Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen

The Research Centre for East European Studies (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa – FSO) is an independent research institute attached to the University of Bremen. It is funded jointly by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs and the State of Bremen. Founded during the Cold War in 1982, the FSO today combines two goals: the (re)examination of societies and cultures in the Eastern Bloc and the analysis of contemporary developments in the region. 
 

Archive and Research News

Michael Richter wins BIGSSS Best Award.

Yulia Kurnyshova, visiting scholar at FSO, takes a constructivist and discursive perspective on Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, most recent publications address Resilience and Normative Agency, Analogical Reasoning in War Narratives, Moscow’s Orthodox Diplomacy in Ukraine.
 

FSO is a co-initiator of the Postdoc Network Group „Rethinking Ukrainian Studies. Understanding the country through Ukrainian voices“ at the University of Bremen

Analyses of many aspects of Russia's war against Ukraine in the Russian Analytical Digest (open access)

New publications on social policy in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia by our team in the CRC on Global Dynamics of Social Policy

Now expanding: Discuss Data: Archiving, sharing and discussing research data on Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia


 

Archive With an archive and library spezialising in the literature on dissent, emigration and repression in Eastern Europe after 1945/1953 and the political transformation after 1989/1991, the Research Centre offers scholars from the humanities unique conditions to conduct research on the history of "Dissent and Consensus" in Eastern Europe after 1945. Researchers who plan to use the archive are kindly requested to contact us 4 weeks in advance. We are extremely grateful to anyone wishing to give documents to our archive or willing to inform us of materials related to our profile! » read more

Research The guiding concept of the centre's research is "Dissent and Consensus". This posits that deviant opinions, political opposition, defiance or forms of obstinacy can only be understood in the context of the political system, its discourses and repressive measures. To this end, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and specialists in literary and cultural studies collaborate using interdisciplinary approaches. This approach places particular emphasis on the following areas: the shared worlds of representatives of dissent, consensus, state and party; networks and corruption; the functioning of (post-) authoritarian regimes. » read more