Virtual Conference "Ukrainian Past: Wars for Identity and Independence"

On Thursday, April 25, 2024, three Seton Hall University faculty members participated in a virtual conference "Ukrainian Past: Wars for Identity and Independence," organized by faculty and students at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University in Ukraine. Seton Hall enjoys a close partnership with this prominent Ukrainian institution of higher learning, a relationship that deepened in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of independent Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Over the past two years, our faculty and students have conducted several virtual events with their colleagues and peers in Ukraine and learned from their experience of resilience and survival during the time of war.

Professor James Daly (Department of Educational Studies), Professor Nathaniel Knight (Department of History), and Professor Maxim Matusevich (Department of History) took part in a series of presentations and discussions that brought together a large and diverse group of Ukrainian and U.S. scholars.

Professor James Daly delivered remarks, in which he outlined the history of the relationship between our institutions and expressed our community’s solidarity with Ukrainian students and academics during their time of need and extreme suffering.

Professor Nathaniel Knight made a fascinating presentation "Ukraine’s Peoples Revealed: Images from the Swedish National Museum," in which he shared with the audience a story of a very unusual discovery of an archive of 18th century ethnographic images of Ukraine and Ukrainians that he made during a research trip to Stockholm, Sweden. Professor Knight’s discovery has been made the subject of a recent exhibit that he curated at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University.

Professor Maxim Matusevich discussed his recently published essay “The War Against Nostalgia," in which he touched on the issue of war and memory, arguing that Russia’s war against Ukraine has also been a war against the past, destroying a sense of nostalgia for several generations of former Soviets.

Ukrainian faculty and students spoke movingly about various aspects of their wartime experience and their continuing commitment to education and research. Their presentations proved yet again their strength and commitment to justice, democracy and independence. Seton Hall University continues to be proud of its longstanding association with the excellent and courageous faculty and students of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University. 

Categories: Education, Nation and World