Organizers of two talks this week and next hope the experts they’ve recruited to speak will give fresh perspectives and understanding about the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth week.
Up first this Wednesday, the Pioneer Valley Interfaith Refugee Action Group will featuring an online talk led by Audrey Altstadt, a UMass history professor with an expertise in Russia and the Soviet Union, and the Rev. Andriy Krip, pastor of two Ukrainian churches in the Valley.
Then on March 30, the Media Education Foundation will host an in-person discussion led by speakers Michael Klare, a professor emeritus at Hampshire College who specializes in peace and world security studies, and Vijay Prashad, director of the Transcontinental Institute for Social Research.
This Wednesday’s talk, titled “Local Voices Speak about the War in Ukraine,” will give people the chance to hear about the war from a more local perspective, said Ellen Koteen, chair of the program planning committee at Pioneer Valley Interfaith Refugee Action Group.
“Everyone is getting huge amounts of information from many sources,” she said.
Altstadt will provide a historical context to the war in Ukraine through “analysis on how Russia and Putin got to this point,” Koteen said, and what it means when Russian President Vladimir Putin says, “Ukraine is Russian and Ukrainians are Russian.”
Meanwhile, Krip, pastor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit Ukrainian Catholic Church in South Deerfield, and Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ludlow, will discuss the impact the war has had on those in Ukrainian communities who live in western Massachusetts.
A majority of the members of those churches were born in Ukraine, as was Krip, Koteen said.
Usually events take months to plan but this one was planned in a couple of weeks given the “urgency” of the situation, she said.
For those interested, registration for the event, which runs from 7-8:30 p.m., can be done by emailing Koteen at e-l-k@comcast.net where a Zoom link will be sent.
Meanwhile, the Media Education Foundation event, titled “A World Asunder: The War in Ukraine & Its Global Implications,” will be held in the foundation’s community meeting room.
Foundation Executive Director Sut Jhally will moderate the event, which is designed to give people context on the background leading up to the war in Ukraine and help understand what is going on.
Jhally said the discussion will center on questions such as: “How do we get here?” “How do we get out?” and “What are the global consequences of this?”
“If you watch the mainstream media, I don’t think there’s a lot of contexts of what’s going on,” Jhally said. He adds that neither speakers have ties with Ukraine, but that they are experts in international affairs.
The event is limited to vaccinated attendees. The Media Education Foundation is located at 60 Masonic St. in Northampton.