Jessica Zychowicz PhD, University of Michigan; BA, University of California Berkeley
I am currently Director of Fulbright Ukraine and
IIE: Institute of International Education Kyiv.
For a recent press overview of the history of IIE since 1919 in light of current events, see here.
For ways to locate help for individuals or institutions impacted by the ongoing war, please get in touch through this site, or at above links. Additional resources are compiled here.
I am currently based in Warszawa/Kyiv.
I am a scholar, author, consultant, and curator.
I was born in the U.S. My ancestors arrived at Ellis Island in 1890-1910 and 1840s from Eastern Europe (Poland and "Ruthenia"), from Ireland, and from Germany. My great-grandfathers were tailors and small business owners then served in the American Civil War, and one of them was in Custer's Army in Michigan during WWI. Both of my grandfathers were in the U.S. Navy in WWII: one guarded the Pacific Front by air and the other fought the Axis in fascist Italy. Later on, in the postwar era my grandparents continued to support Europe from the U.S. They helped Poland's Solidarity Movement, dissidents defecting from the USSR, escapees of the GULAG, Holocaust survivors and others. Democracy was the language of both of my grandmothers who raised many children and educated them all, even though they, like many women of their own generation, were not able to attend university themselves. They inspire my work most of all.
I learned Ukrainian and Polish as an adult.
English is my native language; I learned Spanish as a child.
Several languages, religions, and nationalities
are woven into the fabric of my life.
Peace & Conflict Studies.
Human Rights.
Ukraine. Poland.
International Education.
Diplomacy. Historiography. Gender.
Social Movements & Protest.
Visual Culture.
February 2022-2023 Edition
Ukraine: War and Resistance:
Fulbright Stories from the
Unfinished War, Ed. Marian Luniv
(click images for full PDF)
Portrait by Oksana Briukhovetska, 2021
March 2022/2023 Edition
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:
UKRAINE: WAR AND RESISTANCE
Exhibition of American and Ukrainian Photographers, Alumni of the Fulbright Academic Exchange Program
So far 9 locations across America and in Ukraine: Vynnitsia City Museum in Ukraine; U-Minnesota; U-Penn; MichiganTech; U-Iowa. Upcoming in San Francisco, and Berlin in partnership with Fulbright Germany. Reach out here or at Fulbright Ukraine to bring this exhibition to your region, university, NGO, etc. We especially support endeavors raising awareness among the general public and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
This exhibit presents the works of JT Blatty, Alexey (Oleksii) Furman, Brendan Hoffman, Serhii Korovayny, Oksana Parafeniuk, Joseph Sywenkyj, and Emine Ziyatdinova. The authors of the photos are all Fulbright Alumni who are either from Ukraine, or Americans who spent their Fulbright year in Ukraine. With the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, a cohort of Fulbright photographers, both Ukrainians and Americans, found themselves at the epicenter of momentous events equipped with
their own weapons of defense: knowledge and a camera. They managed to capture the tragic and heroic, devastating and hopeful moments of present life in Ukraine. These photos were exhibited for the first time in Ukraine, during the fall of 2022 as a single exhibition at the Museum of the City of Vinnytsia.
Now, in 2023, both the geography and meaning of the exhibition continue to expand because the themes and plots within these works have become increasingly important for the preservation of democracy across the globe, and the victory of Ukraine. Thanks to the joint initiative of the Fulbright Academic Exchange Program in Ukraine, the Institute of International Education in Ukraine, and several partnering host institutions, the photo exhibition Ukraine: War and Resistance continues to travel, educate, and motivate.
NewsNet: News for the Association of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies v. 63 no. 2:
"Curating the War: A Conversation with Jessica Zychowicz and Grace Mahoney." March 2023. Link here.
PULP! Interview: " 'I HAVE A CRISIS FOR YOU': WOMEN ARTISTS OF UKRAINE RESPOND TO WAR' ACTS AS AN ARCHIVE OF WITNESS AND RESPONSE"
by Natalia Holtzman, Thursday, February 16, 2023. LINK HERE.
Panelist. "Solidarity with Ukraine: Scholars at Risk." IIE & Poland National Academy of Sciences. NAFSA Conference. Washington, D.C. May 2023.
Panelist. "Overview of the SUDUS Project since 2018: Strengthening Ukraine's Displaced Universities Sustainability" with Project Lead Serhiy Zaitsev.
Conference title: Education Disrupted! Universities in a Time of War! Co-organized by Redlands University, Kyiv National Economics
University, and University of Economics Bratislava. February 23, 2023.
Panelist. "Ukrainian Women and the War" with Dr. Cynthia Buckley, Dr. Marta Havryshko, Dr. Oksana Kis. Hosted virtually by the
Romanoff Center for Russian Studies, the Dept. of International & Area Studies, and the Dept. of Women's and Gender Studies
at the University of Oklahoma. Organized by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies Annual Panel Series.
February 16, 2023. Link here.
Keynote Speaker in-person in Dublin at Ireland Museum of Modern Art: 100 Years of Self-Determination, November 9, 10, 11. Link.
Chief Editor and contributing author. Peer-reviewed anthology featuring fifteen scholars. Due out early 2023.
Chapter. " 'As Never Before': The Body and Revolution in the Ukrainian Worlds of Natalka Husar and Lesia Khomenko" in
UKRAINIAN CANADIAN VISUAL ART, Eds. John-Paul Himka and
Kalyna Somchynsky. Edmonton, U-Alberta: Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada, 2022. Link. PDF.
Co-Editor, Special Issue of East West Journal of Ukrainian Studies Vol. 9 No. 2 (2022): "Odesa's Many Frontiers" University of Alberta.
Available here: East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies (ewjus.com).
Monograph, Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism and Revolution in Twenty-First Century Ukraine, Univ of Toronto Press, 2020.
Polish and Ukrainian versions both due out in 2023.
See among list of "10 Books for Understanding Ukraine" and also several reviews by scholars in U.S. and Europe, below.
More under "Publications & Talks"
Monograph. Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First Century Ukraine (Univ. of Toronto Press 2021).
More info here.
Women Artists of
Ukraine Respond
to War
August - Dec. 2022
University of Michigan
Catherina Lisovenko
Exhibition: Link here (additional site to be posted soon).
University of Michigan Inst. for Research on Women & Gender.
Curators: Jessica Zychowicz & Grace Mahoney. Featuring original works by 10 Ukrainian women artists. August 25 - December 31 2022. Lane Gallery.
Title Image: Ukraine Will Resist by Kinder Album (2022)
Conference. June 2022.
Co-organizers: Warsaw University, Fulbright Ukraine; Ivano-Frankivsk University
"Ucrainicum" 26th Annual Summer School, Greifswald, Germany, August 2022
Opening Lecture: "From the Revolution of Dignity to War: Critical Art Practices and Gender in Ukraine since 2013," J. Zychowicz. University of Dresden. Lecture Series, Doing Gender in Eastern European Art
Opening Lecture. Ireland Museum of Modern Art Summer School 2022. "From a War of Images to an Image of War: Artistic Representation in Poland & Ukraine 2000s to Today."
