Over the Spring break, Marci Shore, the Director of Graduate Studies for the Master’s Program in European and Russian Studies, traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine. There, Professor Shore attended the 16th annual Kyiv Security Forum on March 21-22. Joining the conversation with security experts, politicians, and thinkers, Professor Shore stressed that “Ukraine is the Vanguard of this moment that returns a sense of real meaning to what it means to be human being with dignity, to what it means to take responsibility for truth”.
She also engaged in a thought-provoking discussion with Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, and Tetyana Ogarkova, a Ukrainian literary critic and journalist, at the Kyiv School of Economics. Video recording is available here. The conversation delved into the concept of liminal experience, or “borderline situations” (Grenzsituation), which has been a pivotal theme in twentieth-century philosophy spanning psychoanalysis, existentialism, postmodernism, and dissident thinking. The conversation centered on the idea on how can we integrate this concept of liminal experience into the twenty-first century, and how might it aid our understanding of the past and present, particularly within the lived reality of Ukraine.
During her visit, Professor Shore also had the opportunity to reconnect with alumni of the E&RS MA program who are now working across different fields, from consulting to human rights advocacy, in Ukraine: Kamila Orlova (2018), Sergii Drobysh (2018), and Maksimas Milta (2023).
Additionally, Professor Shore co-authored an opinion piece for CNN with Professor Amelia Glaser from UC San Diego titled “The heroism of Ukraine and the nihilism of Mike Johnson.” Drawing from their experience visiting Kyiv in March, the article urges US lawmakers to cease their inaction and provide military aid to Ukraine.