program.
We hope to see many of you here as well, taking advantage of our rich and diverse seminars, lectures, and social events. Despite any new headwinds, what remains unwavering is the Davis Center’s commitment to rigorous, multidisciplinary inquiry into the greater Eurasia region and its many consequential interactions with other parts of the world. We remain grateful for your interest and support and look forward to your involvement in our work.
Director, Davis Center; Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government; Senior Scholar, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
Harvard University
