[Aaus-list] FW: Ukraine as a Mirror of the Political / Conference Announcement for distribution

Tue Sep 30 12:43:29 EDT 2014

I was responding to Mykola Riabchuk's implied question.  Not sure whether
your "we" is the royal we or is intended to mean "everyone."

If the latter, what is the answer to your question as to why 40 years of
Ukrainian studies has failed to displace what you refer to as the
"Stalinist Russian communist trope"?

Is it a lack of intellectual capacity to articulate and militate in favor
of a new paradigm?  Clearly there have not been any Edward Saids, in term
of impact, in Ukrainian studies.  But what explains the collective failure
to recognize the obvious, i.e., that there is a kind of subterranean racism
unconsciously or consciously applied to Ukraine and Ukrainians consisting
of assumptions that Ukrainians do not have the same right to survive and
simply be Ukrainians as do Russians, Germans, the French or the Poles, with
regards to their respective existences and identities, and to mount a
challenge and opposition to said subterranean racism?

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 12:41 AM, stephen velychenko <
velychen at chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:

> we all know that. Point is, 40 years of Ukrainian studies have failed
> to displace the Stalinist RUssian communist trope. in the minds of the
> rest of the world's population.
>
> On 9/29/14, Bohdan Vitvitsky <bohdanvitvitsky at gmail.com> wrote:
> > It's because for many decades the unchallenged narrative has been that
> > Ukrainians don't really exist, but if they do, i.e., if they exhibit any
> > normal evidence of Ukrainian identity, they're "nationalists," thus
> > cementing the notion of the illegitimacy of simply being Ukrainian.  So
> > anyone who in Ukraine or with respect to Ukraine ever acted in what in
> > other countries would be construed as acting in a patriotic fashion was a
> > "nationalist."  Western scholars and pundits unwittingly, or wittingly,
> > have continued the same practice.  And to make matters even worse, in
> > Ukraine the terms "patriot/patriotic" are not in common use and the term
> > "nationalist," meaning patriot, is.  So folks who are simply patriots
> > identify themselves as "nationalists."
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 9:06 AM, Mykola Riabchuk <riabchuk at email.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> It was democrats who destroyed Lenin in Central Europe. But in Ukraine,
> >> it
> >> was apparently "nationalists".
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://www.mail.com/int/news/europe/3123450-12-killed-worst-east-ukraine-shelling-week.html#.1258-stage-hero1-12
> >> AP Sept 29, 2014
> >> On Sunday, in the second-largest Ukrainian city, Kharkiv, nationalists
> >> tore down an enormous statue of Vladimir Lenin to cheers from the crowd.
> >> Across Ukraine, people have torn down statues to the former Communist
> >> leader in a symbolic display of anti-Russian sentiment.
> >>
> >> *Sent:* Friday, September 26, 2014 at 6:01 PM
> >> *From:* "Chernetsky, Vitaly A" <vchernetsky at ku.edu>
> >> *To:* "aaus-list at ukrainianstudies.org" <aaus-list at ukrainianstudies.org>
> >> *Subject:* [Aaus-list] FW: Ukraine as a Mirror of the Political /
> >> Conference Announcement for distribution
> >>
> >> Dear Colleagues,
> >>
> >> FYI an upcoming conference at the New School in NYC. Given that the
> >> conference is Ukraine-themed, but the majority of the announced speakers
> >> are not specialists on Ukraine, I very much hope some of you based in
> the
> >> greater NYC area could attend and provide feedback for the broader
> >> Ukrainian Studies community.
> >>
> >> Best wishes,
> >> Vitaly Chernetsky
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------
> >> Vitaly Chernetsky
> >> Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies
> >> Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
> >> Associate Director, Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
> >> University of Kansas
> >> 2140 Wescoe Hall & 320G Bailey Hall
> >> Lawrence, KS 66045
> >> (785) 864-2359
> >> vchernetsky at ku.edu
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >> From: "Alla Rachkov" <ar2052 at columbia.edu<mailto:ar2052 at columbia.edu>>
> >> Date: Sep 24, 2014 2:12 PM
> >> Subject: FW: Ukraine as a Mirror of the Political / Conference
> >> Announcement for distribution
> >>
> >>
> >> "Grounding Theoretical Reflections in Politics: Ukraine as a Mirror of
> >> the
> >> Political"
> >> Friday, October 3, 10:00am-6:30pm
> >> The New School for Social Research, New York
> >> Wolff Conference Room, 6 East 16th Street, 11th floor
> >>
> >> This conference offers a platform to discuss the implications of
> >> epistemological, ontological, and methodological choices, and the role
> of
> >> theory when scholars attempt to understand, and explain, an ongoing
> >> event.
> >>
> >> Schedule of Roundtables:
> >> 10:00am Introduction
> >> 10:30am Narratives of Legitimacy
> >> 1:00pm Overlapping Sovereignties
> >> 3:00pm Global Politics and the Political
> >> 5:00pm Novel Ways of Understanding
> >>
> >> Including:
> >> Tarik Amar, Department of History, Columbia University
> >> Banu Bargu, Department of Politics, New School for Social Research
> >> Mark Beissinger, Princeton Institute for International and Regional
> >> Studies and Department of Politics, Princeton University
> >> Timothy Frye, Harriman Institute of Russian, Eurasian, and East European
> >> Studies, and Department of Political Science, Columbia University
> >> Andreas Kalyvas, Department of Politics, New School for Social Research
> >> Jan Kubik, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University
> >> Andrew Mertha, Department of Government, Cornell University
> >> Serguei Oushakine, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures,
> >> Princeton University
> >> Andrij Portnov, Institute of Slavic Studies, Humboldt University of
> >> Berlin
> >> Simon Reich, Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers University
> >> Nancy Ries, Department of Anthropology, Colgate University
> >> Gerard Toal, Government and International Affairs Program, Virginia Tech
> >> Elizabeth Wishnick, Department of Political Science and Law, Montclair
> >> State University
> >> Susan Woodward, Department of Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center
> >>
> >> Organizing Committee:
> >> Jessica Pisano
> >> André Simonyi
> >> Mark Frazier
> >> Department of Politics, New School for Social Research
> >>
> >> The conference is free and open to the public. Please bring photo ID to
> >> obtain entry into the building. For more information, please contact
> >> Conference Coordinator Amanda Zadorian at zadora63 at newschool.edu
> >>
> >> This conference is organized by the Comparative Politics Initiative at
> >> the
> >> New School for Social Research and the India-China Institute at the New
> >> School.
> >>
> >> "Grounding Theoretical Reflections in Politics: Ukraine as a Mirror of
> >> the
> >> Political"
> >> Friday, October 3, 10:00am-6:30pm
> >> The New School for Social Research, New York
> >> Wolff Conference Room, 6 East 16th Street, 11th floor
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> AAUS-list mailing list
> >> AAUS-list at ukrainianstudies.org
> >>
> >>
> http://mail.ukrainianstudies.org/mailman/listinfo/aaus-list_ukrainianstudies.org
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
> http://mail.ukrainianstudies.org/mailman/listinfo/aaus-list_ukrainianstudies.org
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
> --
> Stephen Velychenko
> Research Fellow,
> Chair of Ukrainian Studies
> 100 St George Street
> University of Toronto
> Toronto M5S 3G3
>
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