Euro-Maidan and the current war
As part of International Week on campus at the University of Alberta, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) on January 27 participated in two sessions devoted to the current war in Ukraine and the Euro-Maidan revolution preceding it. The first session recounted the course of events from the beginning of the Euro-Maidan demonstrations in November 2013 to the present day, followed by an emphasis on the cultural differences between Russia and Ukraine, and an examination of the collaboration among Christian clergy of all denominations during the Euro-Maidan. The second session featured the film “Heaven’s Hundred,” produced by the Babylon ’13 Studio.
On March 9-11 the Center for Political and Regional Studies (CPRS) at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, held a symposium on the first anniversary of the Euro-Maidan revolution. At the symposium, scholars and experts from Canada and Ukraine spoke about the significance and consequences of this historic event and its influence on current international developments.
On June 13, the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York, in cooperation with the Wounded Warrior Ukraine project, held a forum on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. With the war in full swing for months, the spotlight of public debates in Ukraine and in the West has been on the military conflict and its direct casualties – the dead and the wounded. This forum shifted attention from the immediate physical damage of the war to the long-standing psychological trauma that will shape Ukrainian society for years to come. The forum was the first of this kind held at the Shevchenko Scientific Society, weaving discussion of a rehabilitation project into academic debates on Ukraine, and showcasing the society’s new direction toward wider cooperation with other organizations. The event brought together leading experts in Ukrainian affairs including the journalist and author Andrea Chalupa, political analyst Anders Corr, Democratic staff member at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Philip Bednarczyk, as well as the head and CEO of Wounded Warrior Ukraine, Roman Torgovitsky.
Dr. José Casanova, professor of sociology and senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University and head of the university’s Program on Religion, Globalization and the Secular, delivered a lecture on “The Religious Communities of Ukraine and Their Role at the Maidan Mobilization” at a session of the Montreal chapter of the Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada held on October 15 at the Patriarch Josyf Slipyi Museum. In Ukraine, he said, the religious leaders who belong to the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) are committed to the development and legal protection of a strong democratic civil society. All religious groups in Ukraine took part in the Maidan mobilization. Their participation in the Revolution of Dignity shows that pluralism is not a cause for fear, but rather a basis for a strong democracy, Dr. Casanova observed.