September 12, 2008 | 9:00 AM-6:00 PM | FedEx Global Education Center

The year 2008 marked the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, the genocidal starvation of Ukrainians in the 1930s. Crossing discipline borders and incorporating many interests, scholars with this conference offered a historical and comparative perspective on the famine-genocide. Participants addressed a wide range of scholarship, from memory and gender studies to demography and studies in nationalist and ideological-centered historical movements.

After 75 years, the intensity of the scholarly debate on such issues associated with the Holodomor has not waned. The scheduled programming invited participants to engage in the relevant and multifaceted issues regarding the research and teaching of famine and genocide. 

Hosted by the University of North Carolina Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies in collaboration with the Ukrainian Association of North Carolinaand with support from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of International Affairs.

This conference included the following three events: 

"Ukraine and Three Twentieth-Century Cataclysms," Discussion with Dr. George Liber

Relevant for scholars, graduate students, high school and community college educators, as well as individuals interested in Ukrainian and Soviet history, The Ukrainian Famine-Genocide: Reflections After 75 Years Conference will situate the impact of the Ukrainian famine-genocide in the country’s turbulent history. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, the genocidal starvation of Ukrainians in the 1930s. After 75 years, the intensity of the scholarly debate on such issues associated with the Holodomor has not waned. George Liber, Ph.D., Department of History, University of Alabama-Birmingham. Dr. Liber studies Soviet history, post-Soviet political trends and comparative nationalist and revolutionary movements. He is the author of Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR, 1923-1934 (Cambridge University Press, 1992).

"The Famine-Genocide in Historical, Demographic and International Perspective"

This roundtable was moderated by Jehanne Gheith with George Liber, Oleh Wolowyna and Taras Hunczak as panelists.  Jehanne Gheith, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Duke University co-directs International Comparative Studies, an undergraduate interdisciplinary major, and has directed the Changing Faces of Russia FOCUS program since 1999. George Liber, Ph.D., Department of History, University of Alabama-Birmingham studies Soviet history, post-Soviet political trends and comparative nationalist and revolutionary movements. Oleh Wolowyna, Ph.D., is the President of the Ukrainian Association of North Carolina and President of Informed Decisions, Inc., a consulting firm in Chapel Hill, NC. Dr.  Wolowyna’s main areas of research interest are demographic crisis in Ukraine. Taras Hunczak, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Federated Department of History, Rutgers University studies Russian, Ukrainian and Eastern European history.

"The Ukrainian Famine-Genocide and Confronting Stalinism in Ukraine and Russia," Keynote Lecture by Mark von Hagen, Arizona State University

In this keynote address, eminent scholar Mark von Hagen explored how the inability to make sense of the famine reflects broader problems - the reluctance to confront the broader history of collectivization, the relationship of the famine to the crimes of Stalin era, and the need to increase awareness of Ukrainian history.Mark von Hagen is Professor and Chair of the History Department at Arizona State University, where he started in July 2007.  Before that he taught for twenty-two years at Columbia University, where he was the Boris Bakhmeteff Professor of Russian and East European Studies, Director of the Harriman Institute (1989-2001), and Chair of the History Department (2006-2007). He served a three-year term as president of the International Association for Ukrainian Studies (2002-2005).

In conjuction with the Holodomor Poster Exhibition.