We are committed.
The Association for Women in Slavic Studies is dedicated to the promotion of research and teaching in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian women's, gender, and sexuality studies, and to the support of scholars who identify as women or LGBTQIA.
AWSS 2026 Biennial Conference
CFP: Creating under Constraints: Gender in Politics, History, Culture, Literature, Social Change May 21-23, 2026 Art Academy of Latvia- Latvijas Mākslas akadēmija Riga, Latvia
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Dr. Oksana Kis, President of the Ukrainian Association for Research in Women's History and Head of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine: “Beauty that saved their world: Ukrainian women's arts and crafts in the Gulag”
Dr. Ineta Lipša, historian, senior researcher at the National Archive of Latvia and the University of Latvia, “From Parasitic Elements to Anti-Social Way of Life: Gendering Immorality under Cold War Ideology in the Latvian SSR”
The Association for Women in Slavic Studies invites proposals from scholars in all disciplines for its 2026 biennial conference to be held in Riga, Latvia.
We welcome proposals on research that resonates with AWSS’s mission to expand the public understanding about women, gender, and sexuality in Central-Eastern Europe and Eurasia and/ or to challenge sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, classist, ableist, and ageist structures that reproduce injustice in this region.
Proposals that address the conference theme, Creating Under Constraint, are especially welcomed. We hope to spotlight discussions about the many ways that creativity, broadly construed, provides responses to historical and contemporary political upheavals, war and atrocity, repression, censorship, and the like. Topics may include theater, music, oral narratives, literature, performance protest, design, photography, computer graphics, academic research, and other genres of creative expression. We also welcome discussions about the process of de-colonizing knowledge and pedagogy.
TO APPLY: Submit a proposal, including a title and an abstract of 225 words or less that outlines the paper, and a short CV (max. 3 pages). Please ensure that your abstract includes some details about your disciplinary methodologies or how your proposed paper bridges existing approaches. Submit your proposal to president.awss@gmail.com by December 2, 2025.
Some modest funds will be available to help offset the costs of travel for graduate students and precarious scholars. Information about applying for these funds will be available in January, 2026.
Become a Member.
We welcome those of any gender identity who study women, gender, and sexuality in Slavic and Eurasian studies, as well as women working in any field pertaining to the region.
Membership rates are as follows:
Lifetime Membership // $400 (one time)
Graduate Student / Low Income // $15 Annually
Salary is LESS than 30K/year // $30 Annually
Salary is MORE than 30K/year // $40 Annually
Contributor // $55 Annually
Friend of AWSS // $100 Annually
Institutional Membership // $100 Annually
Already a Member?
News
Nominations Being Accepted for the Following 2025 AWSS Prizes and Awards
Prizes and Awards due September 1, 2025
- Mary Zirin Prize for Independent Scholars of Slavic Studies
- AWSS Patricia Herlihy Graduate Research Prize
- AWSS Outstanding Achievement Award
- AWSS Graduate Essay Prize
- AWSS Undergraduate Prize
- AWSS Travel Awards: Rolling submissions
AWSS Barbara Heldt Prizes: Nominations now closed
AWSS is Community.
We foster community through regular gatherings at annual and biennial conferences, collaboration with other affiliate organizations, frequent communication through our listserv as well as informal networking opportunities. We also connect with our members via social media. Please find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Read the current issue of Women East-West
AWSS Statement in Support of the University of Oregon’s
Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program (REEES)
The Association for Women in Slavic Studies strongly urges the University of Oregon leaders to preserve and support the research and teaching in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. As Russia’s war against Ukraine is well into its fourth year, causing disturbing repercussions throughout Europe and beyond, this is a region of key concern in US matters of biosecurity and political, economic, and cultural conflict. Knowledge of the history, culture, and languages of this region is essential for American students and Oregonians; and the faculty teaching in this field at UO are among the finest in the world. We call on you to reverse your decisions to close the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program (REEES) and to lay off tenured and career teaching faculty, and instead to fulfill the University of Oregon's mission statement that the University is devoted “to educating the whole person, and to fostering the next generation of transformational leaders and informed participants in the global community.”--September 4, 2025
AWSS Bibliographies: Fifteen Years of Compiling Scholarly Resources on Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Special Issue on Decolonization
Semi-Annual bibliographies and special issues have been a regular feature of the AWSS newsletter and website for many years. In 2022, AWSS compiled a special issue of the bibliography on Ukraine. Our most current issue was inspired by the 2023 ASEEES Convention's broadly defined theme of "DECOLONIZATION" "across time, place, field, and institutional setting." Viewed as not only a contemporary and historical force, "Decolonization" in this context also applies to "current research, teaching, and professional practices." As can be seen by this bibliographical compilation, which brings together the latest scholarship over the past ten or so years, the word "decolonization" and its variants have become more prevalent but not completely supplanted in the fruitful conversations that have emerged since Russia's ruthless full-scale invasion in February 2022. By bringing materials together in one place, this bibliography is intended to foster further those conversations. Its creation was made possible in part by the 2023 financial support of an ASEEES internship for Caroline Prout. Caroline has just been awarded her 2024 MA in Global Studies (with a concentration in Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. AWSS heartily congratulates Caroline on her many accomplishments, including the compilation of this issue. No bibliography can be exhaustive. Please send omissions or corrections to Christine Worobec
(worobec@niu.edu)
Herlihy Prize Fundraising
In 2020 AWSS launched a fundraising effort to support a graduate research prize in honor of Patricia Herlihy and her incredible contributions to both the study of Ukraine as well as her support for multiple generations of scholars across disciplines engaged in study on Ukraine and its neighbors. Please consider making a donation to support the future of the field and honor the memory of a scholar who did so much to shape the field and her discipline. Select the Herlihy Prize For Graduate Research option on the drop-down menu through the Paypal link below.
Statement From the Board in Response to the Ongoing Russian War on Ukraine (August 2023)
The Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS) continues to deplore and to condemn Russia’s horrific and ongoing war on Ukraine. Our institutional mission remains unchanged. AWSS is dedicated to promoting research and teaching in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and to the support of scholars who identify as women or LGBTQIA. We are committed to the study of this multinational, multi-confessional, and multiethnic region across various disciplines and support all scholars who wish to improve the general public’s understanding of women, gender, and sexuality and are committed to challenging sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, classist, ableist, and ageist structures that reproduce injustice.
AWSS recognizes that funds for scholarship and research in our field have for many years often been disproportionately allocated to the study of Russia and the Russian imperial project. We believe that it is necessary also to allocate funds in support of scholarship on the diverse communities (national, ethnic, or otherwise defined) that at one time or another have been part of Eastern European, Russian, or Soviet imperial space. AWSS will continue to prioritize its own funding to support those scholars who are at the greatest risk and who share our mission. Statement from February 2022: The Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS) condemns the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine
awss prizes and awards
AWSS awards prizes to scholars at all stages of their careers. We support the work of individuals who embody our organization's values and mission each year through the following awards.
- The Graduate Research and Graduate Essay Prizes are awarded to scholars at the beginning of their careers.
- The Mary Zirin Prize recognizes independent scholars.
- The Outstanding Achievement Award is given to senior scholars for their mentoring and scholarship.
- The Heldt Prizes recognize outstanding books and articles in several categories.