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Brooklyn College sponsors online discussion on Ukraine

March 15, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
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New York City has one of the largest concentrations of Ukrainians, with estimates ranging from 80,000 to 150,000. In Brooklyn, many live in Brighton Beach (whose nickname, “Little Odessa,” refers to a Ukrainian seaside city) or Sheepshead Bay. 

Many of the immigrants whom New Yorkers casually refer to as “Russians” are, in fact, Ukrainians. And the current war between Russia and Ukraine is important to them, as it is to New Yorkers in general.

On Monday, Brooklyn College is hosting an online discussion about Russia’s war in Ukraine, led by faculty at the college and others. This will be an opportunity to learn more about the historical and political contexts, to ask questions, and to share feelings and ways to help. 

The public is invited, but participation is limited. Registration is required here. 

Panelists include:

Janet Elise Johnson, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Her books include “The Gender of Informal Politics,” “Gender Violence in Russia” and “Living Gender after Communism.” In the past few years, she has published articles in Post-Soviet Affairs, Russian Review, Slavic Review and other academic publications as well as The New Yorker and The Washington Post. She recently served on the Executive Committee of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, and coordinates a monthly workshop on Gender and Transformation in Central-Eastern Europe and Eurasia, now affiliated with the CUNY Grad Center. 

Brigid O’Keeffe, professor of political science, Brooklyn College. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn College

Brigid O’Keeffe, a professor of history Brooklyn College. She is a specialist on the history of late imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. O’Keeffe is the author of “The Multiethnic Soviet Union and its Demise,” “Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia” and “New Soviet Gypsies: Nationality, Performance, and Selfhood in the Early Soviet Union.” O’Keeffe’s scholarship has appeared in Slavic Review, Kritika, The Slavonic and East European Review, Eastern European Jewish Affairs and other academic publications. 

Irina Patkanian, professor of film and media arts, Brooklyn College. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn College

Irina Patkanian, an award-winning filmmaker, a Fulbright scholar, professor of film and media arts at Television, Radio and Emerging Media Department of Brooklyn College/CUNY, and the president of “In Parentheses,” a NYC-based nonprofit film, theater and media arts company that supports immigrant women artists since 1995. Irina Patkanian makes hybrid (fiction/nonfiction) films questioning history with poetry, memory with animation, performance with behavior. Her films have screened at more than 140 film festivals worldwide, winning more than 20 awards, including DOC NYC, Ann Arbor, STARZ Denver, Palm Springs, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and many others. 

Moustafa Bayoumi, author on Muslim and Arab American topics. Photo by Neville Elder

Moustafa Bayoumi, the author of the critically acclaimedHow Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America (Penguin),” which won an American Book Award and the Arab American Book Award for Non-Fiction. It has also been translated into Arabic by Arab Scientific Publishers. His latest book, “This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror” (NYU Press), was chosen as a Best Book of 2015 by The Progressive magazine and was also awarded the Arab American Book Award for Non-Fiction. 

Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome, an international political economist whose regional specialization is on the African continent. Educated at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), Long Island University and Columbia University, she’s a professor of political science at Brooklyn College, and past Women’s Studies Program Director at the college. Born in Nigeria, Mojúbàolú has worked on international development issues as a consultant for clients including the United Nations and Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Her most recent publications are an edited book published in 2013 by Palgrave-Macmillan: “State Fragility, State Formation, and Human Security in Nigeria” and on book co-edited with Afia Serwaa Zakiya published by Bookbuilders, Ibadan, Nigeria: “Women’s Political and Legislative Participation in Nigeria: Perspectives Contesting the Nigerian State: Civil Society and the Contradictions of Self-Organization.” 

Anna Gotlib, an associate professor of philosophy at Brooklyn College, specializing in feminist bioethics/medical ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of law. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Michigan State University, and a J.D. from Cornell Law School. Anna co-edits the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. Her work appeared in The Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Journal of Medical Humanities, Hypatia, Aeon/Psyche and other publications. Her edited volume, titled Responses to a Pandemic: Philosophical and Political Reflections, is due to be published in 2022. 

Jesús Perez, the director of the Immigrant Student Success Office at Brooklyn College.

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