Ukraine’s Struggle for Self-Determination

Blanca Missé, Moderator and Respondent

In a brazen act of imperialist aggression, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has carried out indiscriminate killing of civilians, kidnapping of children, and mass rape. Ukrainians have mounted a courageous mass military and civilian resistance.

This event is a unique opportunity to hear the voice of progressive Ukrainians and Russians in solidarity with Ukraine’s struggle for self-determination. We present two outstanding analysts who have experienced first-hand the ravages of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and his effort to silence anti-war opposition in Russia:  Hanna Perekhoda, a Ukrainian historian, and Ilya Matveev, a researcher of Russian and comparative political economy. They will discuss the nature of Russia’s war, why it is essential to support Ukraine’s fight for self-determination, and the need for a progressive rather than neoliberal reconstruction of Ukraine.

Hanna Perekhoda is a researcher at the University of Lausanne, focusing on political imagination in Russia and Ukraine. She is a founder of the Swiss-based Committee of Solidarity with the Ukrainian People, and a member of the Russian Opponents of the War and the Ukrainian left organization Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement).

Ilya Matveev is a Russian exile, currently a visiting scholar in The Program in Critical Thery at the University of California at Berkeley, researching Russian and comparative political economy.  Until 2022 he was Professor of Political Philosophy at the Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in St. Petersburg. His work has appeared in South Atlantic Quarterly, Journal of Labor and Society, Europe-Asia Studies, East European Politics, and other journals.

Blanca Missé is associate professor of French in the Modern Languages and Literatures Department at San Francisco State University, a member of California Scholars for Academic Freedom, and a member of the Executive Board of the SFSU Chapter of the California Faculty Association.

Co-sponsored by the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs. For information, please contact info.ictconsortium@berkeley.edu.