CREES

The workshop will provide a superb forum in which to investigate a variety of pressing issues, including, but not limited to, the following:

1 State formation, democratization, and the role of gender
2 Post-Soviet economic conditions and the impact on gender issues
3 Female politicians in post-Soviet governments
4 Civil society, NGOs and gender
5 Human security (terrorism, trafficking of women and children, organized crime syndicates)
6 Health policies and issues
7 Demographic problems and movement (fertility change, population aging, displaced peoples, diasporic formations, populations on the move)
8 Changing roles and images of gender in society
9 Education (rewriting of curricula; establishment of new institutions for higher learning)
10 Law reform and its impact on gender issues
11 Religion and gender
12 The arts, social change, and postsocialist identity (literature, fine arts, architecture)
13 Rethinking the historiography of gender and democracy in Eurasia

Workshop Format
Workshop sessions will be devoted to a discussion of the participants' research; investigation of current literature and paradigms; and a presentation of scholarly resources, including relevant databases by staff specialists from the Slavic and East European Library. Time will also be available for research in the UI Libraryone of the largest Slavic and East European collections in the U.S. Participants may stay beyond the workshop dates to conduct individual research.

Workshop Eligibility
The workshop is open to advanced graduate students and junior faculty in any discipline and professionals who specialize in former Soviet nations. To be eligible for the workshop housing and travel grants, which are funded by a U.S. State Department Title VIII grant, applicants must be U.S. citizens/permanent residents and must state the policy relevance (broadly defined) of their research in the application. Depending on space availability, those who do not qualify for financial support may participate in the workshop at their own expense. Please see the Summer Lab website (url below) for more information.

Housing and Travel Grants
Participants who are eligible for workshop housing and travel grants (see eligibility) may also apply for additional research housing grantsa total of up to 14 days for graduate students; 8 for all others. Graduate students, who are US citizens/permanent residents, may also apply for travel grants of up to $200.

Deadline
15 April 2008 for US citizen/permanent resident applications
1 April 2008 for international applications (limited housing grant only)

Application
All participants are considered Summer Lab associates and must submit a Summer Research Lab application and application fee. To apply for financial assistance, applicants must also submit a one- to two-page research proposal that includes a statement clearly indicating the policy relevance of the proposed research. Workshop space is limited.

To download an application form go to www.reec.uiuc.edu/srl/srl.html and click on "how to apply" in the navigation bar. To request a paper application form contact: