Academics

Roundtable discussion to address events that have rocked Ukraine

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- An interdisciplinary roundtable discussion with community members and Penn State faculty experts discussing the upheavals in Ukraine will take place at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 31, in Foster Auditorium of Paterno Library on the University Park campus.

The free public session, titled “Ukraine Today: Hoping Against Hope,” includes six panelists. They are:-- actor Michael Bernosky, a Ukrainian-American who went to Ukraine in 2002-03 as a Fulbright Fellow;-- Larysa Bobrova, a teaching fellow in the Department of Applied Linguistics whose doctorate is from Donetsk State University, Ukraine;-- James Brasfield, a senior lecturer in the Department of English who has twice taught in Ukraine as a Fulbright Fellow and is an award-winning translator of Ukrainian poetry;-- Barry Ickes, a professor of economics who has written extensively about Russia and the post-Soviet world;-- Michael Naydan, the Woskob Family Professor of Ukrainian Studies at Penn State and a leading translator of Ukrainian literature into English; and-- historian Cathy Wanner, a professor of history, anthropology and religious Studies who has written several books about religion and secularization in the Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine.

Russell Frank, an associate professor in the in the College of Communications, will serve as moderator. Frank spent the fall 2012 semester teaching journalism in Ukraine on a Fulbright Fellowship.

“Our title comes from the 19th century Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka,” Frank said. “I think it captures the extraordinary ups and downs Ukraine has experienced, not just in the past four months, but in the two decades since it became an independent country and throughout its turbulent history.”

The event is sponsored by the College of Communications.

Last Updated June 14, 2021