Kennan Institute Receives $4 Million Grant for CASE Program

The Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars received a $4 million grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Kennan Institute will share the grant with ISE Center (Information. Scholarship. Education.) in Moscow.

The two-year grant was awarded to continue support for the Carnegie Corporation initiative which, over the past five years, has established nine Centers for Advanced Study and Education (CASEs) in regional Russian universities. The CASE program also integrates Russian scholars into the international community through a system of individual research fellowships, library and publications support, and professional community-building efforts. To date, over 3,500 scholars from across Russia have benefited from the CASE program, either through direct fellowships or through engagement in CASE programs.

"The CASE program has revealed an unexpected depth of talent within the Russian university community of social scientists and humanists," said Blair Ruble, director of the Kennan Institute. "We hope that the CASE universities will extend their commitment to research, and that their excellent work will inform research here in the United States."

The CASE initiative is based on an assessment of need within the social sciences and humanities in the former Soviet Union that was written by the Kennan Institute for Carnegie Corporation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. That report concluded that there is a need for "middle ground" programs aimed at rebuilding professional life and sustaining professional communities in the former Soviet Union.

This grant brings Carnegie Corporation's total investment in the Kennan Institute's role in the CASE program to $9.4 million. Over the course of the project, an additional $4 million has been invested through funds awarded to other American and Russian organizations by a variety of agencies, including the MacArthur Foundation, the Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science, and the Open Society Institute. All participating organizations project that the program will continue to operate through 2009, assuming that funding is sustained.

The program has established CASEs at the following Russian state universities:
• Tomsk State University: "Eurasian Frontier: Intercultural Cooperation and a System of Communication"
• Urals State University (Ekaterinburg): "Tolerance in Modern Civilization"
• Voronezh State University: "Dialogue and Continuity Among Cultures in Contemporary Society"
• Far Eastern National University (Vladivostok): "Russia and the Asia-Pacific Region: Comprehensive Security, Conflicts, and Cooperation in the 21st Century"
• Irkutsk State University: "Siberia as Part of Russia and the World: Challenges Posed by Development Strategies"
• Kaliningrad State University (Baltic CASE): "Russia and Europe: Past, Present, Future"
• Novgorod State University: "The State, the Society, and the Individual in the Dynamic Aspect of Culture and Education"
• Saratov State University: "Phenomenology of Power in Russia: State, Society, and Individual Destiny"
• Rostov State University: "Problems of Modernization in Russia"

In addition, a CASE Resource Center was opened at St. Petersburg State University to support the research of CASE-affiliated scholars and St. Petersburg educational, cultural, and archival institutions.

The Kennan Institute was founded as a division of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in December of 1974, through the joint initiative of Ambassador George F. Kennan, then Wilson Director James Billington, and historian S. Frederick Starr. Named in honor of Ambassador Kennan's relative, George Kennan "the Elder," a nineteenth century explorer of Russia and Siberia, the Kennan Institute is committed to improving American expertise and knowledge about Russia and the former Soviet Union.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living, national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open and informed dialogue. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds and engaged in the study of national and world affairs.