Presenter Biographies

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Notre Dame Forum – Conference Opening

Oksana Markarova
Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States

Ambassador Oksana Markarova has served as Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States since February 2021, Permanent Observer of Ukraine to the Organization of American States since May 2021, and Ambassador of Ukraine to Antigua and Barbuda since July 2023. Prior to this role, Ambassador Markarova served in Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance (2015-2020), leading the department as Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2020. As Minister of Finance, she co-authored Ukraine’s macroeconomic revival program, achieving fiscal consolidation and debt reduction. Markarova earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in environmental science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and her MPA in public finance and trade from Indiana University. Before pursuing a career in public service, Mrs. Markarova spent 17 years working in private equity and financial advisory having leadership roles in ITT investment group, Western NIS Enterprise Fund, Chemonic, and World Bank. She also founded the startup electronic archive company Archidata between service positions in 2020. Ambassador Markarova serves on the Boards of the Ukraine House DC Foundation in Washington DC, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and Ukrainian Development Foundation, and supports Ukrainian Catholic University and Ukrainian Press Museum-Archive.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades
Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend

Bishop Kevin Rhoades serves as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, a position he has held since January 13, 2010. He earned bachelor’s degrees in philosophy from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. Ordained a priest in 1983, Rhoades has held various pastoral and academic roles, including rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. Previously the bishop of Harrisburg, he is also active in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), having chaired committees on doctrine and family life. Bishop Rhoades is also a friend of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and its Catholic Universities Partnership, composed of Catholic universities in post-Soviet countries in Central and Eastern Europe, supporting its programs sponsored by the USCCB Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.

Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.
University President
University of Notre Dame

Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., serves as the 18th president of the University of Notre Dame. A native of Michigan City, Indiana, he graduated from Notre Dame in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in psychology and economics. Father Dowd obtained an M.A. in African studies (1998) and a Ph.D. in political science (2003) from UCLA, joining Notre Dame’s political science faculty in 2004. His research focuses on African politics, identity politics, and religion and politics. His research has also explored the effects of religious beliefs and institutions on the integration of migrants/refugees in Europe and the effects of faith-based schools on citizenship and civic engagement. He is the author of the book Christianity, Islam, and Liberal Democracy: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa (2015). He is the founder of Notre Dame’s Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity, which, in keeping with Catholic Social Teaching, is dedicated to forging community-engaged research partnerships in the Global South. He is a fellow of the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies in the University’s Keough School of Global Affairs. Prior to his presidency, he served as vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives.

Taras Dobko
Rector
Ukrainian Catholic University

Taras Dobko has served as affiliate faculty of the Nanovic Institute since 2023. Rector Dobko is responsible for operational management, strategic planning, and development of the university and academic culture, establishing international relations, developing support systems, and improving the quality of education and service to the community at UCU. Before serving as rector, Dobko served as senior vice-rector (2008-2023) responsible for general management of the university and establishing a culture of integrated human development for students, professors, and staff. Prior to this role he also served as vice-rector for academic affairs and dean of the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy. Dobko holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein. His research focuses on the happiness of the human person, phenomenology, ethics, human dignity, the concept of rationality in European culture, and the philosophy of religion. Dr. Dobko has strong academic ties to the University of Notre Dame, completing several semesters as a visiting scholar of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, including all of 2022, and collaborating on academic initiatives to strengthen UCU’s global partnerships.

Plenary Session 1 - “A Conversation on Cultivating Hope in Ukraine”

Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak
Metropolitan-Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia
President of Ukrainian Catholic University

Archbishop Borys Gudziak is Metropolitan-Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, the highest-ranking Ukrainian Catholic prelate in the United States, and the organizer and president of Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). Archbishop Gudziak’s leadership of UCU, the first Catholic university established in the former Soviet Union, is grounded in the “pillars of the martyrs and the marginalized.” He is widely recognized for his courageous leadership, particularly his unwavering support of Ukraine during the “Revolution of Dignity” (2014) and subsequent Russian invasion. Archbishop Gudziak encourages prayer, informed awareness, and active assistance for Ukraine. He stresses that the true threat posed by Ukraine is its vibrant democracy, free press, and civic society, a “virus” that autocracies like Russia fear. Raised in Syracuse, New York, by Ukrainian refugee parents, Archbishop Gudziak earned his bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University before studying in Rome and earning his doctorate from Harvard University in Slavic and Byzantine cultural history. He moved to Ukraine in 1992, founding the Institute of Church History in Lviv. He was ordained a priest in 1998 and played a pivotal role in the transformation of Lviv Theological Academy into the Ukrainian Catholic University in 2002. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Gudziak head of the eparchy serving Ukrainian Catholics in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland. He is the author of more than 50 papers on the history of the Church, theological training and other topics, and in 2018 received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Syracuse. In 2019, he was elevated to Metropolitan-Archbishop of Philadelphia by Pope Francis, overseeing a vast territory encompassing several states. Later in 2019, he received the Notre Dame Award (2019), bestowed upon individuals whose lives embody the University’s ideals, and signed a university-level MOU between UCU and Notre Dame. He remains president of UCU and is a member of the permanent synod of the Church, which meets quarterly, often in Kyiv, as well as a sitting member of the Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.

