“Exile,” wrote Edward Said, “is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home.” 

Join Oleksandra Shtepenko, an exiled Ukrainian scholar, Cornell virtual scholar under threat, and visiting professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) in Poland, for a roundtable discussion of her first-hand experiences as the war in her homeland continues. Along with her NCU collaborators Anna Skubaczewska-Pniewska and Iwona Rzepnikowska, she will address these and other crucial questions: How can we rebuild lives, both in the flesh and of the mind, when war rips open new, unhealable borders? Can intellectual work be reimagined under these circumstances, together with institutions and communities that challenge existing paradigms?

The roundtable will be moderated by Anindita Banerjee (Comparative Literature), Shtepenko's Cornell host and virtual collaborator.

Respondents will include Cristina Florea (History, Cornell) and Zenon Wasyliw (History, Ithaca College).

About the Speakers

• Oleksandra Shtepenko is an Institute of International Education scholar, Cornell Virtual Scholar Under Threat, and visiting professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) in Poland.
• Iwona Rzepnikowska is an associate professor of literary studies at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) in Poland.
• Anna Skubaczewska-Pniewska is an associate professor of literary studies at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) in Poland.

Hosts and Sponsors

This event is hosted by the Department of Comparative Literature and Global Cornell.