On 11 – 12 December 2024, UC Media and Communication hosted the Inaugural International Symposium “War, Academia, Women: Ukrainian Female Academics as Knowledge Producers and Community Agents in New Zealand and Australia” (co-organised by Dr Daria Kuznetsova and Professor Natalia Chaban of UC and Dr Olga Boichak of University of Sydney). This Symposium, supported by the UC Arts 2024 Strategic Seed Funding and Ukrainian Studies Foundation of Australia gathered an interdisciplinary team from around the world: Daria Kuznetsova (UC), Natalia Chaban (UC), Liang Peng (UC), James Headley (University of Otago), Kateryna Kasianenko (Queensland University of Technology), Olga Boichak (The University of Sydney), Olga Maxwell (University of Melbourne, Australia, Dariia Orobchuk, University of Hildesheim (Germany), Iryna Skubii (University of Melbourne), Galyna Piskorska (Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University, Ukraine / University of Melbourne), Hanna Manoilenko (University of Melbourne), Maria Tumarkin (University of Melbourne). The Symposium Keynote was presented by Dr Darya Tsymbalyuk (the University of Chicago, USA). Dinda Veskarahmi (MStratCom) assisted with the Symposium organisation.
The Symposium engaged with diplomatic stakeholders. HE Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia and New Zealand, addressed the Symposium participants who discussed with the Ambassador Ukraine’s knowledge and public diplomacy outreach in Australia and New Zealand. A UK diplomat from the UK High Commission to New Zealand, Alexander Hill, attended the first day of the Symposium. The Symposium participants are now working together on a Special Issue of a peer-reviewed journal.
