CANCELED: Global Knowledge about Ukraine: Navigating Soviet Legacy and Russia’s War
Date and Time
A lecture by Liz Shchepetylnykova, Hans de Wit Fellow, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College.
Moderated by Megan K Duncan Smith, Programs Coordinator at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University.
IN-PERSON
Casual lunch will be provided.
About the Lecture
Increased attention to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion prompted many to question why the former Soviet periphery continues to be understudied globally, but limited research is available on challenges encountered by scholars seeking to understand Ukraine at the time of war. For 75 years under Soviet isolationism, Ukrainian intellectuals had little access to the global academic community. Meanwhile, Western scholars struggled to make sense of carefully curated and censored data released by Moscow. The Soviet hyper-centralized higher education and research system reinforced select perspectives both within the USSR and abroad, influencing global knowledge production. Efforts to integrate perspectives from the former Soviet periphery into the global academic discourse have been inconsistent. Researching Ukraine has become even more difficult as Russia’s war drags on, restricting access to archives, data, and study participants. As Russian missiles and drones destroy records, research sites, and even scholars, how does U.S. academia confront the challenge of decentering area studies? To address this question, Liz Shchepetylnykova will offer insights from her research project, focused on transformations in American academia driven by Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine.
About the Speaker
Dr. Liz Shchepetylnykova is Hans de Wit Fellow at the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College. She studies crisis-driven transformations in global higher education and research, focusing on the role of human agency in (de)legitimizing change. Liz received her Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong where her work focused on the de-Sovietization of universities and disciplines, untangling chaotic and inconsequential reforms of post-Soviet academia. In 2024, she joined the Center for International Higher Education to study transformations in American colleges and universities driven by Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine.
This event is organized by Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) as part of the Ukraine Study Group and the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program event series.
Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Hanna Leliv, HURI Events Logistics Coordinator, at hleliv@fas.harvard.edu at least two weeks in advance of the session.
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