Confronting Catastrophes

Anastasia Simferovska holds a PhD in art history from Lviv National Academy of Arts, and is a PhD candidate in Slavic Studies at Northwestern University. In her research, Dr. Simferovska explores cultural, artistic, and literary relations among Jews, Poles, Russians, and Ukrainians in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a specific focus on national and cultural identity, the idea of otherness, and the reaction to and representation of war and violence. Her publications appeared in Holocaust Studies: the Ukrainian Focus, Dapim Journal for Holocaust Research, Judaica Ucrainica, and Ars Judaica. She also published a monographic catalog of the Polish-Armenian artist Kaetan Stefanowicz. Currently, Anastasia Simferovska is a Kurt and Thea Sonnenmark Memorial Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Previously she has been a Fellow at the Holocaust Educational Foundation Regional Institute, a Fellow at Gaude Polonia, a visiting professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, and a scholar-in-residence, researcher, and curator at the Voznytsky National Art Gallery in Lviv, Ukraine.

Andrew Horodysky is a Member of the Board of Directors and advisor to art programming with the Ukrainian Institute of America.

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern is the Crown Family Chair of Jewish Studies and a Professor of Jewish History in the History Department at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He focuses on political, cultural and multiethnic interference in comparative literature, early modern and modern Jewish history, and East Europe with a focus on Ukraine. Petrovsky-Shtern is or was also a Fulbright Specialist on Eastern Europe, Fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Professor at the Free Ukrainian University in Munich, Recurrent Visiting Professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Lady Davis Professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Kosciuszko Visiting Professor at Warsaw University, and honorary doctor of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv. He has published more than 150 articles, seven books, and seven edited volumes, four of these award-winning, including The Jews in the Russian Army: Drafted into Modernity (2008, 2nd ed. 2014); The Anti-Imperial Choice: the Making of the Ukrainian Jew (2009); Lenin’s Jewish Question (2010); Jews and Ukrainians: Polin, vol. 26 (2011, co-edited with Antony Polonsky); Cultural Interference of Jews and Ukrainians: a Field in the Making (2014); The Golden-Age Shtetl: a New History of Jewish Life in East Europe (2014, 2nd ed. 2015); Jews and Ukrainians: a millennium of coexistence (2016, co-authored with Paul Robert Magocsi; 2nd ed. 2018). His Anti-Imperial Choice was a book winner of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies and Canadian “Encounter” Prize. His Golden Age Shtetl was nominated for Pulitzer Prize and won a National Jewish Book Award. His essays, books, and chapters have appeared in Greek, Spanish, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, French, Hebrew, and German. As an artist, Petrovsky-Shtern combines the traditions of European avant-garde, Polish political poster, and Ukrainian folk art. He enjoyed a dozen international and national shows, exhibiting his artwork in Kyiv, Lviv, Greenwich (CT), Chicago, and New York, including solo shows at Spertus Gallery, National Ukrainian Museum, and Ukrainian Institute of America. His work was featured at Crosscurrents, Antikvar, Ukrainian Weekly, The New York Jewish Week, and Arts Illustrated.

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights lawyer and heads in Kyiv the Center for Civil Liberties which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

Dr Serhiy Kvit was in 2007-2014 and has been since 2022 the President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine’s oldest higher education institution. He is Professor at the Mohyla School of Journalism, which he founded in 2001 and where he headed its Media Reform Centre promoting open debate and transparent journalism. Kvit was born at Uzhhorod in 1965, grew up in Lviv, and studied journalism at Kyiv in 1986–1991. He obtained doctoral degrees at the Ukrainian Free University of Munich and at National Shevchenko University of Kyiv. Kvit held visiting fellowships at Ohio State University, Stanford University, Washington’s Wilson Center, and the University of Cologne. In 2005–2010, he was Chairman of Ukraine’s Consortium of University Autonomy. In 2014–2016, Kvit was Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine and initiated, among others, the adoption of two key reform laws “On Higher Education” and “On Scientific and Scientific-Technical Activity.” In 2019–2022, he headed the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance of Ukraine. Kvit is the author and editor of several books as well as of numerous articles published by, among others, the website University World News.

Rory Finnin is University Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Ukrainian Studies and Founding Director of the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme at the University of Cambridge.

Ivan Kozachenko is Postdoctoral Research Associate in the project “Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies,” which is based at the University of Cambridge and funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.