At the 2019 ASEEES Convention

December 9, 2019

On November 23, 2019, the American Association for Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) held a business meeting at the 2019 annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), leading international organization dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia, and Eastern Europe. The President of AAUS Oxana Shevel spearheaded several organizational changes, including the launch of a Twitter account and the renewed production of the annual newsletter. The AAUS is in the process of applying for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. Natalia Honcharenko, the Society’s Treasurer, played a key role in drafting AAUS accounting and fiduciary guidelines and the whistelblower policy. Reflecting close ties between the two organizations, many members of the Society attended the AAUS reception, sponsored by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the United States, and jointly presented their research at the convention.

Oxana Shevel and Halyna Hryn

“The Society has always felt that it was important to have a presence at such interdisciplinary gatherings,” said Halyna Hryn, President of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the United States. “It is very pleased to host a reception for scholars in Ukrainian studies every year.”

The Shevchenko Society co-sponsored, jointly with the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the book discussion of The Post-Chornobyl Library (2019), Sergiy Yakovenko’s English-language translation of Tamara Hundorova’s book.

“At the 2019 ASEEES convention in San Francisco, Ukraine-related themes were highly prominent and covered a really wide range of subjects, from cinema to politics,” said Vitaly Chernetsky, the Society’s Learned Secretary and the Director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas. “Multiple colleagues at the convention remarked how strongly Ukrainian Studies were represented in the program. The NTSh/AAUS collaboration helped ensure a highly productive and well-attended meeting followed by a networking reception.”

A number of the Shevchenko Society members participated in the convention, including:

Emily S. Channell-Justice, Harvard U, roundtable “Contested Histories, Divided Loyalties, Uncertain Futures: Gender, Religion, and Identity in Soviet and Contemporary Ukraine”

Vitaly Chernetsky, U of Kansas, panel paper “Wartime Rethinking of Pre-War Identities: Yaroslav Lodygin’s Cinematic Adaptation of Serhii Zhadan’s Voroshilovgrad”

Michael M. Naydan, Pennsylvania State U, book discussion “Tango of Death,” by Yuri Vynnychuk

Serhii Plokhii, Harvard U, roundtable “New Directions in Challenging Entrenched Beliefs and Stereotypes in Interethnic Relations: Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter Case Study”

Catherine Wanner, Pennsylvania State U (with Iuliia Buyskykh, Research Institute of Ukrainian Studies / Centre for Applied Anthropology, Ukraine), panel paper “Why We Need to Think Outside the Box when it Comes to Religion in Ukraine”

Oleh Wolwyna, UNC at Chapel Hill, panel paper “Sudden Increases in Monthly Population Losses in Early 1933 in Some Regions of Ukraine and Russia: Implications for Understanding the 1932-1933 Famine”