About
Eastern Europe is part of an increasingly globalized world, and events there are of great significance for the rest of Europe, including Switzerland. Not everywhere did the transformation from communism and planned economies to democracy and the free market go as smoothly as many had hoped in the euphoria following the end of the Cold War. Russia, Belarus, the South Caucasus region, and Central Asia in particular have seen strong tendencies towards authoritarianism, nationalism, and militarism in recent years. The Russian annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and Russia's covert war in eastern Ukraine, which Moscow has been waging as an open war of aggression against Ukraine since February 2022, have drastically demonstrated what such a development can mean for peace and stability in Europe.
In response to these developments, there has been a marked increase in interest, including in Switzerland, from the media, politicians, businesses, and the general public for expertise on Eastern European affairs. The University of Zurich has addressed this need by establishing the interdisciplinary Center for Eastern European Studies (CEES), thereby signaling its intention to expand research and teaching on the region on the basis of the University’s existing expertise in Eastern European studies The aim is also to expand existing expertise on Eastern Europe at UZH, ensuring that specialist knowledge on current events in the region becomes accessible and institutionally embedded over the longer term.
CEES was founded in 2017 by Nada Boškovska and Jeronim Perović and was initially affiliated with the University of Zurich’s Department of History. The center’s establishment was made possible by start-up funding from Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), which has continued to provide financial support to CEES. Since 2026, CEES has been part of the Institute of Slavic and Eastern European Studies (ISOS) at the University of Zurich. CEES is directed by Jeronim Perović, Professor of Modern Eastern European Studies. The coordinator of CEES is Dr. Dunja Krempin.