Initiated in 2003, the annual Stasiuk Lecture in Contemporary Ukrainian Studies explores the internal dynamics and international implications of events in today's Ukraine and features the foremost experts in the fields of Ukrainian politics, history, and society.

The event is organized by Cambridge Ukrainian Studies with the support of the Cambridge Ukrainian Society. From 2003 to 2010, the lecture was generously supported by the Stasiuk Programme for Contemporary Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta. The name of the lecture honours this support and collaboration.

The Thirteenth Annual Stasiuk Lecture, which will be held on 27 February 2015, will be delivered by Professor Timothy Snyder of Yale University. The title of his presentation is 'The Fog of Memory: From the Great Fatherland War to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine'.

Timothy Snyder is the Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale University, specializing in the history of central and eastern Europe. Born in 1969 in southwestern Ohio and a graduate of Centerville High School, he received his B.A. from Brown University and his doctorate from the University of Oxford, where he was a British Marshall Scholar at Balliol College.

Among his publications are five award-winning books, all of which have been translated: Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles Krauz (1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (2003); Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist’s Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (2005); The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (2008); and Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010).

Bloodlands has won ten awards including the Emerson Prize in the Humanities, a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Leipzig Award for European Understanding. It has been translated into twenty-five languages, was named to twelve book-of-the-year lists, and was a bestseller in four countries. His forthcoming history of the Holocaust, Black Earth, will be published by Bodley Head this September.

In May 2014 Professor Snyder co-organised the international conference Ukraine: Thinking Together, which gathered a group of intellectuals in Kyiv to demonstrate solidarity, engage with Ukrainian partners, and promote a broad public discussion about the meaning of Ukrainian pluralism for the future of Europe, Russia, and the world.

The event is free and open to the public, but online registeration is required. Please note that venue is Keynes Hall, King's College, Cambridge.