Myroslav Shkandrij, professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba and current visiting professor at Columbia University, will present two 30-minute lectures:

“The War in Ukraine: Competing Narratives” 

The first talk will address how Russia has attempted to justift its invasion of Ukraine as suppression of an invented identity, and how Ukraine has responded with is story of a history of national resistance. Both narratives have deep roots in the past. The Western response has now shufted from suspicion of Ukrainian “nationalism” to supporting the country’s struggle to maintain an independent and democratic state.

“The Ukrainian Avant-Garde of the 1920s Rediscovered”

The second talk will discuss how many of the most prominent figures in the European avant-garde of 1910–30 had Ukrainian roots. It will explore why for many decades there was little awareness of this fact and how the history of this avant-garde is being restored.

This event is sponsored by the Woskob Endowment for Ukrainian Studies, the Penn State Ukrainian Society, the Penn State Russian Club, and the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures.