This event is online only.
Join us for a meeting of the New York-Russia Public Policy Series, co-hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and the New York University Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia.
Since 2014, Russia has occupied almost one-fifth of the Ukrainian territory, but little is known about its rule in these areas besides Crimea. Our panel of social scientists will examine how Russia establishes its control of territories it has seized, the realities of life under occupation, its short-term and long-term consequences, and the prospects of restoring political and economic life in de-occupied territories.
This event is supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Speakers
David Lewis, Professor of Global Politics at the University of Exeter; Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London
Tatiana Zhurzhenko, Researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), Berlin
Oleksandr Melnyk, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto
Franziska Exeler, Lecturer in History at Free University Berlin; Research Associate at the Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge
Moderated by:
Elise Giuliano, Senior Lecturer in Political Science; Director of the MARS-REERS Program; Director of the Program on U.S.-Russia Relations
Joshua Tucker, Director of the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at New York University
Biographies
David Lewis is Professor of Global Politics at the University of Exeter and a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. In 2019-2022, he was as Fellow at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London. He is a specialist in international relations, with a regional focus on Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Professor Lewis has published widely on the rise of illiberalism and authoritarianism in global politics and on political developments in Russia and Eurasia. His upcoming book, Occupation: Russian Rule in South-Eastern Ukraine, will be published in September 2024 by Hurst. His other recent work includes a study of radical conservative political thought in Russia, Russia’s New Authoritarianism: Putin and the Politics of Order (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). He worked as a political risk consultant for Control Risks Group in London, and subsequently as director of in-country research teams in Central Asia and Sri Lanka for the International Crisis Group. He returned to academia as a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Since 2013, he has been based in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter. Professor Lewis holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and he was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours List 2023. He worked as a political risk consultant for Control Risks Group in London, and subsequently as director of in-country research teams in Central Asia and Sri Lanka for the International Crisis Group. He returned to academia as a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Since 2013, he has been based in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter.
Tatiana Zhurzhenko is a researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), Berlin. She studies borders and border regions in the post-Soviet space, memory politics, conflict and post-conflict societies, and gender and feminism. Her book Borderlands into Bordered Lands: Geopolitics of Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine was published in 2010, and she has published in Geopolitics, Europe-Asia Studies, and other journals. Previously,
Oleksandr Melnyk is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto. His research is on the history of modern Ukraine and modern Russia, with a focus on nationalism, political violence, security, and memory politics. Currently, he is working on the history of the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014-present). His book, World War II as an Identity Project: Historicism, Legitimacy Contests and the (Re-)Construction of Political Communities in Ukraine, 1939-1946, was published in 2023 by ibidem Press. His research has been published in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Review, the Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, and other journals. Previously, Dr. Melnyk has been a post-doctoral fellow at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Toronto.
Franziska Exeler is a Lecturer in History at Free University Berlin and a Research Associate at the Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge. Her research interests include twentieth-century East European, Russian, and German history, war and society, legal history and war crimes trials, myth, memory, and trauma. Her book Ghosts of War. Nazi Occupation and Its Aftermath in Soviet Belarus was published in April 2022 with Cornell University Press. It is the recipient of the 2021 Ernst Fraenkel Prize awarded by the Wiener Holocaust Library in London. Dr. Exeler’s related research projects analyze how the Soviet prosecution of treason and war crimes fit into the global moment of post-Second World War justice. She has previously been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute and a visiting fellow at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University. Together with Diana Kim (Georgetown University), she is curating the Invisible Histories website, a platform for researchers to present photographs in context and explore hidden narratives. She holds a PhD in History from Princeton University.
