NEW YORK – The Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University, will hold the conference “Five Years of War in the Donbas: Cultural Responses and Reverberations” on Friday and Saturday, November 1-2.
The conference will gather an international array of scholars to discuss the diverse ways that Ukrainian culture has been stirred by the recent war between Ukraine and Russia in the Donbas. It will take place in the university’s International Affairs Building, Room 1512 (420 W. 118th St.)
The conference will explore the different, novel ways that Ukrainian literature, film, music and visual art have attempted to perceive, interpret and express war in the country. Among the questions that will be treated at the conference are: How has this culture changed as the war has endured? How have language, memory and displacement been treated by this culture? How has this culture been disseminated in Ukraine and beyond its borders? How does this culture reflect the identity of today’s Ukraine?
Among those scheduled to participate in the conference are Mark Andryczyk, Uilleam Blacker, Vitaly Chernetsky, Yuliya Ilchuk, Roman Ivashkiv, Nazar Kozak, Yuliya V. Ladygina, Oksana Maksymchuk, Olena Marstynyuk, Ronald Meyer, Natalia Moussienko, Oksana Remaniaka, Maria G. Rewakowicz, Max Rosochinsky, Yuri Shevchuk, Iryna Shuvalova and Alina Zubkovych.
Day two of the conference will conclude with the U.S. premier at The Ukrainian Museum (222 E. Sixth St.) of the exhibit “A Conversation” by legendary Ukrainian artist Vlodko Kaufman, with the assistance of fellow Ukrainian artist Natalka Shymin. Mr. Kaufman’s work as a performance artist, painter and book designer dates back to late Soviet-era underground Ukrainian culture; he has been a leading voice in the development of Ukrainian art for over the past quarter of a century. He is co-founder and artistic director of the Dzyga Art Association in Lviv.
“A Conversation” is a candid and provocative, yet subtle, treatment of the everyday responses of Ukrainians to war in their homeland and is a reminder to those outside of Ukraine that it endures.
The conference is co-sponsored by the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University and by The Ukrainian Museum.