On a brisk fall day in 2023, Cornerstones Visiting Chair in History Oksana Kis welcomed students into her office, balancing a cup of tea in one hand and opening the door with the other. The bookshelves were bare and the walls devoid of the usual academic paraphernalia, but the work undertaken within its confines reflected her commitment to research and education about Ukraine’s unique history and culture when it is needed most.
In a time marked by war, turmoil, and displacement, Kis’ journey as a Ukrainian historian specializing in Ukrainian women’s history in the 19th and 20th centuries takes on deep significance. As she settled into her unadorned office for the academic year as one of many Ukrainian academics who have sought refuge in the United States, her mission transcended lectures and faculty meetings. She exemplified how education — specifically in the humanities — can be a means to safeguard a nation’s identity.
Within the silent space of her office, Kis’ thoughts often drift toward her husband and son, who have been serving as volunteers in the Ukrainian military since 2022. The very concept of her area of study becomes a quiet question mark challenging whether the impact of the humanities is tangible enough. Specifically, Kis wonders whether her work as a historian holds significance, especially given the backdrop of her country embroiled in war. Her doubt lingers over whether the academic pursuit of history can genuinely contribute to the practical challenges faced by a country in existential crisis.
It felt wrong to pore over archival material from 20th-century Ukraine when 21st-century Ukraine faced a war predicated on the destruction of Ukrainian national identity.
When Russia’s full-scale invasion of eastern Ukraine began in February 2022, inhabitants of Lviv, Kis’ hometown in the western part of the country, formed long lines at grocery stores to stock up on supplies. Despite the circumstances, stillness filled the city’s streets. The scene was one of remarkable order, not panic. People maintained polite demeanors and spoke very quietly to one another — perhaps to calm each other down.
Very quickly, Russian shells began to bombard cities across the country. Kis was initially in a state of utter disbelief. Her feelings soon gave way to anger as the reality of the situation unfolded in the following weeks. By the end of March 2022, Ukraine had sustained 3,000 civilian casualties. This destruction fueled Kis’ anger and propelled her and other Ukrainians to do what they could to help their country. With 1.5 million internally displaced persons fleeing eastern Ukraine in the first month of war and calls for aid growing increasingly desperate, Kis turned away from her work as a scholar and sought practical routes by which she could help her fellow citizens.
“I would not say that I was scared,” she said. “Fear is paralyzing. It turns you into a victim. When you are angry, it turns you into a warrior. It makes you act. It makes you do something meaningful.”
In the weeks after the invasion, Kis and many others like her in Lviv began to act. Working with her hands, sorting humanitarian aid provided her with a tangible and fulfilling way to contribute during a time of crisis. It allowed her to assist her community directly through physical relief, but it also improved her own mental well-being.
Kis is a feminist historian and anthropologist. When the war started, she was a senior research fellow and head of the department of social anthropology at the Ethnology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv. Her scholarship includes two books focused on the history of women in Ukraine. Her second book, Survival as Victory: Ukrainian Women in the Gulag, was named one of the 30 most significant books on Ukrainian independence by the Ukrainian Book Institute in 2021. That same year, Harvard University Press published it in English translation for the Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies. It tells the story of the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian women sentenced to the Gulag in the 1940s and ’50s, an ordeal only half of them survived. Her current research focuses on Ukrainian refugees in displaced persons camps in Europe after World War II.
Amid the mass suffering after Russia’s invasion, Kis began to feel that her scholarship lacked relevance and utility. It felt wrong to pore over archival material from 20th-century Ukraine when 21st-century Ukraine faced a war predicated on the destruction of Ukrainian national identity. She grappled with the weight of the war, and she questioned whether research in the humanities mattered, especially when she could dedicate herself to far more practical pursuits.
As the weeks turned into months and no end of the war was in sight, Kis’ mindset began to change. As she received queries from scholars around the world seeking answers to their questions about the invasion of Ukraine, she increasingly recognized ways that her study of Ukraine’s past perhaps did hold relevance in its present. The humanities, which she once thought of as secondary in the face of a national crisis, now emerged as essential to fostering a deeper understanding of the complexities and historical precursors to the war. In illuminating Ukraine’s history on an international stage, she could also communicate what made Ukraine a distinct national entity — one separate from Russia — despite Putin’s claims to the contrary.
