Our Work

BASEES elects an Executive Committee to guide its activities. 

The main activity of the association is the annual conference, held normally in Cambridge at the end of March, with about 250-300 participants drawn predominantly from the UK but with many others from continental Europe and North America as well as Russia and Eastern Europe. 

The conference provides an opportunity for scholars (including postgraduates) to present and listen to papers on recent developments in research, and to meet others with similar interests. The annual conference also has a publishers' exhibition at which new publications can be previewed. Attendance at the conference is open to non-members, and postgraduates can apply to the association for assistance towards their registration and accommodation (but not their travel) costs. A member of the Committee has particular responsibility for relations with postgraduates.

BASEES publishes a Newsletter, issued three times a year, which is also available online, as is the current Membership Directory. Its publication series is produced by Routledge.  BASEES nominates the members of the National Advisory Board of Europe-Asia Studies, published by the University of Glasgow. 
It also has an arrangement with Maney Publishing whereby members are entitled to a preferential, reduced subscription rate to the journal Slavonica.


A prize in honour of the late Alec Nove was established in 1995 and is awarded annually for 'scholarly work of high quality in Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet studies'.  In 2006 BASEES established a prize in recognition of the outstanding contribution to its field of study made by the late George Blazyca.

A large part of BASEES's activity takes place through committees of various kinds, and study groups. The study groups, which were already well established within BUAS. The study groups often organise their own, rather smaller conferences.  

The Association of Heads of Russian (AHR), formed in 1999 to represent the interests of Russian Departments in UK Universities, is a sub-group of BASEES.

BASEES is active on behalf of its members in dealings with government, with other associations and with individual universities. We were involved, for instance, in the discussions that led to a series of new HEFCE-sponsored appointments in 1995; we work with other area studies associations in the Co-ordinating Council for Area Studies Associations; and we belong to the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences. BASEES is always glad to intervene, on request, when the position of any of its members is under threat at their own institutions.