Join us for “Ukraine at War: Life in a Time of Fear and Hope,” a symposium sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.
Events include a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary film “20 Days in Mariupol,” which documents the brutal siege of the city; a Katz Women, Ethics, and Leadership Event showcasing women artists, activists, and combatants; and two roundtables on the complexities of life in wartime and sustaining resistance in the face of faltering aid.
All events are free and open to the public, but please register for the events you plan to attend.
Your registration enables us to send you reminders and event updates. You do not need to bring your order confirmation or “ticket” with you. Registering for an event does not reserve a seat for you. Seating is first come, first serve.
“Essential. A relentless and truly important documentary.” – The New York Times
Join us for a screening of “20 Days in Mariupol,” the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service in 2023 and the winner of Best Documentary Feature Film at the Academy Awards in 2024.
An AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city, they capture what later become defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more. “20 Days in Mariupol” offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.
Mila Yutskevych, a master’s student in civil engineering at NC State University who worked as a translator in Mariupol, will introduce the film.
This event is free and open to the public. More information about the venue, including parking information, is available on the Duke Arts website.
This screening is presented in partnership with Duke University Union’s Freewater Presentations, Razom for Ukraine, Frontline, and the Associated Press.
Join us for a Katz Women, Ethics, and Leadership event focused on the experiences of Ukrainian women during the country’s ongoing war with Russia. Featuring prominent artists, activists, and combatants, this event explores Ukrainian culture as both a light in dark times and as a means of resistance.
An opening performance of traditional folk songs by the Ukrainians in the Carolinas Spivochi Ensemble will be followed by two keynote presentations.
Award-winning poet and combat medic Yaryna Chornohuz will speak about her experiences fighting on the war’s frontlines; advocating for Ukrainian culture, sovereignty, and women’s rights; and writing poetry that reckons with loss, love of land, and the horrors of war.
Acclaimed singer and ethnomusicologist Nadia Tarnawsky and vocalist Vira Hanchar will perform “Postcards from Another World.” A new multimedia presentation blending images, personal stories, and traditional folk songs from Ukraine, “Postcards” offers glimpses of a faraway place — and reflects how these missives change when they’re coming from a war zone.
This event is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in the Campus Drive lot, directly across the street from the Rubenstein Arts Center. More information about parking, including accessible parking, is available on the Rubenstein Arts Center website.
We are grateful to Dignitas for their support of this event.
Speaker Bios
Yaryna Chornohuz
Yaryna Chornohuz has been active in the movement to decolonize Ukraine since 2014, when she was an active participant of the student Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity. She has helped coordinated projects to popularize a national transition into Ukrainian language, is an awarded poet, and has aided in translating English poetry into Ukrainian.
Currently, she is serving in the 140th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the Marine Corps as a platoon combat medic and scout. The 140th ORBM has been on the front line in Luhansk and Donetsk regions continuously since August 2021.
Nadia Tarnawsky
Nadia Tarnawsky has been studying Eastern European singing techniques for nearly three decades with leading voices. Nadia has taught in Ukraine and the US, including the Harvard Summer Course and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance. Nadia Tarnawsky spent much of 2017 and 2018 doing research and teaching in Ukraine as a recipient of a Fulbright Award. During her time in Ukraine, she created a theatrical self portrait in song entitled Rozbyta which was performed in Lviv, Kyiv and Kriachkivka, Ukraine. Nadia approaches song as a full body experience invoking community. In times of war, the song and their gatherings produce “a kind of cultural defensive line.”
Vira Hanchar
Vira Hanchar is an actress, singer and translator currently living in Lviv, Ukraine.
On the final day of the Ukraine at War symposium, join us for two roundtable discussions featuring perspectives on the continuing conflict from diverse professional and academic fields. While focused on Ukraine, we recognize that these themes have global resonances.
These roundtable discussions are free and open to the public.
Please note that parking at the West Duke Building is limited. If parking spaces designated for Kenan Institute for Ethics guests or Duke East Campus permit holders are available, we can provide parking passes upon request. Please park, check in at the front desk, and then place the permit on your car. There are also a few pay-by-the-hour parking spaces in front of the building.
During business hours, off-street parking is available in many neighborhoods around East Campus, but please note that some areas limit parking without a residential permit to two hours. These areas are clearly marked. Duke community members are encouraged to use campus transportation if they can.
If you have questions about parking, accessibility, or anything else related to this event, please contact Kenan Institute for Ethics Program Director Hillary Train at hillary.train@duke.edu.
11:00 a.m.
Sites of Violence, Sites of Resistance: Bodies, Ecologies, Communities & Music
This discussion will focus on the different places where both violence and resistance manifest during times of war, sometimes in complex and multifaceted ways. Psychologist Alla Prokhovnik-Raphique will speak about community resilience in ongoing trauma situations; anthropologist Vika Grivina on the intertwining of environmental devastation and community building; ecologist Nina Fontana on ecocide and agricultural symbols of resistance; ethnomusicologist Nadia Tarnawsky on the role of music and art in cultural resilience; and professional athlete Jenya Kazbekova on the political resonances of international athletic competitions.
