Much of the western and Russian commentary on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leaves out the agency of Ukrainian civil society. In this talk, sociologist Halyna Herasym centers the developing sphere of democratic civic discourse and action that has emerged in Ukraine since the Revolution of Dignity protests and the subsequent war in Crimea and Donbas in 2014. What we are witnessing now, she will show, is Ukrainians defending their dreams for a society marked by democracy, rule of law, and social justice against Russian invasion.

 Everyone in the SMU community is welcome. This talk is especially timely for students and faculty in the current term for Big Questions: War and Peace.

Speaker Biography:

Halyna Herasym is a PhD Student in Sociology at University College Dublin, holds an MA in media and communications at Ukrainian Catholic University, and has taught sociology at Ukrainian Catholic University. Her work on Ukrainian civil society has appeared in openDemocracy and the Ukrainian Centre for Law and Crime Research. Her primary research focuses on rituals of death. She is a collaborator with SMU’s Assistant Professor Justin Tse for an MOE AcRF Tier 1 grant titled ‘Catholic talk, social dreaming: civil society discourse in Ukraine and Hong Kong.’

Moderator Biography:

Justin Tse is Assistant Professor of Humanities (Education) at SMU’s Office of Core Curriculum and School of Social Sciences. He is lead editor of Theological Reflections on the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement (Palgrave, 2016) and is working on a book manuscript titled The Secular as Sheets of Scattered Sand: Cantonese Protestants and Pacific Rim Secularities (in preliminary agreement, University of Notre Dame Press). He is the Principal Investigator for an MOE AcRF Tier 1 grant titled ‘Catholic talk, social dreaming: civil society discourse in Ukraine and Hong Kong.’