{"id":32065,"date":"2020-10-29T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/alumni\/?p=32065"},"modified":"2021-11-08T13:10:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T18:10:42","slug":"moritz-lecture-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/alumni\/moritz-lecture-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Bumping Up Against Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russian historian Dr. Lewis H. Siegelbaum had an epiphany when he was considering his subject for Kalamazoo College\u2019s annual Edward Moritz Lecture, which was this: a lifetime of research into the history of Russia and the Soviet Union does indeed provide qualification to deliver a lecture on Ukraine. Siegelbaum had, in fact, \u201cbumped up\u201d often against the latter in his explorations of the former. And, at the time Siegelbaum was invited to give the Moritz Lecture (December, 2019, during the first impeachment hearings of then President Donald Trump) Ukraine was very much in the news. In the informative and wide-ranging lecture that resulted from his epiphany Siegelbaum touches on the historical effects of Ukraine\u2019s crossroads geographical location between the tides of eastern and western empires; on the Soviet Union\u2019s 1954 \u201cgifting\u201d of Crimea to Ukraine and, 60 years later, the Russian Federation\u2019s annexation of it back; on the history of Ukraine\u2019s Jews; on the vast migrations (forced or otherwise) of Soviet peoples throughout 15 Soviet Socialist republics during the era of the USSR, and on Ukraine as a \u201claboratory,\u201d so to speak, for the study of national identity formation with respect to both \u201cother\u201d and \u201cself.\u201d Siegelbaum is Jack and Margaret Sweet Professor Emeritus of History at Michigan State University where he taught Russian and European history from 1983 until 2018. The College\u2019s History Department\u2019s annual Edward Moritz Lecture pays tribute to the late professor Edward Moritz, who taught British and European history at Kalamazoo College from 1955 to 1988. The lecture celebrates excellence in teaching and research in the field of history. The full title of Siegelbaum\u2019s lecture was: \u201cBumping Up Against Ukraine as an Historian of Russia.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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