When the Ukrainian Sun Rises: From the Holodomor to the Frontlines in Moscow's Century of Violence
Date and Time
Location
A book talk and discussion by Kristina Hook, Assistant Professor of Conflict Management, Kennesaw State University
Chaired by Emily Channell-Justice, Director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at HURI
This event is organized by HURI as part of the Seminar in Ukrainian Studies public event series and Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program.
About the Book
When the Ukrainian Sun Rises explores the domestic, international, and geopolitical implications of the 1932–1933 Holodomor—an artificial famine in Soviet Ukraine under Joseph Stalin that killed at least 4 million people and changed Ukrainian society forever.
Against the backdrop of Russia’s war against Ukraine, anthropologist Kristina Hook draws on multi-year ethnographic fieldwork across Ukraine since 2015 and a decade of interviews with contemporary Ukrainian leaders in political, legal, activist, and academic spheres. These never-before-published interviews uncover a paradox: although the Holodomor nearly destroyed Ukraine in the 1930s, its memory also provided a narrative through which contemporary leaders would seek to rebuild their nation and express growing national confidence.
As the Kremlin wages a new genocidal war against Ukraine, When the Ukrainian Sun Rises shows how memories of the Holodomor have shaped Ukrainian leaders’ perceptions of existential threat since 2014 and fueled a postcolonial reclamation of Ukrainian history and identity. The book demonstrates how this memory has become a framework through which these individuals interpret Russian violence, understand the stakes of national sovereignty, and articulate the meaning of Ukrainian survival—helping to explain the country’s extraordinary resistance today.
About the Speaker
Dr. Kristina Hook (Assistant Professor of Conflict Management, Kennesaw State University) is an anthropologist specializing in genocide. She has conducted multi-year fieldwork in Ukraine since 2015, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright, USAID, and others.
Hook’s analysis has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Genocide Studies and Prevention, International Negotiation, CNN, USA Today, Washington Post, and elsewhere. Her research on the Russia-Ukraine war has won multiple awards and has been cited by the International Court of Justice, United Nations, NATO, Parliamentary Assembly of Europe, U.S. government, and others.
Hook received her joint PhD in anthropology and peace studies from the University of Notre Dame. She previously served as a U.S. Department of State policy adviser, a nonresident research fellow at the Marine Corps University, and a U.S. Presidential Management Fellow. She is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center.