“After a couple of weeks, I decided maybe I could be more useful if I went abroad,” she said, “not only for my own safety and the ability to work as a scholar, but also to become a kind of a voice for Ukraine.”
This evolving perspective rekindled Kis’ determination and infused her scholarly endeavors with a renewed sense of purpose. The humanities were not just her academic pursuit, but her lifeline. When an opportunity arose for Kis to teach at the New School in New York City for the 2022-23 academic year, she accepted the offer.
“Ukrainian scholars and public intellectuals are doing important work, challenging the world community to rethink traditional understandings of eastern Europe, Russian geopolitical and cultural dominance, and the central importance of self-determination.”
From afar, David Brandenberger, a history professor at the University of Richmond, watched the invasion and the mass displacement of Ukrainian refugees with great concern. His expertise in Russian and Soviet history gave him unique perspective on the region, and he felt driven to better understand Ukrainian perspectives and offer meaningful support.
Against this backdrop, the seed of an idea took root in his mind. It led to a proposal to invite Kis to teach at the University of Richmond for the 2023-24 academic year. This proposal aimed not just to bring an esteemed Ukrainian historian to campus, but also to provide a platform for campus dialogue about the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Ukrainian scholars and public intellectuals are doing important work, challenging the world community to rethink traditional understandings of eastern Europe, Russian geopolitical and cultural dominance, and the central importance of self-determination,” Brandenberger said.
With the help and advice of a widely published Canadian-Ukrainian colleague named Serhy Yekelchyk, Brandenberger contacted Kis, who accepted the offer to be UR’s first Cornerstones Visiting Chair in History.
“Our students can, of course, learn from all of the content expertise she has,” Jennifer Cavenaugh, dean of UR’s School of Arts and Sciences, said. “But they can also learn from her trying to make meaning and impact in the current situation. I think that our students have and will continue to benefit from the fullness of having her here and all that it means.”
“The humanities help us protect our soldiers from being shot from behind.”
The week before the fall 2023 semester began at the University of Richmond, Kis stepped into a new chapter of her life as a visiting professor. Members of the history department scrambled to provide her new apartment with furniture, checking their basements and scouring thrift stores for items. Former history chair Joanna Drell prioritized purchasing a set of colorful plates. “I was making sure she had colorful plates because I thought she needed color,” Drell said. “Dr. Brandenberger drove around town filling his car to the brim with stuff.”
Upon her arrival in Richmond, Kis found a familiar face in Cornerstone Chair in History Pippa Holloway. Holloway — whose parents met Kis when she was a visiting scholar at the University of Alberta a decade earlier — has continued the family tradition of welcoming the Ukrainian scholar to new places. At Richmond, that meant introducing Kis to, among other things, Southern cuisine and local historical sites.
During the spring semester, Kis taught two courses: Oral History and Anthropology of the Gulag. Although neither class focused exclusively on the ongoing war in Ukraine, both classes vividly illustrated of the significance of history in preserving and conveying the stories of individuals during times of crisis.
In a telling moment this year, Kis recalled a conversation with a Ukrainian colleague, a physicist, who advocated the potential of the hard sciences and technology in supporting the Ukrainian war effort. He raised the question of what Ukrainian research in the humanities could do.
A lot, Kis knew. Humanities scholarship such as hers counteracts Russian propaganda and educates people about the centuries-long history of Russian imperial attempts to dominate Ukraine and Russify Ukrainians. “The humanities help us protect our soldiers from being shot from behind,” she told him.
For many Ukrainians, resisting Russia’s invasion has meant carrying weapons onto a battlefield. For Kis, it has meant becoming one of the country’s millions of refugees and engaging in what Czech writer Milan Kundera called “the struggle of memory against forgetting.” From her temporary academic home at UR this year, Kis embodied the value of the humanities through her scholarship and teaching. It was another front of resistance, one that strengthens Ukrainian national identity and inspires Ukrainians’ fervent fight for themselves and their nation.
