Our conference speakers are internationally recognized experts on Ukraine’s Donbas and represent a wide range of disciplines from history and political science to law and sociology. Learn more about them below!
Dr. Sevan Beukian is currently an Academic Instructor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta, where she completed her PhD in Political Science in 2015. She received her BA and MA from the American University of Beirut. Her research is inspired by trauma and memory studies, gender and queer studies, and postcolonialism. Her current work examines post-Soviet Armenian gender identities and activism, and the impact of traumatic memories on national identity and intergenerational transmission. Her publications appear in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Armenian Review, Routledge, among others.
Dr. Alina Cherviatsova, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine
Dr. Heather Coleman, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, History, and Director, Religion and Culture Program, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Canada
Mr. Ernest Gyidel, PhD Candidate in History, University of Alberta, Canada
Ms. Alla Hurska, is an Associate Expert at the International Centre for Policy Studies (Kyiv) and a research assistant at the University of Alberta. She specializes in Ukrainian history, politics and culture.
Dr. Serhiy Kudelia is an associate professor of political science at Baylor University, USA where he teaches courses on civil wars, terrorism, authoritarianism and post-Soviet politics. Earlier he held teaching and research positions at the Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, University of Toronto and National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine). He received PhD in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and MA in political science from Stanford. His articles appeared, most recently, in Small Wars & Insurgencies, Current History, Comparative Politics and Post-Soviet Affairs.
Dr. Volodymyr Kravchenko, Professor, History, and Director, Contemporary Ukraine Studies Program, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Tetyana Malyarenko, Professor of International Security and Jean Monnet Professor of European Security, National University Odesa Law Academy, Ukraine
Dr. David Marples, Chair and Distinguished University Professor, History , University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Kimitaka Matsuzato, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo, Japan
Dr. Oleksandr Melnyk, Bayduza Post-Doctoral Fellow, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Oksana Mikheieva, Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, Ukraine
Dr. William J. Risch, Associate Professor, Department of History and Geography, Georgia College, USA
Dr. Nataliia Stepaniuk, PhD in Political Science, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada
Dr. Sergey Sukhankin, Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, Washington, DC, Associate Expert at the International Center for Policy Studies (Kyiv), and Consultant, European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs
Dr. Serhy Yekelchyk, is Professor of History and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria and the current president of the Canadian Association for Ukrainian Studies. Born and educated in Ukraine, Yekelchyk holds a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta. He is the author of six books on Ukrainian history and Ukrainian-Russian relations, including, most recently, The Conflict in Ukraine (Oxford University Press, 2015).