MSU representatives made reports at the annual ASEEES convention in Washington
The voices of educators of Mariupol State University were heard at one of the most influential international forums: the 57th annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East-European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). The event brought together researchers from different parts of the world for the purpose of considering vital issues of history, culture, politics and social processes. Ukraine was represented by Svitlana Arabadzhy, Associate Professor of History and Archaeology Chair, and Viktoria Chelpan, Senior Instructor of Greek Philology Chair.
This year, the convention was held in a mixed format on November 2 – 24. Over two thousand participants attended the convention and over 600 events were held live in Washington D.C: from research panels to film screenings, poetry readings and public discussions. The key topic for 2025 was “Memory.” It focused participants’ attention on how personal and collective memory form identity, politics and human attitude to the past.
Mariupol educators participated in the organization as well as in the procedures of a special panel concerned with controversial issues in the history of the Greek population in the Russian and Soviet imperial contexts. Besides, Svitlana Arabadzhy presented the results of her scientific research at the specialized section “On the Edge of Modernization: Intertwined Histories of Animal Husbandry and Empires in Ukraine.”
Participation of the invincible university in the convention became a continuation of active international cooperation, in particular in projects concerned with preservation of cultural heritage of the Greeks of Ukraine. Thus, at the initiative of Wesleyan University, Professor Natasha Karageorgis and Tetyana Lyubchenko, Mariupol State University graduate, famous Ukrainian Hellenist and member of the Association of the Greeks of Ukraine in Greece who also participated in the panel discussion, an initiative for creating a bilingual website "Mariupol Greeks" is being implemented. The platform aims to unite researchers having shared values and vision, including representatives of the scientific community of Mariupol University, an institution that has been the leading center of Hellenistic studies in Ukraine since it was founded.
This is not the first time for MSU educators to present their work to the Western World. Last year, Associate Professors Svitlana Arabadzhy and Yulia Labetska represented the university at the World Congress of the Association for the Study of Nationalities at Columbia University in New York.
