MSU Associate Professor Visits Latvia and Lithuania

At the invitation of international partners, lecturers from Mariupol State University regularly travel abroad. Serhii Pakhomenko, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, undertook such an educational and research mission to the Baltic countries.

For over two years, MSU’s educator has been working as a visiting associate professor at the University of Latvia. Most of the time, he delivers online lectures to students, but when invited by colleagues, he seizes the opportunity to teach in person in Riga. This time, he presented the course of classes «Information Wars» for master’s students in the «Communication Sciences» program. 

It’s quite a different type of interaction when it comes to the Latvian student audience, which is more reserved emotionally and less active compared to Ukrainian students. Latvians don’t like to argue and are not inclined to be engaged in debates – they’d rather remain silent. It’s a trait of their national character. However, when asked directly, they articulate their thoughts in a reasoned manner, regardless of authority,

– says MSU Associate Professor Serhii Pakhomenko. 

The students he teaches work in Latvia’s central and regional media, so they are particularly interested in Ukraine’s experience in strategic communications during wartime, and they readily share examples of how state institutions communicate with the public in their own country.

While in Latvia, the associate professor was also invited to take part in a scientific and practical forum on sustainable security organised by partners from Lithuania, Mykolas Romeris University. The Ukrainian scholar had the honour to open the conference with a keynote speech titled «Does History Matter? Historical Policy, Narratives, and the Securitisation of Memory in the Russo-Ukrainian War.»

The trip abroad provided an opportunity for active academic engagement and reconnecting with close friends from the invincible university community. During his visit to Vytautas Magnus University, MSU’s strategic partner, Serhii Pakhomenko had an informal conversation with the newly appointed rector, Ineta Dabašinskienė, and Aistė Žemaitė, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy. He also took the opportunity to visit the Mariupol University Center, which operates within the Lithuanian institution.