Mission Statement

The interdisciplinary Centre for Post-Communist Studies is devoted to the facilitation of research relevant to communist and post-communist studies across Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, China and other parts of the world.

Centre members foster basic and applied research, foster international collaborations between StFX researchers and their colleagues at universities in other countries, and help other programs and institutes of StFX to develop ties with partners in the post-communist world.

The Centre’s long-term goals are fourfold. First, it will provide a space for StFX researchers across a multitude of academic departments to discuss their current research, plan their future research projects and get valuable feedback on them, and consider bringing an interdisciplinary perspective to their research. Second, the Centre will facilitate the link between StFX and universities from the communist and post-communist world for mutual benefit in terms of research, undergraduate teaching, student exchange and youth internship placement. Third, the Centre will strengthen the link between the Coady Institute and the Service Learning program – and possibly the Distance Education program – and partners in others countries. Last, as the only such Centre in Canada, and the only Centre promoting research dedicated to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in Atlantic Canada, the Centre will fill a gap that has been evident for some time.

The Centre can offer researchers from Atlantic Canada interested in communist and post-communist studies the first – and possibly for many years the only – space to come together and discuss issues of common interest.