With the recent events unfurling in Ukraine, the Department of Politics and Government will be hosting a panel titled “100 Seconds to Midnight: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine” at 3:35 p.m. on Tuesday, October 25, in Schroeder Hall, room 114. Cookies, hot cocoa, and apple cider will be provided. The event is free and open to the public.
The panelists will be Dr. Ali Riaz, Dr. Christine Varga-Harris, and Jeff Walsh.
Riaz is a distinguished professor at Illinois State, who specializes in democratization, violent extremism, political Islam, South Asian politics, and Bangladeshi politics. Riaz is a nonresident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council and the president of the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies.
Varga-Harris is an associate professor of history at Illinois State, who specializes in the postwar Soviet Union. Her first book, Stories of House and Home: Soviet Apartment Life during the Khrushchev Years (Cornell University Press, 2015), explored Soviet daily life, ideology, and society. Her current research focuses on Soviet cultural relations with non-aligned countries during the Cold War, from the perspective of gender.
Walsh is a second-year student in the Applied Community and Economic Development program at the Stevenson Center, and went to Poland as part of his required immersive professional practice experience to work with Ukrainian refugees. Walsh worked in a Red Cross cash distribution center and taught children in a UNICEF-established temporary school.
The panel will be moderated by Maryna Teplova. Teplova is a Ph.D. student with over 22 years of experience in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) in Ukraine.
