The Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sent shock-waves around the world. The Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE) responded to the war by creating several unique initiatives:
- The WCEE Scholars at Risk Fellowship, an emergency program that brought seven Ukrainian scholars and their families to the University of Michigan for three years.
- Partnership with the The Reckoning Project, an international NGO dedicated to collecting fact-based, legally admissible testimonies from witnesses and victims of human rights violations, war crimes, and other atrocities in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion. WCEE’s team of student research assistants, translators, and editors carefully analyzed testimonies from more than 300 incidents and prepared them for legal, archival, commemorative, and educational purposes. In February 2024, WCEE released a new website with two interactive maps and an archive of testimonies that serve as a pedagogical tool and memorial to the victims of the war. WCEE then developed and released free teaching materials for high school educators to teach about the war in Ukraine and broader issues such as human rights, genocide, war crimes, and soverignty.
- Partnership with the Atlantic Council to host the Symposium on the Future of Ukraine at U-M on December 2-3, 2024. The unique undertaking brought together 17 experts—diplomats, policy makers, deep thinkers, and leaders—from Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, European Union member states, and Russia to produce policy recommendations for the incoming U.S. administration. Over two full days of closed-door discussions, participants addressed key questions ranging from Ukraine’s future security and NATO; democracy, corruption, and EU accession; and Russia’s role in the world. The intensive efforts of the participants resulted in a robust, yet concise one-page policy paper “A Winning Strategy to end Russia’s War against Ukraine,” which was shared with officials in the Biden and Trump administrations.
- Ukraine-related events to educate the U-M and greater Detroit area communities, including a teach-in for students and faculty shortly after the full-scale invasion, lectures by Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander Vindman and Iuliia Mendel, President Zelenskyy’s former press-secretary and 2023-24 WCEE Distinguished Fellow. WCEE also hosted roundtables, sponsored film screenings and performances, and curated art exhibitions.
- NGO Leadership Workshops for Ukrainian civil society leaders and others in the region assisting Ukrainian refugees.
- Fellowships for Ukrainian PhD students to conduct short-term research at the University of Michigan, as well as summer fellowships to attend ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) training virtually.
Read more about WCEE’s Ukraine-related initiatives.
