EDI Speaking at International Forum on Ukraine at NYU

OPEN AND FREE TO THE PUBLIC

19 West 4th ST, Room 101
Free reception to start at 6 PM followed by the speaker series at 6:30 PM.

Please join the NYU community at an international forum on Ukraine, featuring five distinguished speakers, each influential experts in their field, who will speak on a wide-rage of topics relating to the current situation in Ukraine.

Following the speakers series, there will be a Q&A session with a chance to ask the speakers questions.

The speakers:

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Yuriy Sergeyev, Representative of the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations, will be speaking about Ukraine on the international stage and it’s relationship with the EU and the UN.

Dr. Hiroaki Kuromiya, Professor at Indiana University, Author of “Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s-1990s”, will be speaking about the Donbas region of Ukraine, its long, complicated history and its uncertain future.

Dr. Yuri Shevchuk, Professor at Columbia University, Ukrainian Language Specialist and Educator, will be speaking about the representation and manipulation of the Ukrainian language in the media and the issue of bilingualism and russification in Ukraine.

Ayla Bakkalli, Executive Member of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars and USA Representative of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, will be speaking about the effects of the Russian annexation of Crimea on the Crimean Tatar population and their future.

Peter Zalmayev, Director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative and a Donetsk native, will be speaking about information politics in Ukraine and personal experiences from Donbas.

Any questions about this event can be directed to Maryna Prykhodko through Facebook or e-mail, mp3433@nyu.edu

More information about the speakers:

Dr. Hiroaki Kuromiya was educated in Japan and the USA (BA Tokyo 1977, PhD Princeton 1985). After holding a research position at Harvard University and Cambridge University, he now teaches Russian, Soviet, and Ukrainian history at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of several books: Stalin’s Industrial Revolution: Politics and Workers, 1928-1932 (1988), Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s-1990s (1998; Ukrainian edition:
Свобода і терор в Донбасі: Українське-російське прикордоння, 1870-1990-і роки [2002]), The Voices of the Dead: Stalin’s Great Terror in Ukraine in the 1930s (2007; Polish edition: Głosy straconych: [2008]), Między Warszawą a Tokio: Polsko-Japońska współpraca wywiadowcza 1904–1944 (2009,co-authored with Andrzej Pepłoński), and Conscience on Trial: The Fate of Fourteen Pacifists in Stalin’s Ukraine, 1952-1953 (2012). His current research interests concern the twentieth-century international history of Eurasia.

Ayla Bakkalli, USA Representative of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues since 2007, Adviser to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations on Indigenous Matters and serves as an Executive Member of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian Non-Governmental Organization since 2009. Ms. Bakkalli is an integral participant in advocating for indigenous human rights and, to that end has prepared a manual on “How to Conduct Advocacy at the United Nations for Indigenous Peoples”, providing instructions on complaint mechanisms and filing procedural methods. Ms. Bakkalli is a graduate of New York University from the Kevorkian Center of Near Eastern Studies. Ms. Bakkalli is very active in the advocacy of indigenous Crimea Tatars rights and currently since the occupation of Crimea, Ukraine working all across sectors within the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar community, Congressional Representatives, US Senate, the United Nations as well as formed panels and moderated in collaboration with the media in unifying activities and vision between Ukrainian American, American Crimean Tatars and, Turkish Americans on promoting the territorial integrity of Crimea, Ukraine.

Peter Zalmayev is director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, a non-profit organization devoted to strengthening democracy and rule of law in post-Soviet states. He is a frequent contributor to major international print and broadcast media on developments in the region. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass, Zalmayev has provided regular commentary on the conflict to CNN International, BBC World News, Al Jazeera English (where he is also a guest columnist), Al Jazeera America and a number of Ukrainian TV and radio networks. A native of Donetsk, Ukraine, Zalmayev holds an advanced degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev is a Ukrainian diplomat and politician, who has served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine, and Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations. He is a doctorate graduate of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv where he was also the Deputy Director of the Institute for Ukrainian Heritage. He began working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 1992 and has since held titles such as Counselor-Envoy for the Embassy of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Greece and Albania, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to France, and Permanent Representative of Ukraine to UNESCO. Ambassador Sergeyev currently speaks on behalf of Ukraine in the UN.

Dr. Yuri Shevchuk is lecturer of Ukrainian language and culture at Columbia University’s Department of Slavic Languages, and the director of the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University which he founded in October 2004. He holds a Ph.D. in Germanic Philology from Kyiv State University (1987), and MA in Political Science from the New School University in New York (1996). From 1990 to 2012 he has taught Ukrainian at the Harvard University Summer School. He has published in the US, Canadian, and Ukrainian press and on the Internet on issues of Ukrainian language, identity, culture, Ukrainian and world cinema. His latest publication is “Beginner’s Ukrainian with Interactive Online Workbook,” a textbook for university students and independent learners worldwide, Hippocrene Books, August 2013, second edition. He has lectured on Ukrainian language, culture, and film at Harvard, Stanford, and Rutgers Universities, University of Connecticut, University of Toronto, University of Cambridge (England), Greisswald University, Germany, Kyiv Mohyla Academy (Ukraine), Universitá degli studi di Milano (Italy), University of Granada, Spain, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, University Federico II, Naples, Italy. Yuri Shevchuk has also translated from English into Ukrainian. Among his published translations are: George Orwell. Animal Farm, and Orest Subtelny. Ukraine. A History. He is director of the Philological section of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (USA). He is member of the National Cinematographers’ Union of Ukraine.