The 24th Annual J.B. Rudnyckyj Distinguished Lecture with Bohdan Krawchenko

 Poster for the Lecture Event (designed by Solomiya Shavala)

Dr. Krawchenko's talk at the U of M Archives & Special Collections 

The 24th Annual J.B. Rudnyckyj Distinguished Lecture took place on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, in the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections. The guest lecturer for the event was, Dr. Bohdan Krawchenko.  Dr.  Krawchenko began his talk, titled, Global (Dis) Order and Ukraine,  with providing an overview of the recent global, economic, political, and social changes. He spoke about the rise of nationalist and populist forces in the United States and in Europe, and how these forces challenge the established liberal and democratic values. In addition, the rise of an aggressive Russia,with a nationalist agenda, also poses a challenge and threat to the western democracies. Krawchenko successfully tied this in to the current situation in Ukraine, and how Ukrainian society has adapted and emerged with a vision on how to overcome many of the challenges currently facing it. After years of having Russia as its largest trading partner, the war, has forced Ukraine to become more competative in the global market, and seek new trade partners and opportunities . In the end this will be beneficial to Ukraine, and recent statistics have shown this to be true.

Bohdan Krawchenko is the director of the University of Central Asia (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)  a bold educational initiative focused on the mountain communities of Central Asia and Afghanistan. While working in Ukraine, he directed the first institution to train civil servants and headed the Soros Foundation’s regional program on local governance. Dr. Krawchenko is also the former director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
 
The well-received lecture had around 100 members of the university and external communities in attendance. The talk was sponsored by the U of M Archives & Special Collections, the Slavic Collection (Elizabeth Dafoe Library), and the Department of German and Slavic Studies. Following the lecture, Bohdan Krawchenko continued to answer questions at the reception that followed his talk.