In late February, I made the seven-hour drive from Lansing, Michigan to St. Louis, Missouri to attend the 58th annual meeting of the Central Slavic Conference. I arrived in St. Louis on a beautiful Friday evening, and I was able to catch a glimpse of the Arch at sunset before arriving at the Missouri Athletic Club, the host site of the conference, for a pre-conference happy hour with other attendees.
The Central Slavic Conference (CSC) is one of the regional affiliate conferences under the larger umbrella of the Association for Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). I have previously attended the Midwest Slavic Conference and the Northeast Slavic Conference, but this was my first time at the CSC. This conference was much more intimate than some of the others that I have been to; the inviting atmosphere allowed participants to get to know each other well.
Over the course of the two-day conference, panelists presented on a range of topics, including film, literature, linguistics, and history, among others. The CSC prides itself on including undergraduate student panels, and I made a point to attend these as a way to show support. The undergraduate panels that I attended were absolutely wonderful, and one particular participant that presented on women in Soviet industrialization blew me away. It served as a good reminder that Slavic Studies is in good hands.
I decided to attend this conference after receiving an invitation to join a roundtable on “US-Ukrainian Relations in Scholarly Perspective.” My friend and colleague, Dr. Markian Dobczansky, kindly organized this roundtable and asked me to be a part of it. Our roundtable had a successful discussion with other interested scholars in the room about the long history of US-Ukraine relations. Our goal was to discuss historical links between the US and Ukraine that are often overlooked as a way to better understand more recent connections between the two countries.
After the conference was over, I had a bit of time to see St. Louis. I, of course, went to see the Arch, and I even had time to explore the museum that sits underneath. The museum traces the history of the Arch’s construction and gives audiences details about St. Louis’ past. Even better, the museum is free!
Beyond seeing the Arch, my friend with whom I was staying with, took me around St. Louis to show me the city. While downtown St. Louis is full of restaurants, bars, and stadiums that seem to be in constant use, the outskirts of the city tell a different story. St. Louis has a troubled past that includes tense racial divisions and redlining. Driving through the city, one will notice visible signs of wealth disparity. Dilapidated buildings and run-down infrastructure sit just outside of the main downtown area, and it stands in stark contrast to the beaming Arch that seems to welcome everyone to the city.
There were many benefits to the Central Slavic Conference, but one of the main perks was that the conference was relatively affordable. Presenters paid a $25 registration fee, but our conference organizers bought a couple of rounds of drinks for us on the first night and provided appetizers for us on the second night. Our goodie bag was full of the usual conference must-haves like pens, notepads, and programs, but they also threw in a commemorative coffee mug that now sees regular use in my household. I was fortunate enough to stay with a friend in the city, which saved me hotel fees, so I only had to pay for gas, meals, and registration which was around a couple hundred dollars. I was also lucky enough to have conference funding from my university, so the CSC did not cost me anything out of my own pocket.
Overall, the conference was successful, and I look forward to hopefully returning to the Central Slavic Conference in the future.
