On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation transformed the war it began against Ukraine in 2014 into a full-scale attack on the people of Ukraine. Disregarding international law, the Russian-waged war, which began with the annexation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas and Luhansk regions, threatens the sovereignty of the Ukrainian state and disregards the right to self-determination and freedom of the Ukrainian people. It has forever changed the order of our world. While news media provide constant coverage of the horrors and war crimes being committed by Russian forces on the territory of Ukraine, it offers little information about the country of Ukraine—its history, culture, economy, and politics. The ‘Ukraine Teach-In at the Cambridge Union’ addresses this oversight by offering a day of open lectures on Ukraine delivered by faculty members of Cambridge, London, Nottingham, and USA universities. The faculty-planned and student-supported event will take place from 10:00 to 20:00 on 30 April in the Cambridge Union. Each lecture will begin on the hour, will last 30-40 minutes, and will be followed by a 15–20-minute Q&A session. The evening will end with a conversation about the current situation in Ukraine and a final Q&A session.
10:00-11:00
Hubertus Jahn (University of Cambridge): Back to the USSR? History and Patriotism in Contemporary Russia and Its Impact on Ukraine
11:00-12:00
Andrii Smytsniuk (University of Cambridge): Language, Identity and War in Ukraine
12:00-13:00
Olenka Pevny (University of Cambridge): Domes and Icons: From Medieval Kyiv to the Making of Ukraine
13:00-14:00
Rory Finnin (University of Cambridge): Sacred Freedom on Your Side’: Literature and Ukraine’s National Identity
14:00-15:00
Liudmyla Sharipova (University of Nottingham): Religious Toleration in Ukrainian Rus’ Lands: From Beras’tse to Uzhhorod, 1596-1646’
15:00-16:00
Andrei Kirilenko (University of Cambridge): The Economic Impact of the War in Ukraine
16:00-17:00
Yury Avvakumov (University of Notre Dame, Indiana): Understanding Ukrainian Christianity: Historical Background and Contemporary Public Role of the Churches in Ukraine
17:00-18:00
Daria Mattingly (University of Cambridge): The Engineered Famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine: What you need to know
18:00-19:00
Uilleam Blacker (UCL School of Slavonic and Easter European Studies): L’viv’s Palimpsest of Memory: Considering the Culture of Western Ukraine
19:00-20:00
Conversation and Q&A Session: Ukraine and Current Events
The event is sponsored by the Cambridge Union, Centre for Geopolitics, Cambridge Ukrainian Studies-MMLL, and Cambridge University Ukrainian Society.
