Panel on New Books in Ukrainian Studies

In conjunction with the annual world convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the US and the Ukrainian Museum present a panel on new books in Ukrainian Studies followed by a reception. The panel will begin at 5 p.m. and feature three authors of recently published books in English: Olena Nikolayenko, Sophia Wilson, and Marina Sapritsky-Nahum. It will be held at the Shevchenko Scientific Society premises at 63 Fourth Ave., New York, NY 10003. After the panel, the guests are invited to proceed to the Ukrainian Museum, located at 222 East 6th St., New York, NY 10003, just a few minutes walking distance from the Society, for a reception that will begin at 7 p.m.

Invisible Revolutionaries: Women’s Participation in Ukraine’s Euromaidan by Olena Nokolayenko. Cambridge University Press, 2025

Women play a vital role in civil resistance to the entrenchment of authoritarianism. Yet, women’s engagement in contemporary revolutions often appears to be invisible in the public discourse and the academic literature. Based on women’s motivations for engagement, modes of women’s participation during a period of mass mobilization, and gender outcomes of revolution, the book distinguishes three models of participation: (1) patriarchal, (2) emancipatory, and (3) hybrid. Using the case of the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan) in Ukraine, the book analyzes women’s involvement in a revolution. Drawing on data from large-N surveys and oral history projects, the book uncovers various motivations for women’s involvement in a revolution, identifies diverse forms of women’s participation, and traces the multifaceted outcomes of women’s activism. In addition, the book improves our understanding of the sources of Ukraine’s fierce resistance to Russia’s invasion and the role of Ukrainian women in the struggle for national independence, democratic development, and cultural heritage.

Maidan: Ukraine’s Democratic Revolution by Sophia Wilson. McGill-Queens University Press, 2026

The 2013–14 Maidan Revolution, or Revolution of Dignity, was far more than a series of protests: the coalescence of complex social networks formed a powerful grassroots movement that restored democracy to a country slipping into authoritarianism. Maidan gives a carefully researched account of the underbelly of the resistance process, investigating how participants self-organized to create the resistance, why the peaceful movement eventually turned to violence, and how the revolutionary process changed those who came to change the country. Democratic revolution is a state–society dialogue about rights, and the regime that results depends on the ideas negotiated during revolutionary socialization. Offering an unparalleled opportunity to see that negotiation in action, Maidan draws on more than one hundred personal interviews, oral histories, legal documents, and court hearings. The Ukrainian state used violence and violations of due process to suppress the resistance, thereby declaring new boundaries in rights relations. In turn, the people pushed back in multiple arenas – the protest square, courtrooms, hospitals, churches, and media – to successfully challenge the constitutionality of the state’s actions. Western media accounts tend to oversimplify the Revolution of Dignity as backlash against President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision not to sign a European Union agreement. The reality had far deeper implications for the geopolitics of the region. Sophia Wilson’s account of the revolution, and the Kremlin propaganda about it, underscores why it is impossible to understand Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without first understanding what fuelled the Maidan: the affirmation of democracy and the rooting out of Russian puppet authoritarianism.

Jewish Odesa: Negotiating Identities and Traditions in Contemporary Ukraine by Marina Sapritsky-Nahum. Indiana University Press, 2024

Jewish Odesa: Negotiating Identities and Traditions in Contemporary Ukraine explores the rich Jewish history and contemporary Jewish life in Ukraine’s port city of Odesa. Long considered both a uniquely cosmopolitan and Jewish place, Odesa’s Jewish character has shifted as ethnic and cultural identities have dramatically changed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine.  Drawing on extensive field research, Marina Sapritsky-Nahum examines how the role of Russian language and culture, alongside lingering memories of the Soviet era, have been critically re-evaluated, leading to new forms of expression for Odesa’s Jewish community within the broader Ukrainian national context. Jewish Odesa reveals how a city once famous for its progressive and secular Jewish traditions has been shaped by migration and altered by competing projects of Jewish revival. Russia’s war in Ukraine has further challenged Jewish communal life while simultaneously fostering a deeper sense of Ukrainian-Jewish belonging

Olena Nikolayenko is Professor of Political Science and Director of the FCRH Honors Program at Fordham University, and the First Vice President at Shevchenko Scientific Society in the United States. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Toronto and held a SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law before joining Fordham. Her research interests include comparative democratization, civil resistance, and social movements, with a regional focus on Eastern Europe. She is the author of three books: Citizens in the Making in Post-Soviet States (Routledge, 2011), Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and Invisible Revolutionaries: Women’s Participation in Ukraine’s Euromaidan (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

Sophia Wilson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and President of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies.

Wilson received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington and held fellowships at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Indiana University Law School, and Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. She taught at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute in 2017, 2019 and 2025. Dr. Wilson’s book, Maidan: Ukraine’s Democratic Revolution (McGill-Queens University Press) is an extensive analysis of the grassroots 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity, which renegotiated the social contract and reaffirmed democracy in Ukraine. She is currently working on her new book, Fascism vs. Communism: Ukraine under Three Occupations.

Marina Sapritsky-Nahum is a social anthropologist based in London, UK. She is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) and an Honorary Research Associate at University College London (UCL). Her academic interests include Ukraine, post-Soviet Jewish identities, religious revival, migration, and philanthropy. She is currently conducting research with Ukrainian Jewish refugees in Germany and across Europe, exploring the impact of the Russian full-scale invasion on Jewish cultural heritage and community life. Her work has appeared in various edited volumes, academic journals and other publications such as Tablet Magazine, Haaretz, Jewish Renaissance. She is also a regular contributor to LSE Religion and Global Society blog.

Moderator: Vitaly Chernetsky, President of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the US and Professor at the University of Kansas

Registration is required. Suggested donation is $20

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