Welcome! The Scholars Working on East European Politics is a monthly, online workshop for political scientists. We aim to create an environment for those working on East European politics (broadly understood) to seek feedback and build community amongst others working on similar topics.

SWEEP began as an online workshop for graduate students working on East European politics. We are now broadening the community to include scholars at all career stages, though remain committed to supporting and prioritizing graduate student research. We look forward to being better able to connect grads with researchers at all stages in our new form.

We welcome scholars at any stage in their career, using any methods, and examining East European politics in anywhere from Central Europe to Central Asia. Feel free to reach out to us at eep.workshop@gmail.com with further questions.

Call for Papers: Fall/Winter 2026 Workshop

We welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages working on East European politics. Submissions can range from early-stage paper drafts to well-developed manuscripts, and we welcome projects using any methodological approach, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. You can apply with an abstract here:

https://forms.gle/cddPQi17S853J53UA

Submission deadline: October 1, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT

Save the Date! 📆 SWEEP Happy Hour at APSA 🧹🧹🧹

We would love to bring our community together in person for a happy hour at APSA!

Saturday, September 5, at 6:00 p.m.

Location: [TBD]

We hope to see everyone there, from graduate students to faculty!

Promote your APSA panel

Are you presenting work at APSA that would be of interest to the East European politics community? Please submit your panel information here by August 28, and we will compile and circulate the panels before the conference:

https://forms.gle/vX52nugaDUpzv3vo9]

We hope this will help us learn from one another’s fascinating research and support each other’s work at the conference.

We are super excited about this new chapter and look forward to seeing many of you at APSA in just over a month!

Current Series: Spring/Summer 2026 Workshop

Friday April 17th 11AM-12PM EST

“Decentralization and Ukrainian Resistance Against Russia’s Invasion,” Isabelle DeSisto (Princeton University)

Discussant: Silviya Nitsova (University of Manchester)

Friday May 8th 11AM-12PM EST

“When Does Civil Society Respond to Government Threats?,” Frances Cayton (Cornell University)

Discussant: Will Halm (Berkeley)

Friday May 29th 11-12 AM EST

“Ethnic identity, citizenship, and public support for NATO in Estonia, 2019–2024,” Yurii Kondratyk (European University Institute) and Piret Ehin (University of Tartu)

Discussant: Robert Lipinski (Oxford)

Friday June 26th 11-12 AM EST

“A Tale of Two Villages: Political Causes and Consequences of Within-Rural Inequality,” Felix Beilin (Princeton)

Discussant: Hanna Folsz (Stanford University)

Friday August 14th 11-12 AM EST

“Do Wartime Casualties Affect Support for the Autocrat? Evidence from Russia,” Konstantin Bogatyrev (LSE), Georgy Tarasenko (Cornell), Andrey Tkachenko (Nazarbayev University), Nikita Savin (UCLA)

Discussant: Ildar Daminov (Central European University)

Friday August 21st 11-12 AM EST

“Surviving the Commons: Land Tenure, Extraction, and Revolution,” Igor Kolesnikov (UC Berkeley)

Discussant: Frances Cayton (Cornell University)

Statement on Russia’s War Against Ukraine

SWEEP wholeheartedly condemns Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s sovereignty over the last ten years and its recent full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We stand in support of Ukraine and its people as they fight in support of their country and freedom. For more information on the war, and how to support the Ukrainian war effort, refugees, and media, we include resources compiled by Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and Razom for Ukraine.

Be in touch!

We invite you to sign up for our listserv by clicking here.