The 24th annual Mohyla Lecture took place via Zoom on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. This year’s presentation featured Dr. Adrian Ivakhiv, Professor of Environmental Thought & Culture from the University of Vermont, who delivered the lecture entitled “The Chornobyl Event: Ecology, Media and the Anthropocene.” It has been 36 years since the catastrophic nuclear explosion, and today, the plant, the nearby towns of Prypiat and Chornobyl and the surrounding land, make up a 2,600-square-kilometer “exclusion zone,” which is restricted to nearly everyone except for scientists and government officials. Dr. Ivakhiv’s lecture connected the events of 1986 with subsequent political changes in the world, including major changes within the former Soviet Union, influences on the evolution of present-day Russia and Ukraine, and even the preamble to the current war, which began less than a week after this lecture. He argued that changes needed by society, such as dealing with the climate crisis, are often precipitated by ‘hyper-events” like the Chornobyl explosion, which reshape the possibilities for perception and action. We thank Dr. Ivakhiv for his interesting and insightful lecture, and thank all of our supporters who tuned in remotely.
The full lecture can be seen on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Z9l3Stob8&t=2278s
Written by: Paul Sinkewicz
