Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (left), professor of International Studies at York’s Glendon College, was elected secretary of the International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES) for the sixth time, making him the longest-serving member of the council’s executive committee. It also marked his 25th year in the post. The election was held at the council’s meeting on July 28 at Humboldt University in Berlin during the Seventh World Congress on Central and East European Studies. Kirschbaum, a specialist in Slovak and Central European politics, was first elected to this post in 1980 at the Second World Congress in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and re-elected subsequently at every congress.
The ICCEES was created in Banff, Alberta in Sept. 1974 when a conference was called by the Canadian Association of Slavists, which in cooperation with the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the British Universities Association of Slavists, and the National Association for Soviet and East European Studies in Great Britain, decided to bring together scholars and reseachers in what was then generally called Soviet or Communist studies to exchange views and share research results.
Since the founding conference, congresses have been held at a regular interval in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany (1980), Washington, DC (1985), Harrogate, England (1990), Warsaw, Poland (1995), Tampere, Finland (2002), and Berlin,Germany (2005). Unfettered participation by scholars of the area under study (Central and Eastern Europe, and the former republics of the Soviet Union) has been possible only since 1990. The congresses normally bring together some 1,600-2,000 participants from 50 countries.
For more information on the council and its activities, visit the ICCEES Web site.