Institute News

Béla Bartók’s 1942 visit to IU resonates in recent conference and concert

Bartók (1881-1945), a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, and pianist known for gathering, transcribing, and promoting folk musics, was featured prominently this past April, 83 years later. The Hungarian Studies Program at the Department of Central Eurasian Studies and the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, along with the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and the Musicology Department at the Jacobs School of Music, hosted the 36th György Ránki Hungarian Studies Conference and Concert in honor of the composer on the 80th anniversary of his death.

Read the Full Article Here

To learn more about Bartók’s legacy and music, access the recordings on the Byrnes Institute’s YouTube channel.

Dr. Halina Goldberg Awarded at Polish Consulate in NYC

June 7, 2025

Dr. Halina Goldberg at the Polish Consulate in NYC, where she received the PIASA 2024 Anna M. Cienciala Award for Best-Edited Multi-Authored Scholarly Volume for the book Polish Jewish Culture Beyond the Capital Centering the Periphery.

REEI FLAS Recipient Receives Prestigious Boren Fellowship

June 5, 2025

Layaan Hajiyev chose to study Russian at IU explicitly because it is one of the few universities in the country that offers both a nationally recognized Language Flagship and expertise in the field of cybersecurity.

“Boren is more than just a scholarship; it’s a chance to take what I’ve learned and put it into practice through language, technology and service,” said Layaan Hajiyev, a student in the Cybersecurity and Global Policy Program — a joint degree program between the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies and the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering — who will be going to Kazakhstan next year.

Read More About IU Bloomington Awardees

Prof. Russell Valentino named one of IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellows 2025

May 19, 2025

Indiana University has selected eight faculty members for the fourth cohort of the Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellows Program. The annual program supports the work of faculty who are poised to become national and international leaders in their fields.

The program’s purpose is to amplify and accelerate the fellows’ research and creative projects and support their future scholarly success. Each fellow receives funding support for their research. They also receive professional development through training in areas such as grant writing, scholarly communication with the public, media training and digital scholarship.

Read More About the Cohort Here

Prof. Valéria Varga receives Trustees Teaching Award

May 02, 2025

REEI affiliate faculty member Prof. Valéria Varga, Senior Lecturer of Hungarian in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, has been awarded the Trustees Teaching Award! This award is a testament to Prof. Varga's profound influence on her students and excellence in language teaching.

 See the Full List of Award Recipients Here

Veronika Trotter's article published in the Bulletin of Armenian Libraries

February 14, 2025

Veronika Trotter's open access article about Armenian holdings at Indiana University libraries was recently published in the Bulletin of Armenian Libraries.

 Read the Full Text of the Article Here

REEI Director Halina Goldberg’s recent book wins Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America award

January 06, 2025

Polish Jewish Culture Beyond the Capital: Centering the Periphery, edited by Halina Goldberg and Nancy Sinkoff (2023, Rutgers University Press), won the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America’s Anna M. Cienciala Award for Best-Edited Multi-Authored Scholarly Volume.

The book has also been shortlisted by the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages for Best Edited Multi-Author Scholarly Volume of 2024.

Read More about Dr. Goldberg's Book Award

Vesna Dimitrieska named “Best of the Best in Higher Education”

Dec 12, 2024

The Indiana Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages honored Vesna Dimitrieska with the 2024 Best of the Best in Higher Education award in recognition of her many years of service to Indiana and her impact on the local and national landscape for dual language education.

Dimitrieska is director of global education initiatives at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies and School of Education, She has been a long-term advocate for language learning, particularly for English language learners who often do not have the opportunity to maintain and develop their native or heritage language.

Read More about Vesna Dimitrieska's Recognition

IU expands program supporting Ukrainian scholars to 8 more Big Ten universities

December 3, 2024

An innovative fellowship program at Indiana University that has enabled 69 Ukrainian scholars to continue their research and teaching since Russia’s invasion in 2022 will now expand to eight additional Big Ten universities, thanks to support from the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

The IU Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies has administered two cohorts of the IU-Ukraine Nonresidential Scholars Program since its establishment in June 2022, less than four months after Russia invaded Ukraine. In addition to receiving a $5,000 stipend, scholars who for professional, legal or personal reasons needed to stay in wartime Ukraine have access to IU Libraries’ rich online resources and have collaborated with IU faculty in research, teaching and publishing.