Rory Finnin
Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge
Recipient of the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies

Rory Finnin established the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies program in 2008. Finnin has curated and organized over 40 exhibitions and cultural events, advancing public understanding of Ukraine’s language, history, and society in the UK and beyond. His research focuses on the interplay between culture and identity in Ukraine, with particular attention to Crimea and Crimean Tatar literature, and his broader interests include nationalism studies, solidarity studies, and cultural memory in the region of the Black Sea. Finnin received his Ph.D. in Slavic languages and comparative literature from Columbia University. He is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Ukraine, 1995-97). Finnin has published extensively, and his book, Blood of Others: Stalin’s Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity (University of Toronto Press), has received eight international awards, including the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies, administered by the University of Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Professor Finnin has also served as Head of the Department of Slavonic Studies and Chair of the Cambridge Committee for Russian and East European Studies.

Friday, March 7, 2025

Parallel Panels 1
"Conflict and Creation: Art as a Force for Hope in Wartime Ukraine”

Oksana Ivantsiv
Fulbright Scholar
University of Notre Dame

Oksana Ivantsiv, a Ukrainian documentary filmmaker and human rights advocate, is currently pursuing a Master of Global Affairs with a concentration in International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute as a Fulbright Scholar. In 2020, she founded the NGO Arts & Rights to promote human rights through interdisciplinary initiatives. As executive producer, she worked on Invisible Battalion (2017) and No Obvious Signs (2018), focusing on gender equality in the military and PTSD. Ivantsiv is now producing Women Occupied, a documentary spotlighting the resilience and pursuit of justice by women in Ukraine, Germany, and Kosovo who have endured wartime sexual violence.

Lesia Maruschak
Artist & Founder, VYDNO Collective
Research Affiliate, University of Saskatchewan

Lesia Maruschak is a multidisciplinary artist working across photography, performance, and large-scale landscape installations. Her research-driven practice explores land, colonization, geopolitics, and exile. She has exhibited in 65 museums and galleries worldwide, with Project MARIA recognized by the National Holodomor Genocide Museum as the most significant exhibition on the famine-genocide. Her limited-edition books are held in major institutional collections including the Rare Books & Special Collections at the Library of Congress and the Thomas Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Maruschak she has received numerous honors, including the Governor General’s Silver Medal. She holds an MA and an MBA and is a Research Affiliate at the University of Saskatchewan.

Alina Mozolevska
Associate Professor in the Faculty of Philology
Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University

Alina Mozolevska is an associate professor in the Faculty of Philology at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Her research interests include media studies, cultural studies, border studies, and discourse analysis. Dr. Mozolevska has held research fellowships at institutions such as Saarland University in Germany and the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne in France. In 2023, she co-organized the summer school “Witnessing and Documenting Wartime Experiences: The Current Russian War in Ukraine, Historical Perspectives, and Global Alliances,” a joint project involving Saarland University, the Ukrainian Catholic University, and Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University.

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern
Crown Family Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Jewish History
Northwestern University

Tetyana Shlikhar
Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Slavic and Eurasian Studies
University of Notre Dame

Tetyana Shlikhar is assistant teaching professor of Ukrainian and Russian languages, literatures, cultures, and cinema at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Shlikhar has received a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. in translation studies from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Professor Shlikhar’s research focuses on film, cultural memory, ideology, and empire/nation relations. She is currently working on her book, Parallel Realities in Russian and Ukrainian Historical Film, in which she examines how post-Soviet historical film is used by state authorities to construct cultural identities, wherein contemporary films generate discourses that make history a site of contestation. Born in the Soviet Union, Prof. Shlikhar grew up during the difficult transition for Ukraine after it acquired its independence. She witnessed many transformations in the country over the last thirty-plus years, shaping her research interests.

"Sustainable Hope: Energy, Environment, and the Future of Ukraine”

Carl Bruch
Executive Director of International Programs at the Environmental Law Institute
Founding President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association

Carl Bruch is executive director of International Programs at the Environmental Law Institute and the founding president of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. He has assisted sovereign nations around the world in developing and implementing environmental laws and policies. Bruch’s expertise includes environmental governance, natural resource management, and environmental peacebuilding. He has edited over ten books and authored numerous articles on these subjects. Bruch holds a JD from the Northwestern School of Environmental Law at Lewis & Clark College, an MA in physics from the University of Texas–Austin, and a BS in physics from Michigan State University.

Olga Degtiareva
Professor
Odessa National University of Economics (ONEU)
Current Affiliate of Copenhagen Business School

With a proven track record of mentoring bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. students, Olga leads interdisciplinary research projects focused on sustainable development and public administration while driving impactful education, research, and NGO initiatives both in Ukraine and internationally. Her work consistently fosters innovative solutions and delivers meaningful contributions through strategic collaboration in academia and beyond.