Speaker Bios
Alla Prokhovnik-Raphique
Dr. Alla Prokhovnik-Raphique is a clinical psychologist specializing in treatment of trauma and addictive disorders in her private practice, Nurturing Roots Psychology. She holds a voluntary faculty appointment at Icahn Medical School at Mount Sinai where she supervises psychology interns on their rotations at the Addiction Institute, and conducts forensic evaluations for individuals seeking asylum through the Mount Sinai Human Rights Clinic. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Prokhovnik-Raphique serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Ukraine NGO Coordination Network (UNCN), a network of non-profit organizations providing all forms of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Viktoriia Grivina
Viktoriia Grivina is a PhD student at St. Andrews, a writer and cultural anthropologist from Kharkiv, Ukraine. She works on city aesthetics and communities, conflict, decoloniality and urban ecologies. Vika is passionate about mobile creative methodology, eco-criticism, and decolonial analysis of urban-scapes. As a Ukrainian during reserach in her home cities, she understands decolonization to be a deeply personal, intimate process. Her work utilizes stop motion animation, art, and prose to explore her person experience and how city scapes shift within her communities during war.
Nadia Tarnawsky
Nadia Tarnawsky has been studying Eastern European singing techniques for nearly three decades with leading voices. Nadia has taught in Ukraine and the US, including the Harvard Summer Course and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance. Nadia Tarnawsky spent much of 2017 and 2018 doing research and teaching in Ukraine as a recipient of a Fulbright Award. During her time in Ukraine, she created a theatrical self portrait in song entitled Rozbyta which was performed in Lviv, Kyiv and Kriachkivka, Ukraine. Nadia approaches song as a full body experience invoking community. In times of war, the song and their gatherings produce “a kind of cultural defensive line.”
Nina Fontana
Nina Fontana, Ph.D., is an ecologist and postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Davis in collaboration with USGS Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. Nina’s Ph.D. research centered on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in forest-dependent communities in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, specifically how TEK nurtures cultural ties to landscape, maintains health of communities, and informs adaptive capacity in supporting regional food sovereignty. Her broader research interests include socio-ecological resilience, translational ecology, Indigenous analysis of climate change, and environmental justice. Nina received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Ecology from UC Davis.
Jenya Kazbekova
Jenya Kazbekova is an internationally-ranked professional Ukrainian climber who has won medals in sport climbing and bouldering. As a refugee following the 2022 full-scale invasion, Jenya has continued her training in various parts of the world over the past two years. She is a vocal advocate for Ukrainian sovereignty, understanding sports as political, and standing against Russian aggression.
Ingrid Bianca Byerly (moderator)
Ingrid Bianca Byerly is a multifaceted scholar at Duke University, where she directs the Humanitarian Challenges focus group and teaches courses in Public Speaking, Advocacy, and Ethnomusicology. A South African native, her academic interests span across the arts, humanities, and social sciences, with a particular focus on the intersection of music and politics, especially in contexts of conflict and social change. Dr. Byerly's work extends to mentoring students at various academic stages and her research delves into global social protest movements through music.
12:00 p.m.
Lunch
1:00 p.m.
Witnessing and Responsibility: Allocating Care in an Age of Global Crisis
In a time of rapid-fire digital communication, we are confronted with horrific images of global crises on a daily basis. This can lead to overwhelming feelings of anxiety, grief, and, eventually, numbness. This panel looks at the ways we witness injustices, and the responsibility that entails. Human rights lawyer Ewa Hofmańska will explore documenting war crimes; anthropologist Hanna Dosenko will trace the homeward path of Ukrainian soldiers killed in action, journalist Terrell Starr will contribute insights from an American political perspective; and combat medic Yaryna Chornohuz will discuss the complexities of fighting on the frontlines when social media drives international investment.
Speaker Bios
Ewa Hofmańska
Ewa Hofmańska is a lawyer with almost two decades of experience working on labor issues as well as justice and reparation for victims of armed conflict. She has spent time with the International Criminal Court and held positions in various international universities. Currently, she is program manager for Project Sunflower, an organization working to assemeble and vet documentation of war crimes in Ukraine.
Hanna Dosenko
Hanna Dosenko is a PhD student in Anthropology, photographer and theatre-maker. Her work explores how we visualize death and what it leaves behind. As an anthropologist, Hanna is following the path of “Missing in Action” Ukrainian soldiers across eastern Ukraine. Through fieldwork that moves between family homes, morgues, and transportation vans, Hanna traces how soldier’s circulate post death. She picks up from the moment a soldier is killed, following his/her body as it is transported from the battlefield to the morgue, and finally returning with the soldier as they go back home, to where he/she was born. By accompanying dead bodies this way, Hanna explores how people “demobilize” soldiers after their service has ended.
Terrell Starr
Detroit native Terrell Jermaine Starr is an independent American journalist widely known for his coverage of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. He is the founder and host of Black Diplomats, a weekly podcast reporting on foreign affairs and Eastern European politics. A former Fulbright grantee, Terrell is currently a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. Conversant in Russian, Ukrainian, and Georgian, he is a recognized authority on Ukraine-U.S. relations, Georgian politics, Central Asia, and American democracy.
Yaryna Chornohuz
Yaryna Chornohuz has been active in the movement to decolonize Ukraine since 2014, when she was an active participant of the student Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity. She has helped coordinated projects to popularize a national transition into Ukrainian language, is an awarded poet, and has aided in translating English poetry into Ukrainian.
Currently, she is serving in the 140th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the Marine Corps as a platoon combat medic and scout. The 140th ORBM has been on the front line in Luhansk and Donetsk regions continuously since August 2021.
Summer Steenberg (moderator)
Summer Steenberg is a PhD candidate at Duke University in Cultural Anthropology whose research focuses on how we form bonds and improvise in times of crisis.
