The Paper Contest award is given in memory of William McCagg, a historian and educator who specialized in Central and Eastern Europe. Dr. McCagg was Director of the Russian and East European Studies Program at Michigan State University where he taught for 30 years.
The contest is administered by the Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (CERES). Selection of winners is determined by the center's faculty advisory committee, which will review and then rank the papers.
Papers may be submitted which contain a significant European, Russian or Eurasian component. Awards will be given at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in each category.
Please announce this competition to your class and urge the authors of your best student papers to apply!
Eurasian Studies:
Cody Shulz, Economics and International Relations, Azerbaijan: Doomed to Decline or Destined for Diversification
European Studies:
Joseph Karisny. History, A Malleable Feast: Cultural Reconstruction and Cuisine in Postwar France
Russian Studies:
Lyudmila Austin, History, Total Prohibition to Total Permissiveness: The Consequences of New thinking and Perestroika as Failure Guiding gradual Reform
Eurasian Studies
(Undergraduate) Mitch Roberts (International Relations), The Water Crisis in Central Asia
European Studies
Connor McLeod (History), Hitler’s Foreign Warriors: Non-German Legions in the Nazi War Machine
Russian Studies
(Undergraduate) Dylan Border (History), Dead Men Walking: General Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement
(Graduate) Lyudmila Austin, Shoulder to Shoulder with the Nazis: Cossack and Tatar Collaboration during the Nazi Occupation of the Crimea and the Caucasus in the Soviet Union
European Studies
Chad Stevens (Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Science: Social Science Education), Understanding the Debate: Analyzing the Arguments Surrounding the Catholic Church During the Holocaust
Caitlin McGee (History), French Africa and the Second World War: Race, Class, and Colonialism
David Baylis (Geography), A Shriek in the Wasteland: Governmental Narratives of Gender, Nation, Territory and Health in the Novels of Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu
Erica Zentner (International Relations and Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy), Independence at Last? An Assessment of Ukraine's Ongoing Struggle for Economic and Energy Independence
Emily Elliot (History), Policing the Collective: Saving Individuals and Damning Nations
(Graduate)Duygu Kanver (Media & Information Studies), "Freedom of the Press in Turkey: Jounalist Imprisonments during the Last Decade (2002-2012)"
(Undergraduate)Colin Witbrodt (James Madison College and History), "Area Boming: Liberation or Terrorism?"
(Graduate)Emily Elliott (History), "Soviet Jews: From Prewar International Upbringing to Postwar Anti-Semitism"
(Undergraduate)Greg Spenchian (History and Russian), "Bandits and Heroes: The Partisan Struggle in the Occupied Soviet Union"
(Undergraduate)Evan Hebert, "Kazakhstan's Second Act: Current Political Issues and Areas of Reform"
Chris Potts, "Decaying Bastions of the Third Reich"
Scott McAnally, "National Schools in the Tsarist and Soviet Era"
Eric Wilson, "Why Do Living Standards Vary Among Transition Economies?"
Alicia Johnson, "The German Occupation as a Formative Experience for the Children of France"
Anna Dvorak, "Oskar Schindler: Business Life and Public Image"
Theresa Koenigsknecht "Youth Transformed: The Struggle of Non-Jewish Children Growing Up in Occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia"
Alyssa Meyer: "Western Hopes of Independent Central Asian Oil and Gas Production: Overcoming a History of Failure"
Alexandra Albers: "Twisting the Truth: The Miracle at Dunkirk"
Gregg Neville, "Remembering Our Roles: Civilians as Resisters During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944"
Valerie LeCompte, "An Effort to Assimilate: The Nazi Attempts to Germanize Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg Through the Education System"
Marieka E. Brouwer: "The Technological World of Prehistoric Denmark on the Brink of Farming"
Erin Biebuyck, "Shame and Obligation: Memories of Native Fascism in Hungary"
Kali Koehler, "Democracy in Azerbaijan: Ensuring the Freedom of the Press"
Bryan Victor, "Institutional Racism in Twentieth-Century France: From Assimilation to Social Exclusion"
Alan Sickner, "Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Human Rights in the Democratization of Georgia"
Alicia Rattenee, "A Wolf at the Door: The Re-emergence of European Anti-Immigration Parties"
Charles Petrin, "Getting What you (Don't) Pay For: The Persistence of Wage Arrears in Russia"
Greta Stahl, "Turkish Foreign Policy: The EU and/or Central Asia?"
Edward Timke, "The Invisible Woman?: Examining Newspaper Coverage of Feminist Issues in the Chechen Conflict"
Gordon Jimison, "The United States of America's Policy Toward the ICC: Reasons and Reactions"
Megan Volk, "Ukraine's Role in the 21st Century Global Areana: A Study of the Advantages and Limitations of Ukrainian-Russian Relations"
Sarah Heckemeyer, "The European Union's Dilemma: Trafficking in Persons"
Megan Biganeiss, "Russia in Transition"
Jason Sakowski, "Stalin's Triumph: The Failure of Containment During Wold War II"
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