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Brooklyn College reacts to war in Ukraine

Though far from the conflict zone, for reasons personal and academic, the campus community is keeping Russia’s war in Ukraine close to its heart.

March 21, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
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Across the Brooklyn College community — which last semester included nearly 300 students who were born in Russia or Ukraine; many students, alums, staff and faculty members from other countries in the region; others with personal connections there; and professors with deep scholarly ties — the impact of a war nearly 6,000 miles and a vast ocean away has been appreciable. 

Staff and faculty members have reached out to Ukrainian students to try to connect them with people and organizations that can help, along with counseling students from Russia, some of whom have seen their financial resources disappear overnight due to sanctions. 

And professors have used their scholarly perch to contribute to the thought collective around the war, from penning opinion pieces and making media appearances to switching up lesson plans in hopes of lending a factual framework to a conflict that has been rife with misinformation. 

For professors, it has been a surreal time where scholarship and current events have met head on. Professor Brigid O’Keeffe of the History Department was at the point in her class, “The Soviet Union as Multiethnic Empire,” where she talked about the Bolshevik revolution. That same week, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech justifying the war. 

“Putin was on television saying that [the former head of Soviet Russia, Vladimir] Lenin invented Ukraine,” said O’Keeffe, whose latest book, “The Multiethnic Soviet Union and Its Demise,” is forthcoming later this fall. “My students had just learned why and how he was lying. We fact checked the speech right there in class. I have been teaching the course for years and I never imagined that the front page of the news would collide with my syllabus in this way.” 

She said it was an invaluable moment to talk about how history can be invoked to promote both conflict and peace. In her historical methods class, she has used the war to discuss cultural history and how culture is created. 

Johnson, a Central-Eastern European specialist who speaks Russian and regularly conducts research in Russia, is teaching “Democracy, Dictatorship and Development: Politics Around the World.” “I have used every single class to talk about various parts of the story,” she said. 

“There’s a lot of trauma around this, a lot of fear and anxiety as well,” said Johnson, who is trying to square with the possibility that due to the fallout of the war, she may never be able to visit Russia again. 

“For those of us with experience in the area, it’s our responsibility to address this, to call a lie a lie, and to provide context to a complex topic,” said O’Keeffe. “It’s a conversation we simply have to have.” 

LENDING A HELPING HAND 

For many other students, including those who have no personal connection to the war, there was a need to do something. Tanger Hillel at Brooklyn College mobilized students across CUNY to support Ukraine, organizing 30 volunteers to package 3,750 pounds of medical supplies to send to Ukraine and Poland, where many refugees were arriving. 

Tonight, the College will host an online conversation on the War in Ukraine that is free and open to the public. It will run from 6–7:30 p.m., is open to the public; and attendance is limited. Register here

Faculty panelists include: Janet Elise Johnson (moderator), Brigid O’Keeffe (moderator), Irina Patkanian, Moustafa Bayoumi, Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome, Anna Gotlib, and Jesús Perez.

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