The Slavic Reference Service will be hosting an online REEES Policy Research Roundtable on Friday, April 27th at 10 AM CST. Policy researchers are a unique user community within the larger network of scholars in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Their scholarly contributions, directly or indirectly, shape regional and national government policies. Understanding this community of scholars is the goal of this roundtable series.
Each segment will feature a group of policy researchers and their current projects. This series is also aimed at graduate students who are interested in conducting policy research.
Panelists for the roundtable include:
- Laura Adams – Institute of International Education
- Cynthia Buckley – University of Illinois
- Paul Stronski – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
This event is open to all interested government employees, faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars. The workshop will be hosted online via Blackboard Ultra. View Event Poster. Click here to register to participate.
Panelists
Laura Adams – USAID Democracy Fellow on Learning Utilization, Institute of International Education
Laura Adams serves as the Democracy Fellow for Learning Utilization in the Learning Division of USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Center . Her job involves promoting the use of evidence from the DRG sector in the formulation of USAID strategies, programs, and trainings, and providing technical support on qualitative and interpretive research, the development of learning agendas, and the utilization of research. From 2014 – 2016 Laura was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the DRG Center’s Learning Division and in the office of the LGBTI Senior Coordinator at USAID. Prior to that, she was Director of the Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus; Academic Advisor to the MA program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian area studies; and a Lecturer in Sociology at Harvard University. She has country expertise in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Laura received her MA and PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her BA in Sociology and Russian Area Studies from Macalester College.
Cynthia Buckley – Professor of Sociology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Cynthia Buckley is Professor of Sociology at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Prior to her arrival at Illinois, Professor Buckley was a faculty member of both the Department of Sociology and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, she served as the Director of CREEES, Chair of the Department of Eurasian Studies, Training Director for the Population Research Center, and was on the Executive Committee of the Faculty Council. For two years prior to her arrival at Illinois, Professor Buckley was on administrative leave from the University of Texas and served as a Program Director at the Social Science Research Council. During her time at SSRC, she directed fellowship and research programs for Eurasia. Buckley received a BA in Economics and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan.
Paul Stronski – Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Paul Stronski is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Program, where his research focuses on the relationship between Russia and neighboring countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Until January 2015, Stronski served as a senior analyst for Russian domestic politics in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He was director for Russia and Central Asia on the U.S. National Security Council Staff from 2012 to 2014, where he supported the president, the national security advisor, and other senior U.S. officials on the development and coordination of policy toward Russia. Before that, he worked as a State Department analyst on Russia from 2011 to 2012, and on Armenia and Azerbaijan from 2007 to 2010. Stronski has taught history and post-Soviet affairs at Stanford, George Mason, and George Washington universities. Prior to his government service, he worked on a USAID-sponsored technical assistance project for the healthcare sector in Central Asia. He is the author of Tashkent: Forging a Soviet City, 1930-1966 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010), which won the 2011 Central Eurasian Studies Society Book Award for History and the Humanities. Since the mid-1990s, he has undertaken extensive research and work experience in Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Armenia.