Albina Dioba
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sustainability Center of Copenhagen Business School

Dr. Albina Dioba holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics, Ukraine, specializing in public administration and sustainable development. Her research focuses on applying behavioral science to promote pro-environmental behavior change. Currently, as a postdoctoral fellow at the Sustainability Center of Copenhagen Business School, she involves in EU Horizon 2020 projects like P2GreeN, Vision¤Food and BECoop, emphasizing the circular economy, stakeholder engagement, and energy communities. Dr. Dioba also contributes to the CBS urban gardening initiative, Permahaven, with a focus on biodiversity conservation.

Kristina Hook
Assistant Professor of Conflict Management
Kennesaw State University

Natalia Slobodian
Research Fellow
Canterbury Christ Church University
Researcher on the Risk Programme at the British Academy

Natalia Slobodian is a distinguished expert in sustainable development within the energy sector. With over a decade of specialized experience and more than fifteen years as a senior researcher and lecturer at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, she has made many significant contributions to the field. Holding a habilitation in human sciences, Dr. Slobodian has authored several journal articles, including “Russia’s Energy Policy as an Instrument of Influence in Europe” and “War in Ukraine: The Case for Environmental Peacebuilding and Reparations.”

Diane Desierto
Professor of Law and Global Affairs
University of Notre Dame

Diane A. Desierto joined the Law School in January 2021 as Professor of Law and LL.M. Faculty Director, with a joint appointment at the Keough School of Global Affairs. Desierto teaches, publishes, and practices in the areas of international law and human rights, international economic law and development, international arbitration, maritime security, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Law, and comparative public law. At Notre Dame, Desierto is a Faculty Fellow at the Klau Institute for Civil Human Rights, Kellogg Institute of International Studies, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, Pulte Institute for Global Development, and Nanovic Institute of European Studies. She is also Co-Principal Investigator of the Notre Dame Reparations Design and Compliance Lab.

Plenary Session 2
“A Conversation on What We Can Learn from Ukraine’s Fight for Democracy with Olesya Khromeychuk”

Dr. Olesya Khromeychuk
Director
Ukrainian Institute London

Olesya Khromeychuk, a historian and writer, has served as director of the Ukrainian Institute London since September 2020. She earned her Ph.D. in history from University College London and has taught East-Central European history at several institutions, including the University of Cambridge, University College London, the University of East Anglia, and King’s College London. In 2019, she also taught a special module at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Dr. Khromeychuk has been widely published, including the books The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister (2022) and ‘Undetermined’ Ukrainians: Post-War Narratives of the Waffen SS ‘Galicia’ Division (2013). Other writing has appeared in media publications such as The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel. In February 2024, she delivered a TED Talk entitled “What the World Can Learn from Ukraine’s Fight for Democracy.”

Michael Pippenger
Vice President and Associate Provost for Internationalization
University of Notre Dame

Micheal Pippenger serves as vice president and associate provost for internationalization at the University of Notre Dame, leading the university’s global strategy and overseeing its international operations. He manages Notre Dame Global, which includes 12 global locations and various administrative teams dedicated to international initiatives. Before joining Notre Dame in 2016, Pippenger held positions at Columbia University, where he established the Office of International Fellowships, and at New York University. He earned his B.A. from Carleton College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from Indiana University. A recognized leader in global education, Pippenger has served as an international representative of the U.S. at the request of the Department of State.

Parallel Panels 2
“Hope on the Page: The Power of Ukrainian Literature in Resilience and Recovery”

Daryna Gladun
Ukrainian Poet, Translator, Artist, and Researcher

Daryna Gladun holds a Master's degree in Ukrainian Language and Literature from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College. Before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she worked as a junior researcher at the T.H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Notre Dame. Gladun is the author of five Ukrainian-language poetry collections and thirteen articles in peer-reviewed journals about poetry performance in Ukraine. She co-founded the Poetry Performance Laboratory at the Creative Youth Seminar in Irpin, Ukraine.

Tetiana Grebeniuk
Doctor of Philology, Professor
VUIAS Fellow, Imre Kertész Kolleg
Visiting Professor, University of Warsaw

Tetiana Grebeniuk is a Doctor of Philology, Professor, and, at the moment, a VUIAS research fellow at the Imre Kertész Kolleg, Jena, and Visiting Professor at the University of Warsaw. She received her doctorate in 2011 from the Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, and worked at Zaporizhzhia State University and Zaporizhzhia State Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Ukraine. Tetiana Grebeniuk taught as a visiting professor at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich and the University of Potsdam, Germany, and has been delivering educational lectures for a wide audience in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, and France. She is an author of 136 published works, including the monograph Event in the System of Contemporary Ukrainian Fiction: Morphology, Semiotics, Reception (2010), book chapters, articles, etc. Her research focuses on contemporary Ukrainian literature, memory and trauma studies, postcolonial studies, and literary metamodernism.

Ali Kinsella
Translator

Ali Kinsella is a translator specializing in Ukrainian literature since 2012. Her diverse portfolio includes essays, poetry, monographs, and film subtitles. She co-translated Natalka Bilotserkivets's "Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow," shortlisted for the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize. Kinsella holds an M.A. in Slavic Studies from Columbia University, focusing on Eastern European history and literature. A former Peace Corps volunteer, she lived in Ukraine for nearly five years and now resides in Chicago, where she occasionally works as a baker. In 2024, she was awarded an NEA Translation Fellowship to translate Halyna Kruk's poetry collection "Lost in Living."

