***44TH SOUTHERN CONFERENCE ON SLAVIC STUDIES ANNUAL MEETING***
March 23-25, 2006

NATION'S OLDEST SLAVIC STUDIES ORGANIZATION TO MEET AT USC
Panel Discussion "Reporting from Moscow" Includes Noted Journalists

A major meeting of scholars and professionals in Russian and Slavic studies will be held at USC March 23-25. Hosted by the Walker Institute's Russian Area Studies Program, the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies will attract more than 100 academic and government registrants--including a significant international contingent--in fields including history, literature, political science, linguistics, anthropology, and art.

A plenary session, open to the public and surveying Western journalists' experiences in Moscow over nearly half a century, will be the conference's most visible event for the university and community audience. Entitled "Reporting From Moscow: Khrushchev to Putin," this event will be held in the Gambrell auditorium at 4:30 on Friday, March 24.

Panelists will include Peter Baker, Washington Post Moscow Bureau Chief 2001-2004 and author, with his wife and fellow bureau chief Susan Glasser, of the recent Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution; Charles Bierbauer, Moscow Bureau Chief for ABC News in the 1970s, CNN correspondent for twenty years in Washington, and currently Dean of USC's College of Mass Communications and Information Studies; Marvin Kalb, who served as CBS Moscow Bureau Chief in the 1950s and '60s, at the beginning of his distinguished career as a journalist, Harvard professor, and author. The panel will be moderated by Walker Institute director and Russian politics expert Gordon Smith. This session is free and will be followed by a public reception.

Friday night's banquet dinner, open to conference participants, will feature Nancy Condee of the University of Pittsburgh as keynote speaker and will be held at the Top of Carolina, the university's revolving restaurant with a panoramic view of the city. Professor Condee directs the Program for Cultural Studies at Pittsburgh and is a prolific author on Soviet and Russian culture. Her talk is entitled "Does the Empire Have No Close? Problems of 'National Identity.'"

Other conference events will take place at the Clarion Townhouse Hotel, 1615 Gervais Street in downtown Columbia. Registration opens at the Clarion Thursday evening, and all regular conference panels, as well as the Executive Council and Business lunches, will be held there Friday and Saturday. The recently-renovated hotel is offering rooms at an unbeatable conference rate of $92.95 for single or double occupancy, which also includes one complimentary breakfast (additional breakfasts available at a reduced rate). For reservations contact the hotel directly: 1-800-277-8711 or 803-771-8711, and mention the SCSS conference by name.

The traditional SCSS "beach party" Saturday afternoon, will take place in a swamp--Congaree National Park, the nation's largest remaining old-growth hardwood forest. As noted in the park's publicity, "Known for its giant hardwoods and towering pines, the park's floodplain forest includes one of the highest canopies in the world and some of the tallest trees in the eastern United States."

The Southern Conference on Slavic Studies (SCSS) is the oldest, largest, and most active affiliate of the national Slavic Studies organization, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies; it was founded, in fact, before the national organization itself was created. Hosting the conference (the 44th annual meeting of the organization) cements the growing reputation of Russian Studies at USC and provides an excellent opportunity to showcase the Walker Institute and USC to a large professional audience. For additional information please contact Russian Area Studies coordinator Alexander Ogden at <ogden@sc.edu>.