This seminar helps students develop scientific arguments and terms papers by confronting students with a range of motivating and thought-provoking topics that reveal the rich societal diversity of a multi-faceted Eastern Europe. The seminar’s empirical focus is on the social structures of post-communist societies. Starting with the limited societal perspective informing the reform plans of the early 1990s, it then proceeds by detailing the rich social reality of post-communism, advancing through a range of stimulating topics in the study of state-society relations, including for instance civil society, intelligentsia, gender regimes, informality, resilience, the role of second-best institutions, and the return of nationalism. Throughout the seminar students work on various individual and team assignments, helping them develop the analytical skills needed in social scientific scholarship.