Olesya Khromeychuk: On Love and War
Date and Time
A lecture by Olesya Khromeychuk, historian, writer, and director of the Ukrainian Institute London.
Moderated by Emily Channell-Justice, Director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University.
IN-PERSON and ONLINE via Zoom Webinar (live). Registration is required to attend online.
About the Lecture
In her talk, Olesya Khromeychuk challenges conventional views of love as life-giving and hatred as destructive and questions our motivations for loving humanity as a whole versus specific individuals. She focuses on Russia’s war in Ukraine and examines how the international community has been willing to let Ukrainians bear the brunt of this conflict, often justifying its own inaction as a way to prevent escalation.
To explore this philosophical reflection on love and hatred in times of war, Khromeychuk draw on the work of Lesia Ukrainka, the Ukrainian fin-de-siècle feminist writer. In her drama A Woman Possessed, the protagonist Miriam rejects traditional notions of love. It is Miriam's healing hatred and lethal love that form the framework of the talk.
About the Speaker
Dr Olesya Khromeychuk is a historian and writer. She is the author of The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister (2022). Khromeychuk has written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Prospect and The New Statesman, and has delivered a TED talk on ‘What the World Can Learn From Ukraine's Fight for Democracy’. She has taught the history of East-Central Europe at several British universities and is currently the Director of the Ukrainian Institute London.
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This event is organized by Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) as part of 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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