School of Slavonic and East European Studies

The UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES, ˈsiːs) is a school of University College London (UCL)

University College London

University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

. It is the largest centre for the study and research of Central

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

, Eastern

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

and South-Eastern Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The School teaches a wide range of subjects including the history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

, economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

and languages of the region.

History

The School was inaugurated in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

in 1915 by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who later became President of Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. In 1999 the School merged with UCL.

Teaching

More than 60 academic staff work at the School, teaching and conducting research in the history, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, culture, literature and languages of the countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, and Russia. In 2005/2006 the School had 150 graduate students studying taught MA degrees or undertaking PhD research. In addition the School has over 500 undergraduate students.

Research

Along with its undergraduate and graduate teaching, the School enjoys an enviable reputation for the quality of its interdisciplinary research. It is a major international centre for training the next generation of regional specialists, through a combination of academic rigour and the skills and knowledge required by employers. It also specialises in analysing and disseminating information about changes in the region, publishing periodicals, papers and books, holding conferences, public lectures, seminars and briefings, and providing experts who can act as advisers to government, the media, and public and private institutions.

Library

Comprising around 357,000 volumes of books, pamphlets and periodicals, the School's library is unique in the UK for the quantity of research material on open access and for the extensive collection of newspapers from the region. Its collections of books, periodicals and archives are consulted by scholars from all over the world, and it has recently developed an important role in the provision of electronic and audio-visual material relating to its area of study.

The library is one of the leading research collections in Britain for the study of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. The main fields of interest are the languages, literature, history, politics, economics, geography and bibliography of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

and the western Republics of the former USSR, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, the Czech Lands

Czech lands

Czech lands is an auxiliary term used mainly to describe the combination of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia. Today, those three historic provinces compose the Czech Republic. The Czech lands had been settled by the Celts , then later by various Germanic tribes until the beginning of 7th...

, Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

, former Yugoslavia

Former Yugoslavia

The former Yugoslavia is a term used to describe the present day states which succeeded the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

and Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

. Subsidiary fields of interest are the arts in general, demography, ethnography and religion. Material is also collected on the former German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

(history, political and economic life), the history of Germany

Germany

and Austria

Austria

, the Lusatian Sorbs, and Slavonic and Ugro-Finnic studies in general.

Building

In May 2004 the foundation stone of the School's new building on Taviton Street in Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury

-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...

was unveiled by the President of Poland

Poland

, Aleksander Kwaśniewski

Aleksander Kwasniewski

Aleksander Kwaśniewski is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s...

, in the presence of The Princess Royal

Anne, Princess Royal

Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

, Chancellor of the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

. The school moved to the building in the summer of 2005 after nearly 90 years at Senate House

Senate House (University of London)

Senate House is the administrative centre of the University of London, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, London between the School of Oriental and African Studies to the north, with the British Museum to the south...

. Václav Klaus

Václav Klaus

Václav Klaus is the second President of the Czech Republic and a former Prime Minister .An economist, he is co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Republic's largest center-right political party. Klaus is a eurosceptic, but he reluctantly endorsed the Lisbon treaty as president of...

, President

President of the Czech Republic

The President of the Czech Republic is the head of state of the Czech Republic. Unlike his counterparts in Austria and Hungary, who are generally considered figureheads, the Czech President has a considerable role in political affairs...

of the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

, delivered the keynote address of his visit to the UK at a ceremony to open the building in October 2005. Following Klaus's address, the Princess Royal unveiled the stone to mark the formal opening of the building, on the occasion of the School's 90th anniversary.

The building was designed by award-winning architects Short and Associates. The design of the building aims to be 'environmentally-friendly' not simply through the addition of elements such as solar panels, but by facilitating the passage of cool air around the building and so avoiding the need for air conditioning or other expensive, energy-using solutions - a first for the 'central London heat island'.

Notable Staff/Students

Norman Davies
Norman Davies
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :...

(formerly)
Robert I. Frost
Robert I. Frost
Robert I. Frost is a British historian and academic.He attended the University of St Andrews, the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. He earned his doctorate in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London.He taught school for three years in the mid-1980s...

(Historian)
Eric Gordy
Titus Hjelm
Titus Hjelm
Titus Hjelm is an academic and musician from Helsinki, Finland.-Academics:Hjelm is a Doctor of Theology and a lecturer of Finnish Society and Culture at University College London , a part of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, where he teaches culture, social science, and literature...
Geoffrey Hosking
Geoffrey Hosking
Geoffrey Alan Hosking is a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union and formerly Leverhulme Research Professor of Russian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London....
Lindsey Hughes
Lindsey Hughes
Lindsey Hughes was a British historian who studied seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Russia, especially the reign of Peter the Great. She authored biographies of Peter and his predecessor Sophia Alekseyevna, as well as a more general work, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great...
Roger Moorhouse
Roger Moorhouse
Roger Moorhouse is a British historian and author. Born in Stockport, Cheshire, he was raised in Hertfordshire and attended Berkhamsted School. Inspired to return to education by the East European Revolutions of 1989, Moorhouse enrolled in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of the...
Sir Bernard Pares
Bernard Pares
Sir Bernard Pares KBE was an English historian and academic known for his work on Russia.-Early Life:Pares was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Classics taking a third...
László Péter
László Péter
László Péter, , was Emeritus Professor of Hungarian History at the University of London. He completed his first degree at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest after which he worked as an archivist and teacher. He left Hungary in 1956, subsequently completing a DPhil in Oxford under the...

(Professor Emeritus)
Martyn Rady
Martyn Rady
Martyn Rady is Professor of Central European History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies , University College London. He was from 1995 to 2009 Warden of Hughes Parry Hall , an intercollegiate hall of the University of London...
John Randall
John Randall (UK politician)
Alexander John Randall, known as John Randall, is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom, and is the Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.-Early life:...

MP (UK politician)
Jacek Rostowski (formerly, Present Polish Minister of Finance)
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross (television presenter)
Jonathan Stephen Ross, OBE is an English television and radio presenter, best known for presenting the BBC One chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross from 2001 until he left the BBC in 2010. Ross began hosting a new chat show on ITV1 starting 3 September 2011...

(entertainer)
György Schöpflin
György Schöpflin
György Schöpflin is a Hungarian academic and politician. He is a Member of the European Parliament for Fidesz and the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs...

MEP
Robert Service (historian)
Robert Service (historian)
Robert John Service is a British historian, academic, and author who has written extensively on the history of Soviet Russia, particularly the era from the October Revolution to Stalin's death...

(formerly)
Robert William Seton-Watson
Robert William Seton-Watson
Robert William Seton-Watson , commonly referred to as R.W. Seton-Watson, and also known by the pseudonym Scotus Viator, was a British political activist and historian who played an active role in encouraging the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the emergence of Czechoslovakia and...
Trevor Thomas
Trevor Thomas (historian)
Trevor Vaughan Thomas was Lecturer in Czech and Slovak history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and is a leading authority on the history of the Habsburg Monarchy...
Robin Shepherd
Robin Shepherd
Robin Shepherd is a prominent British-born political commentator and analyst. He is currently Director of International Affairs at the Henry Jackson Society....

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History

Teaching

Research

Library

Building

Notable Staff/Students

External links