Revolutionary Ukraine: A History and Politics of Hope

In an era scarred by “human wrongs,” how does a nation sustain an indomitable spirit? This session explores Ukraine’s transformation from Soviet subjects to sovereign historical actors. By redefining hope as a defiant, collective pursuit of justice rather than passive wishful thinking, our panel offers a profound roadmap for democratic resilience and global solidarity.

Experience the Event

Presented by The Nanovic Institute for European Studies

Speakers include:

George Liber, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Alabama Birmingham
Fr. Yuriy Shchurko, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University
A. James McAdams, William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs at the University of Notre Dame
Sophia Wilson, Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Emily Channell-Justice, Director, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

Revolutions of Hope: Resilience and Recovery in Ukraine is a collaboration between Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs, and Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). The conference, hosted at the University of Notre Dame in March 2025, focused on the positive and corrective response to this destruction, exploring reasons for hope, sources of hope, and the politics and ethics of hope in Ukraine. How is hope powerful or even revolutionary? How does it encourage resilience and recovery? And, above all, how can we build and promote the integral development of hope in Ukraine? The conference explored the concept, dynamics, and practices of hope through keynote addresses, panel discussions, the arts, and liturgical observances. For more information visit the event website.

Co-sponsors included:

Dr. George Liber is a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Alabama Birmingham. His research interests include Soviet, post-Soviet, and East European social history; center-periphery relations in the Soviet Union and its successor states; nationalism and national identity formation; processes of democratization; and 20th-century Ukrainian history. Dr. Liber has dedicated a lifetime to researching, with extended periods in Washington, DC, and Kyiv, Ukraine; he also served as a fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Book publications include Total Wars and the Making of Modern Ukraine, 1914-1954 (University of Toronto Press) and Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth, and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR, 1923-1934 (Cambridge University Press).

Meet the Speaker: Father Yuriy Shchurko

Father Yuriy Shchurko serves as dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). He has held a position since 2019 and was reappointed in October 2024. As an ordained priest of the Sambir-Drohobych Eparchy since 2001, he combines his academic work with pastoral ministry. He is married with four children.

His academic journey began with a Master’s in Theology from Lviv Holy Spirit Seminary and Lviv Theological Academy (now UCU) in 2001. He went on to earn a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the University of Opole, Poland (2007) and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D./PhD) in Biblical Theology (2010), with a dissertation focusing on linguistic-exegetical analysis of Luke’s Gospel (OBT 2016). From 2013 to 2016, he researched at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany.

At UCU, Fr. Shchurko has served in various roles, including Head of the Spiritual-Pastoral Department (2008-2013) and founder of the Department of Biblical Studies (2016). His research interests include Second Temple Judaism and linguistic analysis of New Testament texts.

Within the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), he holds several positions: Member of the UGCC’s Theological Department (since 2020), Head of the Personal Development Commission (appointed 2024), overseeing international study programs, and Member of the Council for Evangelization.

In recent years, his research has expanded to include contemporary issues, mainly focusing on just peace and related theological and ethical questions. His work continues to contribute to theological education in Ukraine and the broader Eastern European context through his academic leadership, research, and pastoral ministry roles. During the 2025 spring semester, he is serving as a Nanovic Institute for European Studies Visiting Scholar.

Meet the Speaker: A. James McAdams

A. James McAdams is the William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs at the University of Notre Dame . For 16 years, he was Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. He has also served as chair of the Political Science department. McAdams has written widely on European affairs, especially on central Europe, as well as on global communism. His books include East Germany and Detente; Germany Divided; Judging the Past in Unified Germany; and The Crisis of Modern Times. His book, Vanguard of the Revolution: The Global Idea of the Communist Party (Princeton University Press, 2017 and 2019), examines the political history of the party from the 1840s to the present. Covering a panoply of communist parties from Germany to Russia, China, Poland, North Korea, Cuba, and many others, the book is the first comprehensive international history of the communist party. Vanguard of the Revolution was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Foreign Affairs. He has recently published three collections: 1968: Cultural Revolutions in Europe and Latin America (with Anthony Monta), Contemporary Far-Right Thinkers and the Future of Liberal Democracy (with Alejandro Castrillon), and Far-Right Newspeak and the Future of Liberal Democracy (with Samuel Piccolo).

McAdams is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Catholic University of Ukraine and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, as well as the Gold Medal of the Catholic University of Slovakia.

Meet the Speaker: Sophia Wilson

Dr. Sophia Wilson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and the President of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies. She was a visiting scholar at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) in 2015, and taught at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI) in 2017 and 2019. She was a Jerome Hall Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Law, Society and Culture at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2012-2013. Wilson’s book, Maidan: Ukraine’s Democratic Revolution, is forthcoming with McGill University Press. It is an extensive account of interactions between the state and the grassroots revolutionary movement in the winter of 2013-14, as well as Russian state propaganda about the revolution. In October of 2023, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin, as she began her work on a new book, comparing three occupations of Ukraine: by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and modern Russia. In 2024, she was honored by the Ukrainian government for her contributions to Ukrainian studies in the U.S.

Meet the Speaker: Emily Channell-Justice

Dr. Emily Channell-Justice is director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute. A sociocultural anthropologist, she has conducted research in Ukraine since 2012, focusing on political activism and social movements, including the 2013–2014 Euromaidan mobilizations. She is the author of Without the State: Self-Organization and Political Activism in Ukraine (2022) and editor of Decolonizing Queer Experience (2020). Dr. Channell-Justice earned her Ph.D. from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and previously served as a Havighurst Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of International Studies at Miami University, Ohio.

«Prev Series Description Next»