Read More about the Ukrainian Scholar Program Here

Russian and East European Institute hosts fifth U.S. Army War College Fellow

Lieutenant Colonel Stephanie Baugh is a U.S. Army War College (USAWC) Fellow at the Hamilton Lugar School’s (HLS) Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute (REEI) for the 2024-2025 academic year.

REEI is among only 49 institutions around the globe to host USAWC Fellows – field-grade officers who complete individual learning plans designed to enhance their critical thinking, academic prowess, and professional skills while sharing their practical expertise and representing the U.S. Army to their host institution and community.

“For more than sixty years, the U.S. Department of Education Title VI has funded REEI as a National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies Center” said REEI Director Halina Goldberg. “As one of the top Russian and East European Area Studies institutions in the U.S. we are proud to have the resources to provide the academic education sought by the USAWC Fellows. At the same time, our students and faculty benefit from the real-life experience fellows share while they are here.”

 Read More about Lieutenant Colonel Baugh's Experiences Here

Disinformation course draws on IU’s area studies expertise

Oct. 24, 2024

Jessica Storey-Nagy’s spring 2025 course, Disinformation and the State in East Europe, deals with these timely and important questions.

In recent years, disinformation has emerged as one of the leading global threats. We are witnessing the extent of its danger in real time: as relief workers strain to assist those affected by the deadly back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton, their work is being hindered by disinformation. We awaken daily to news such as “Disinformation chaos hammers FEMA” or “Meteorologists Face Harassment and Death Threats Amid Hurricane Disinformation.”

But what exactly is disinformation, and how does it spread?

Disinformation and the State in East Europe, an Indiana University Bloomington course being offered in spring 2025, deals with these timely and important questions. It is offered by Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute and taught by Jessica Storey-Nagy, an affiliate faculty member with the institute and research associate in the Department of Anthropology. Storey-Nagy, a 2022 graduate of the Central Eurasian Studies Ph.D. program, is an expert on political discourse and communication in East Europe.

Read More about Dr. Storey-Nagy's Course Here

History professor led international expedition to Tien-Shan Mountains

September 10, 2024

An international team of researchers from the United States, Germany and Kyrgyzstan embarked on an expedition to the Central Tien-Shan, one of the largest and highest mountain ranges in the world, over the summer.

The expedition aspired to visualize environmental changes in the region and aimed to decolonize and de-center the existing narratives of exploration and discoveries in Central Asia. Looking at historical photographs and maps, the expedition team intended to identify what was "seen" and "unseen" by explorers in the Tien-Shan a century ago.

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IU bridges language barrier between US military and Ukraine

August 3, 2023

The Language Training Center at Indiana University answered the call when the United States military contacted them for communications assistance during the war in Ukraine.

Within a month of the Russian invasion in February 2022, about one-quarter of Ukraine’s population had fled the country. They were displaced throughout the world, with the majority relocating to eastern and western Europe. Bridging the language barrier between members of the U.S. military and Ukrainian military partners and refugees became increasingly important, driving the military’s request for IU to create a Ukrainian phrase book.

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IU-Ukraine Nonresidential Scholars Program supporting second cohort

An Indiana University program that supports Ukrainian scholars and their research has been so successful that IU has agreed to support a second cohort of scholars for the next academic year.

The IU-Ukraine Nonresidential Scholars Program started with an agreement in June 2022 to support up to 20 scholars after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. Support was so strong that eventually 33 scholars were assisted by stipends and access to IU resources and faculty members. Most importantly, the program built a sense of community through monthly research seminars and meetings, and partnerships between the Ukrainian scholars and their IU faculty partners, said Sarah Phillips, director of the IU Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute, which administers the program at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

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A History of Resilient Partnerships: IU and Ukraine

Indiana Public Media recently posted an article by Kayan Tara with extensive commentary by REEI-affiliated faculty Russell Valentino (Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures) and Robert Kravchuk (O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs) about IU’s longstanding institutional engagement with Ukraine.

Read More about "A History of Resilient Partnerships: IU and Ukraine"

In Memoriam: Roman Zlotin

New Books by REEI Affiliate Faculty