International Collaborative Network of Geographers: U.S. and the Southern Tier of Post-Socialist States

麦迪逊的威斯康星州大学的罗伯特·凯泽教授将领导这项工作，建立一个国际地理学家合作网络，其中包括美国研究人员和来自中亚、高加索和巴尔干地区后社会主义国家的欧亚同行。 在美国方面，美国地理学家协会的俄罗斯，中欧和东欧专业组（RCEE）的成员将作为核心参与者。 总的目标是确定和联系从事与优先分领域有关学科工作的地理学家和学者，并建立一个以电子方式和通过研究伙伴关系联系的虚拟网络。 为了实现他们的目标，Kaiser教授和威斯康星州大学的研究生将为这个参与者社区创建和维护一个专门的网站和列表服务器。 他们还将在麦迪逊组织和举办第一年规划研讨会，以确定未来的研究议程。 特别感兴趣的主题包括：权力和身份在多个地理范围内的重新领土化的新形式;该地区国家的社会经济转型;环境条件和与环境正义有关的问题，以及不同地理范围内的区域地缘政治和地理文化重组。 第二年将在巴库的一次实质性会议上介绍初步成果。 这一地理学家网络的建立和预期的研究结果将大大增加我们对这些地区正在社会经济、文化、人口和政治方面发生变化的动态方式的理解。 如果成功，结果可能对国家和国际决策者有用，包括研究区域各国的决策者。这些合作网络活动实现了促进科学知识的计划目标，使美国和中欧和东欧的专家能够联合收割机互补人才，并在共同感兴趣和能力强的领域共享研究资源。

Prof. Robert Kaiser of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will lead this effort to construct an international collaborative network of geographers that involves U.S. researchers and Eurasian counterparts from post socialist countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Balkans. On the US side, members of the Russian, Central Eurasian and Eastern European Specialty Group (RCEE) of the Association of American Geographers will serve as core participants. The overall goals are to identify and connect geographers and scholars working in disciplines related to priority subfields and to build a virtual network linked electronically and through research partnerships. To accomplish their objectives, Prof. Kaiser and University of Wisconsin graduate students will create and maintain a specialized website and a listserver for this participant community. They also will organize and hold a first year planning workshop in Madison to define a future research agenda. Topics of special interest include: new forms of reterritorization of power and identity across a multiplicity of geographic scales; socioeconomic transformation of the states in the region; environmental conditions and issues related to environmental justice, and regional geopolitical and geocultural realignments at differing geographic scales. Initial results will be presented at a substantive conference in Baku during the second year. The establishment of this geographers' network and the anticipated research results should add significantly to our understanding of the dynamic ways in which these regions are being transformed socio-economically, culturally, demographically, and politically. If successful, results may be useful to national and international decision-makers, including those in the nations of the study region. These collaborative networking activities fulfill the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling experts in the United States and Central and Eastern Europe to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence.