The Nanovic Institute welcomes Rory Finnin, author of Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity (University of Toronto Press, 2022), the recipient of the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies. Finnin will join the Nanovic Institute to receive the prize and deliver a public lecture to faculty, students, staff, and the general public on October 3, 2024.
In the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “this Russian war against Ukraine and against all of free Europe began with Crimea. And it will end with Crimea — with its liberation.” Zelensky’s bold prediction is an urgent reminder. Crimea is the ground zero of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the largest and most dangerous armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War. In February 2014, Russia’s war began with the military seizure of Crimea; in February 2022 it escalated with a full-scale invasion launched in part from Crimea.
In the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize Lecture, Professor Rory Finnin (University of Cambridge) explains the profound significance of Crimea and shares untold stories of local resistance to Russian colonialism, past and present. Through literary and archival sources, he sheds light on the remarkable history and culture of Crimea’s indigenous Sunni Muslim people, the Crimean Tatars. His lecture argues that Ukrainian-Crimean Tatar relations are a key to understanding contemporary Ukraine and its vibrant civic national identity, which may be the most powerful force defending liberal democracy today.
About the speaker
Rory Finnin is professor of Ukrainian studies at the University of Cambridge. He launched the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies program in 2008. Finnin’s primary research interest is the interplay of culture and identity in Ukraine. His broader research interests include nationalism studies, solidarity studies, and cultural memory in the region of the Black Sea. Finnin is a graduate of St Ignatius High School (Cleveland), Georgetown University (B.A.), and Columbia University (Ph.D.). In 1995-97 he served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine.
Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.