1. Studying the politics of Ukraine and Belarus at UCL Trends and developments Dr Joanna Szostek Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL

2. Overview Teaching: Where and how do Ukraine and Belarus feature within politics/society courses at UCL-SSEES? Research: What are the main avenues of research currently being pursued by SSEES-based scholars? Can you see opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration between SSEES and the Ukrainian/Belarusian communities in the UK?

3. Degree programmes at SSEES in 2013–2014 Main undergrad programmes: BA Economics and Business with East European Studies BA History BA Russian and History Over 30 permutations of language-focused BA degrees BA Politics and East European Studies Postgrad programmes include: International Masters in Economy, State & Society MRes East European Studies (2 years) MRes Politics and Economics of Eastern Europe (2 years) MA Politics, Security and Integration (1 year) And many more

4. Politics/Society modules featuring Ukraine and/or Belarus BA level The Making of Modern Ukraine (optional, 20 weeks) Soviet and Russian Foreign Policy (optional, 20 weeks) Post-Soviet Politics (semi-optional, 10 weeks, starts next year) MA level The Making of Modern Ukraine (optional, 20 weeks) Russian Foreign Policy since 1917 (optional, 20 weeks) Post-Soviet Politics (optional, 20 weeks)

5. Research on Ukrainian/Belarusian politics People Andrew Wilson, Pete Duncan Edward Johnson, Ondřej Timčo, Anton Shekhovtsov, Oleksandr Andreyev Main Ukraine/Belarus research themes Ukraine crisis (AW book forthcoming) Russian foreign policy, CIS integration, Russian minorities (PD book forthcoming) Extreme right since 1991 (AS PhD) Party of Regions 2010–2014 (EJ PhD) Corrupt networks in Ukraine (OT PhD) Special issue of E-A Studies on Belarus (AW)

6. Other initiatives and events Platform Ukraine - postgrad-led initiative - series of one-day events planned for 2014–2015 at UCL - discussions to cover money laundering, renewable energy, art, photography and language analysis Ukraine art exhibition (Ondřej Timčo) - aiming for late November Post-Soviet Press Group - meets weekly during term, up to 40 postgrads attend