Stories of Ukrainian resistance
Date and time:
Tuesday 26 April, 2022
19:00 - 20:30
Location:
Birkbeck, University of London
43 Gordon Square
London
WC1H 0PD
The Kremlin anticipated Ukraine to be defeated in a matter of two days. Western pundits largely agreed. Ukrainians have surprised both the outsiders and themselves by successfully fighting against Russia’s full-scale invasion for two months. This experience has helped to transform the prevalent cultural narrative of Ukrainian victimhood into that of defiance.
Drawing on Ukrainian literary history and her recent experience within the volunteer movement in Lviv, Dr Sasha Dovzhyk will discuss the civic response to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Ukrainian resistance strategies. Dr Dovzhyk will be joined by Anna Dovgopol who will focus on the changing image of gender roles in the context of war.
Speaker
Sasha Dovzhyk
Sasha Dovzhyk is a special projects curator at the Ukrainian Institute London and Associate Research Fellow at Birkbeck. She has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Birkbeck, University of London. Her research has been published in Oxford Handbook of Decadence and academic journals such as Modernist Cultures and British Art Studies. She has written for public media outlets, including Los Angeles Review of Books, The Guardian, The Ecologist, on the topics as diverse as the legacies of Chornobyl, Ukrainian resistance movement, and turn-of-the-century feminism. She volunteered and worked as a fixer in Lviv in February and March 2022.
Speaker
Anna Dovgopol
Anna Dovgopol is a Gender Democracy Program Coordinator at Heinrich Boell Foundation, Kyiv Office and co-Editor of Gender in Detail website. She is University of St Andrews GCRF Visiting Fellow. Anna has an MA degree in Gender Studies from Central European University. She is a gender expert and a trainer. She has over 15 years of experience working with gender issues in various non-profit local and international organisations.
Moderator
Olesya Khromeychuk
Olesya Khromeychuk is the Director of the Ukrainian Institute London, a historian and writer.