Anna Romandash
Journalist and Author

Anna Romandash is an award-winning journalist from Ukraine and the author of Women of Ukraine: Reportages from the War and Beyond (2023). Recognized as a Media Freedom Ambassador of Ukraine for her work in human rights and media, she has received accolades from Internews, the Council of Europe, and the Samovydets Literary Reportage Contest. Romandash holds a Master of Global Affairs with a concentration in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs, as well as a Master's in Media Communications from the Ukrainian Catholic University. She works at the intersection of media, technology, and human rights, and is dedicated to fostering inclusivity in technology and advancing digital democracy to improve lives in developing democracies.

Rory Finnin
Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge
Recipient of the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies

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“Culture War: Soft Power, Memory, and Identity in the Fight for Ukraine”

Olga Filippova
Associate Professor of Sociology
V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

Since March 2022, Olga Filippova is also a project researcher at Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland. Filippova’s research focuses on politics of identity; people’s perceptions of the reforms in Ukraine; social (re)construction of the past; border studies; cyber-ethnography; drug use and HIV prevention and treatment; and urban food sustainability. The geographical area of her specialization is Ukraine and Transnistria. Recently, her research has focused on issues of forced migration: “home-leaving” and “home-creating,” memory, new solidarities, and cohesion. Her publications have appeared in Europe-Asia Studies; The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics; Journal of American Academy of Religion; Border Studies; Ab Imperio; and The Anthropology of East Europe Review: Central Europe, East Europe and Eurasia. Since 2018, she has been involved in developing the Program on Dialogue and Differences and Conflict Analysis and Resolution at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (together with George Mason University). In 2004-2005 she was a Fulbright scholar at Indiana University.

Olena Kovalenko
Head of the Academic and Research Department
The Ukrainian Institute

Olena Kovalenko holds a Ph.D. in History from the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow (2019), where her dissertation examined Soviet-era guidebooks. Her research specializes in 20th-century cultural history, urban history, and memory studies. Dr. Kovalenko is the author of The Olympic Moscow: A Semiotic Research (2014) and has contributed articles to esteemed journals such as HISTORYKA and Ritualizing the City.

Khrystyna Kozak
Second-Year Master of Global Affairs (MGA) Student with Peace Studies Concentration
University of Notre Dame

Khrystyna Kozak is an alumna of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) Law School. Since 2019, she has collaborated with various international non-governmental organizations and the United Nations to address the impacts of the Russian war against Ukraine. As part of her education at Notre Dame, she spent six months with the Register of Damages for Ukraine in The Hague. With expertise in law and peace studies, Khrystyna focuses on justice and memory mechanisms that go beyond financial reparations, emphasizing truth-telling and reconciliation to foster lasting peace.

Mykola Riabchuk
Principal Research Fellow
Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies in Kyiv

Mykola Riabchuk is a prominent author on civil society, state-nation building, nationalism, national identity, and postcommunist transitions in Eastern Europe. His contributions have earned numerous national and international accolades, including the Taras Shevchenko National Prize in Arts and Literature (2022). Among his recent books are Eastern Europe since 1989: Between Loosened Authoritarianism and Unconsolidated Democracy (Warsaw, 2020) and At the Fence of Metternich’s Garden: Essays on Europe, Ukraine, and Europeanization (Stuttgart, 2021). Dr. Riabchuk has also served as a distinguished lecturer at several universities, including Ukrainian Catholic University.

Ian Kuijt
Professor of Anthropology
University of Notre Dame

Ian Kuijt specializes in the social geography of village life in small-scale prehistoric and historic communities. He earned his B.A. from the University of Lethbridge, M.A. from Simon Fraser University, and Ph.D. from Harvard University. His archaeological research focuses on emerging social inequality, identity, and the construction of community through ritual and economic means, as well as the documentation of cultural heritage sites in combination with oral and visual histories, with fieldwork across Europe, including Ukraine, and North America. Dr. Kuijt has authored or co-edited seven books and over 100 scholarly articles, in addition to several internationally recognized short films.

Parallel Panels 3
“Faithful Hope: Religion and Resilience in Ukraine”

Anna Bisikalo
Scholar of Modern Eastern European History
Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University

Anna Bisikalo specializes in postwar resettlement processes and the experiences of religious communities. A Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University under the mentorship of Dr. Serhii Plokhy, her dissertation focuses on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Anna holds a dual B.A. in International Relations and Russian & East European Studies from Wesleyan University, where she authored a thesis on women’s activism in independent Ukraine. As a 2023–2024 Fulbright U.S. Student grantee, she conducted dissertation research in Lublin, Poland, advancing her expertise in historical and cultural studies.

José Casanova
Sociologist, Senior Fellow, and Professor Emeritus
Georgetown University

José Casanova is a distinguished sociologist specializing in religion, globalization, and secularization. He is a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and professor emeritus in Sociology and Theology. Casanova holds advanced degrees in sociology and theology, including a Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research. His groundbreaking book, Public Religions in the Modern World (1994), is considered a seminal work in the sociology of religion. An award-winning scholar, his recent research explores transnational religion, migration, and the impact of globalization on cultural and religious diversity.

Andriy Kurochka
Head of the Development Department and Director of Art Projects
Ukrainian Catholic University

Andriy Kurochka holds a degree in mathematics from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theology from the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). Since 2023, he has pursued doctoral studies in pastoral theology. Serving as head of the Development Department and director of art projects at UCU since 2021, he combines leadership with creativity. A deputy in the Lviv City Council since 2020, he also serves as secretary of the Youth, Sports, and Culture Deputy Commission.

Catherine Wanner
Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History, Anthropology, and Religious Studies
Penn State University

Cathy Wanner earned her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Columbia University and has been a faculty member at Penn State since 1996. Her research focuses on the politics of religion, secularism, and human rights in the former Soviet Union, particularly Ukraine. Dr. Wanner has authored several books, including Burden of Dreams: History and Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine and Everyday Religiosity and the Politics of Belonging in Ukraine. She has received numerous awards, such as the 2020 Distinguished Scholar Prize from the Association for the Study of Eastern Christianity. In 2019–20, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.

Yury P. Avvakumov
Associate Professor of Theology and Co-Leader of the Ukrainian Studies Hub
University of Notre Dame

Yury P. Avvakumov is a historian of Christianity who specializes in the Later Medieval and Early Modern periods, with a focus on scholasticism, ecclesiology, and relations between the papacy and Byzantium, and in Russian and Ukrainian religious history and thought of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is also broadly engaged with the history, ecclesiology, and liturgy of Byzantine-rite Christianity in communion with Rome (“Uniate”, or “Greco-Catholic” Christianity) from its medieval beginnings to the present day. His special research interest is the fateful history of Catholic and Orthodox Christians under Soviet totalitarianism and their role in contemporary post-communist societies. Avvakumov obtained doctorates in Orthodox theology in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in Catholic theology in Munich, Germany. Prior to coming to Notre Dame in 2010, he held academic positions in Germany, Ukraine, and Russia, including at the Ukrainian Catholic University, where he served as Dean of Humanities and as the founding chair of the Department of Classical, Byzantine, and Medieval Studies in 2006-2009.

“Hope on the Ground: Lived Resilience during the War in Ukraine”

A. Austin Garey
Anthropologist and Research Scholar at the Kennan Institute

A. Austin Garey is an anthropologist specializing in post-Soviet institutions in Russia and Ukraine. She directs Education Corps Ukraine, connecting Ukrainian schools with EFL teaching resources. Her research on semiotics and cultural production appears in the Journal of Childhood, Education, and Society, Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Science, and Michigan Feminist Studies. Her forthcoming book, Leagues of Laughter: War, Comedy, and the Soviet Legacy, examines how a Soviet-era youth activity evolved amid national collapse and war, uncovering the entwinement of humor and oppression in the cultural context of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Sarah D. Phillips
Professor of Anthropology
Indiana University Bloomington

Sarah D. Phillips specializes in medical anthropology, disability studies, and gender studies, with a focus on Ukraine and Russia. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, exploring cultural symbolism surrounding the Chernobyl disaster. Dr. Phillips is the author of Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist Ukraine and Women's Social Activism in the New Ukraine. Her research, supported by grants from the NSF and IREX, has advanced Slavic and East European studies. She also served as Director of Indiana University’s Russian and East European Institute.

Sarah Wilson Sokhey
Associate Professor of Political Acience
University of Colorado Boulder

Dr. Sokhey earned her Ph.D. from Ohio State in 2010. Her research examines the intersection of politics and economics and has been featured in leading journals such as Party Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, and Economics & Politics. Her book, The Political Economy of Pension Policy Reversal in Post-Communist Countries (Cambridge University Press), earned the prestigious Hewett Book Prize from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Since September 2023, she has co-organized the “Civil Society & Ukrainian Resilience” webinar series, highlighting Ukrainian efforts during wartime.

Kristina Šliavaitė
Associate Professor and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies
Vilnius University

Kristina Sliavaite is a sociocultural anthropologist who earned her Ph.D. from Lund University (Sweden) in 2005. Her research spans ethnic identity, inter-ethnic interaction, social memory, the interplay of ethnic and religious identities, and forced migration and displacement. She has contributed to numerous collaborative research projects addressing these themes. Currently, she serves as an associate professor and senior researcher at the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies at Vilnius University.

Volodymyr Turchynovskyy
Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty
and Director of the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues at Ukrainian Catholic University

Volodymyr Turchynovskyy earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein, focusing on moral subjectivity. His research combines moral philosophy and the impact of emerging technologies on communication. Dr. Turchynovskyy has been a visiting scholar at the University of Notre Dame's Nanovic Institute for European Studies during the 2006–07, 2019–20, and 2024-25 academic years. In December 2024, he participated in a fireside chat at Notre Dame titled “The Resilience of a University and its People,” discussing the challenges and triumphs of leading a university during wartime.

Plenary Session 3: "The Power of Hope: The Russo-Ukrainian War through the Eyes of a Historian” followed by a conversation with Taras Dobko (UCU)

Serhii Plokhii
Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute
Harvard University

Born in Nizhnii Novgorod, Russia, and raised in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Serhii earned his degrees from the University of Dnipropetrovsk, the Russian University of the Friendship of Peoples, and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. A leading expert on Eastern European history, his works include The Gates of Europe and The Last Empire. His research focuses on the intellectual, cultural, and international history of Eastern Europe, with a particular emphasis on Ukraine’s historical and geopolitical context.

Taras Dobko
Rector
Ukrainian Catholic University

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Cultural Event
"A Night of Ukrainian Poetry and Music"

Halyna Kruk
Poet, Writer, Translator, and Scholar

Halyna Kruk, from Lviv, Ukraine, earned her Ph.D. in Ukrainian literature from the University of Lviv in 2001, where she now serves as a professor, focusing on medieval Ukrainian literature. Kruk has authored five poetry collections, including Journeys in Search of Home (1997) and An Adult Woman (2017), as well as four children's books translated into 15 languages. Her 2022 poetry collection, A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She has served as vice-president of PEN Ukraine and has translated works from Polish into Ukrainian.

Natalka Bilotserkivets
Poet and Translator

Natalka Bilotserkivets graduated from Kyiv University with a degree in Ukrainian literature. Her debut collection, Ballad about the Invincibles, was published in 1976. Subsequent works, including The Underground Fire (1984) and November (1989), solidified her place in Ukrainian literature. Her poem "We’ll Not Die in Paris" became emblematic for Ukraine's post-Chornobyl generation. The collection Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow (2021) was shortlisted for the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize. Bilotserkivets's poetry is celebrated for its lyricism and profound emotional depth.

Ali Kinsella
Poet and Translator

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Daryna Gladun
Ukrainian Poet, Translator, Artist, and Researcher

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Women's Bandura Ensemble of Chicago

The Women’s Bandura Ensemble is a 20-member bandura and vocal group, driven by their passion for the bandura and the Ukrainian musical tradition, maintaining important cultural motifs while expanding the instrument's horizons. The WBE is composed of women from seven cities in North America, including Toronto, New York, and Chicago.

Indiana Slavic Choir

Indiana University Bloomington is proud to be the home of Indiana Slavic Choir, founded in the fall of 2021. The goal of the group is to learn, showcase, and celebrate the diverse East and South European folk singing traditions. The founder and artistic director of the ensemble is Iryna Voloshyna, a PhD candidate in the IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. Originally from Ukraine, Iryna is well-versed in the Ukrainian polyphonic singing tradition, but together with the group she is exploring folk singing of other cultures of the region. The choir's repertoire includes, but is not limited to songs in Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Crimean Tatar, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and other languages. Indiana Slavic Choir’s performances and reputation extend beyond Bloomington: they have collaborated with Ukrainian-American professional ensembles and musicians, recorded with students and graduates of the IU Jacobs School of Music, and performed for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk, among other events. Indiana Slavic Choir unites undergraduate and graduate students from across the university, as well as faculty, staff, alumni, and Bloomington community members.

Saturday, March 8

Plenary Session 4 - "In Solidarity with Ukraine: Diplomatic Perspectives on Resilience and Hope"

Jean. P Froehly
Head of the Economic and Finance Department
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Minister Jean P. Froehly has served as Head of the Economic and Finance Department at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany since June 2024. He brings extensive experience in international relations and economics. His previous roles with the German Federal Foreign Office include serving as Head of the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024 Task Force, and as Special Envoy for Ukraine from 2020 to 2023. Prior to these roles, Mr. Froehly held various other positions within the Foreign Office and abroad, including Head of the Economic Mission at the German Embassy in Moscow (2018-2020); Senior Political Advisor/Head of the Director's Office at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (2014-2018); Counsellor at Germany’s Mission to the OSCE (2013-2014); Deputy Head of the Office of the Minister of State (2011-2013); Head of the Cultural and Educational Department at the German Embassy in Kyiv (2005-2009); and Desk Officer at the Economic Department of the Federal Foreign Office (2003-2005). He began his career as a Senior Researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations (1999-2001). Mr. Froehly holds degrees in Political Science and Government and in Law from the University of Freiburg, as well as a Diploma in International Relations and Affairs from Sciences Po. He is fluent in German, English, French, and Russian.

Volodymyr Turchynovskyy
Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty
and Director of the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues at Ukrainian Catholic University

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Svitlana Ramer
Honorary Consul of Ukraine to the State of Indiana

Svitlana Ramer represents Ukraine’s diplomatic interests within the Hoosier state. She also serves as the senior field engagement and communications manager at DAI Global, overseeing communications for Ukraine projects. Born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, she earned her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University, focusing on the acculturation of Ukrainian immigrants in the U.S. Dr. Ramer is the founder and president of the Ukrainian Society of Indiana, a nonprofit supporting Ukrainian Hoosiers through cultural and educational initiatives. Her contributions earned her the 2024 Global Impression Award for impactful global leadership.

Parallel Panels 4
“Business on the Frontlines: Resilience and Adaptability in Times of Turmoil”

Yaryna Boychuk
CEO of the Ukrainian Catholic University Business School (LvBS)
Ukrainian Catholic University

Yaryna Boychuk holds a master’s degree in management of foreign economic activity from Lviv National Polytechnic University and has studied economics at Coventry University in the UK. With over 15 years of business experience, she has managed family businesses, launched startups, and developed franchising projects in Ukraine. Her expertise includes leadership, ethics, and purpose-driven organizations. Boychuk has participated in international programs across Europe, North America, and Asia and contributes to strategies for academic and business resilience in Ukraine during challenging times.

Alejandro Danylyszyn
Professor and Technology Leader

Alejandro is a Senior Partner at Deloitte Digital, a leader in the Advertising, Marketing and Commerce practice. He works with clients to build digital solutions that address critical business needs – from strategy to systems implementation and operations. His current focus is on driving innovation through the adoption of new technologies and artificial intelligence.

Alejandro is a visiting lecturer at UCU’s L’viv Business School on the topic of digital disruption. He also serves as an advisor to Fortune 500 executives and is a frequent speaker on cutting-edge technology adoption.

Georges Enderle
John T. Ryan Jr. Professor Emeritus of International Business Ethics
University of Notre Dame

Georges Enderle's research focuses on globalization, wealth creation, business and human rights, and corporate responsibilities, with a special emphasis on developments in Europe and China. Enderle has authored numerous works, including Corporate Responsibility for Wealth Creation and Human Rights (2021). A co-founder of the European Business Ethics Network, he also served as president of the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics from 2001 to 2004, significantly advancing the global discourse on business ethics and responsibility.

Sophia Opatska
Vice Rector for Strategic Development and the founding Dean of the UCU Business School (LvBS)
Ukrainian Catholic University

Sophia Opatska is Vice Rector for Strategic Development at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). She is founding Dean and Chairman of the Board of UCU Business School, Vice President of the European Federation of Catholic Universities (FUCE), and a member of the Board at the first impact investment project in Ukraine, Promprylad.Renovation. Over her career, Sophia has made significant contributions to improving the Ukrainian education system, developing business education in Ukraine, and understanding the challenges of fast-growing organizations, informed by experience in the business sector and educational organizations. In recent years, her research has focused primarily on Resilience, crisis management and leadership in Ukrainian companies, with special attention to insights from the war period.

Magdalena Charzyńska-Wójcik, Ph.D.
Associate professor, chair of the Department of the History of English and Translation Studies, and former dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland)

Magdalena's major research interest lies in historical translations of the Psalter, with special focus on prose translations from Latin into Old, Middle, and Early Modern English. She also deals with metrical translations of the Scottish Psalter. Apart from English-language translations, she works on renditions of the Psalter into Polish, and in particular on a 16th-century prose translation from Latin. She deals with various aspects of Psalter translations related to linguistics, translation studies, paleography, and codicology. Magdalena has visited the Nanovic Institute several times, including the fall semester of the 2021- 22 and 2023-24 academic years. She also served as a visiting scholar during the fall of 2017 after completing the Catholic Leadership Institute in July 2017.

“Hope in the Headlines?: Truth and Decolonization in the Ukrainian Media Landscape”

Katerina Sirinyok-Dolgaryova
WCEE Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan and Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism
Zaporizhzhia National University

Katerina holds a Ph.D. in social communications and master’s degrees with honors in English philology and international journalism. Her expertise includes media and information literacy, global journalism, social media, and media education. Dr. Sirinyok-Dolgaryova has participated in numerous international programs, including the UGRAD Program (Graceland University), Fulbright Visiting Researcher (Southern Illinois University), IREX (Utah State University), U-LEAD (European University Viadrina), and Erasmus+ Fellowships in the UK, Sweden, and Poland.

Urszula Soler
Associate Professor
John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

Urszula Soler specializes in the study of new technologies in the context of social interactions and security. Her research interests include technology assessment, cybersecurity, disinformation, and information warfare. Dr. Soler has contributed to various publications, such as “The Role of the Cybersecurity Strategy of the Republic of Poland in Ensuring Cybersecurity” and “Education of Society as a Tool to Counteract Disinformation in Implementing New Technologies.” She is actively involved in academic initiatives addressing the societal impacts of technological advancements. In spring 2025, Dr. Soler is a visiting scholar at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.

Olha Tkachenko
Researcher

Olha Tkachenko holds a Ph.D. in social sciences, with a focus on media studies, from Warsaw University (2017) and an M.A. in journalism from Ivan Franko Lviv National University (2009). A graduate of the Interinstitutional Individual Studies for Humanities (joint program of Lviv National University, UCU, and University of Warsaw), she currently works at the Institute of Slavic Studies, PAS. As principal investigator of the project Decolonization Processes in Ukraine's YouTube Segment After February 24, 2022, funded by the National Science Center of Poland, her research focuses on the role of popular culture and media discourses in decolonization, identity formation, and mixed-method content analysis.

Svitlana Khyliuk
Head of the Department of Theory of Law and Human Rights
Ukrainian Catholic University

Svitlana Khyliuk serves as head of the Department of Theory of Law and Human Rights at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. She is also the academic director of the bachelor's program at the UCU School of Law. Khyliuk serves as an legal expert in the projects of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Project Coordinator in Ukraine, the Council of Europe, and the U.S. Department of Justice. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Ukraine’s Supreme Court and Constitutional Court. She teaches legal research, analysis, and writing, criminal law, and law of the European Convention on Human Rights.

While at Notre Dame as a visiting scholar during the fall 2021 semester, Khyliuk researched how to leverage two polarities: judicial independence, on the one hand, and judge’s liability, on the other, in order to guarantee democracy and rule of law in transitional societies. She also taught Human Rights: ECtHR approach at Notre Dame Law School.

Plenary Session 5
“Revolutionary Ukraine: A History and Politics of Hope”

Emily Channell-Justice
Director, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at the Ukrainian Research Institute
Harvard University

Dr. Emily Channell-Justice is director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute. A sociocultural anthropologist, she has conducted research in Ukraine since 2012, focusing on political activism and social movements, including the 2013–2014 Euromaidan mobilizations. She is the author of Without the State: Self-Organization and Political Activism in Ukraine (2022) and editor of Decolonizing Queer Experience (2020). Dr. Channell-Justice earned her Ph.D. from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and previously served as a Havighurst Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of International Studies at Miami University, Ohio.

George Liber
Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Alabama Birmingham.

Dr. George Liber's research interests include Soviet, post-Soviet, and East European social history; center-periphery relations in the Soviet Union and its successor states; nationalism and national identity formation; processes of democratization; and 20th-century Ukrainian history. Dr. Liber has dedicated a lifetime to researching, with extended periods in Washington, DC, and Kyiv, Ukraine; he also served as a fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Book publications include Total Wars and the Making of Modern Ukraine, 1914-1954 (University of Toronto Press) and Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth, and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR, 1923-1934 (Cambridge University Press).

Sophia Wilson
Associate Profesor of Political Science
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
President, American Association for Ukrainian Studies

Dr. Sophia Wilson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and the President of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies. She was a visiting scholar at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) in 2015, and taught at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI) in 2017 and 2019. She was a Jerome Hall Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Law, Society and Culture at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2012-2013. Wilson’s book, Maidan: Ukraine’s Democratic Revolution, is forthcoming with McGill University Press. It is an extensive account of interactions between the state and the grassroots revolutionary movement in the winter of 2013-14, as well as Russian state propaganda about the revolution. In October of 2023, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin, as she began her work on a new book, comparing three occupations of Ukraine: by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and modern Russia. In 2024, she was honored by the Ukrainian government for her contributions to Ukrainian studies in the U.S.

Fr. Yuriy Shchurko
Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology
Ukrainian Catholic University

Fr. Yuriy Shchurko serves as dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). He has held a position since 2019 and was reappointed in October 2024. As an ordained priest of the Sambir-Drohobych Eparchy since 2001, he combines his academic work with pastoral ministry. He is married with four children.

His academic journey began with a Master’s in Theology from Lviv Holy Spirit Seminary and Lviv Theological Academy (now UCU) in 2001. He went on to earn a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the University of Opole, Poland (2007) and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D./PhD) in Biblical Theology (2010), with a dissertation focusing on linguistic-exegetical analysis of Luke’s Gospel (OBT 2016). From 2013 to 2016, he researched at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany.

At UCU, Fr. Shchurko has served in various roles, including Head of the Spiritual-Pastoral Department (2008-2013) and founder of the Department of Biblical Studies (2016). His research interests include Second Temple Judaism and linguistic analysis of New Testament texts.

Within the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), he holds several positions: Member of the UGCC’s Theological Department (since 2020), Head of the Personal Development Commission (appointed 2024), overseeing international study programs, and Member of the Council for Evangelization.

In recent years, his research has expanded to include contemporary issues, mainly focusing on just peace and related theological and ethical questions. His work continues to contribute to theological education in Ukraine and the broader Eastern European context through his academic leadership, research, and pastoral ministry roles. During the 2025 spring semester, he is serving as a Nanovic Institute for European Studies Visiting Scholar.

A. James McAdams
William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs
University of Notre Dame

A. James McAdams, for 16 years, served as director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies (2002-2018). He has written extensively on European affairs, particularly Central Europe and global communism. Notable works include East Germany and Detente, Germany Divided, Judging the Past in Unified Germany, and Vanguard of the Revolution: The Global Idea of the Communist Party, which was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Foreign Affairs. Dr. McAdams had the incredible vision to establish the Nanovic Institute’s Catholic University Partnership in 2004, partnering Notre Dame with Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) among others. For these extraordinary contributions, he received honorary doctorates from UCU and John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, as well as the distinguished Gold Medal of the Catholic University in Ružomberok, Slovakia.

Art Exhibits by ...

Iva Sidash
Ukrainian Photographer

Lesia Maruschak
Artist & Founder, VYDNO Collective
Research Affiliate, University of Saskatchewan

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