The records for the Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) document an array of activities that the center has been involved with since its inception and includes administrative files, audio and visual material, clippings, press releases, proposals, publications, and subject files. Records from the 1980s to the 1990s make up the bulk of this record group. The documents reflect how the Center has grown and become active not just at the university level, but also at a global level. The financial, global, and business ties that CREES has worked hard to cultivate can be traced through this record group. The way those ties developed as well as the many other interests of the center will be of interest to researchers.
The Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES) was the product of an expansion of area studies at the University of Michigan proposed by the College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LS&A) in 1959. LS&A appointed a committee chaired by anthropology professor William Schorger to develop the proposal. The committee recommended the creation of four new centers: the Center for Chinese Studies, the Center for Russian and East European Studies, the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, and the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies. In 1961, the University secured a grant from the Ford Foundation to carry out the proposal. CREES then became designated under the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) as a center for Slavic Language and an Area Center in 1959, by the United States Office of Education. Currently, CREES remains one of only twenty-two U.S. Department of Education supported resource centers for Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.
The major goal of CREES is "to prepare a new generation of outstanding academic experts and professionals for careers in or related to our region." The center works to accomplish this goal by offering many inter-disciplinary areas of study. The center draws faculty from a variety of other departments at the university to teach courses. A few of the subjects in which students can earn their degree from CREES are business, law, journalism and education. The Center changed its name to the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies in 2010.
Directors of the Center for Russian and East European Studies
| Date |
Event |
| 1961-1964 | William Ballis |
| 1964-1965 | Horace W. Dewey (Acting) |
| 1965-1966 | Deming Bronson Brown |
| 1966-1969 | Morris A. Bornstein |
| 1969-1972 | Alfred G. Meyer |
| 1972-1978 | William Zimmerman IV |
| 1975-1976 | John Mesereau (Acting) |
| 1978-1980 | Deming Bronson Brown |
| 1980-1983 | Zvi Y. Gitelman |
| 1983-1986 | William G. Rosenberg |
| 1986-1991 | Roman Szporluk |
| 1987-1989 | William G. Rosenberg (Acting) |
| 1991-1992 | William Zimmerman IV |
| 1992-1995 | Jane R. Burbank |
| 1995-1999 | Michael D. Kennedy |
| 1999-2001 | Barbara A. Anderson |
| 2001-2002 | Katherine Verdery |
| 2003-2005 | Barbara A. Anderson |
| 2005-2008 | Michael D. Kennedy |
| 2008-2011 | Douglas Northrup |
| 2011-2014 | Olga Maiorova |
| 2014- | Genevieve Zubrzycki |
Name Changes
| Date |
Event |
| 1961-1967 | Center for Russian Studies |
| 1967-2010 | Center for Russian and East European Studies |
| 2010- | Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies |
