LYME—On Thursday, Oct. 30, from 6 to 8 p.m., a Lyme resident who recently traveled to Ukraine will help present an “insider’s view” at the Lyme Public Library.
The discussion and slideshow, titled “Present Day Ukraine: An Insider’s View,” will reveal the country through three different perspectives highlighting the efforts of the humanitarian volunteer organization Plebeian Helpers.
Joining local resident Gina DiGuardia, who visited Ukraine to assist in Plebeian Helpers‘ work, will be two Wesleyan University professors from the Eurasian studies department and a Ukrainian student currently in the U.S.
Learn more about the current situation in Ukraine from people, who have seen things first-hand, and to learn about how you can help support the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom.
STONINGTON–On Saturday, Oct. 25, the Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) will host two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David S. Rohde for a talk titled “Sincerity, Dialogue and Empathy from Bosnia to Afghanistan to America.”
The 5 p.m. presentation will be held at the La Grua Center, 32 Water St., Stonington.
Rohde, an NBC journalist and executive, is best known for his in-depth reporting on international conflict and national security.
SECWAC in a press release said Rohde will describe how sincerity, dialogue and empathy helped him cover the wars in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and how those skills continue to help him report in a politically polarized America. Rohde will describe how sincerity helped him reveal the mass executions of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica and his recent return there for the 30th anniversary of the killings; how dialogue helped him cover Afghanistan; and how empathy helps him cover a divided America.
Rohde was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008 while reporting in Afghanistan, and was held captive for over seven months before escaping. His experience became the subject of the book “A Rope and a Prayer,” co-written with his wife, Kristen Mulvihill.
He first gained recognition in 1996 for uncovering the Srebrenica massacre while reporting for The Christian Science Monitor. He was awarded his second Pulitzer in 2009 as part of The New York Times team covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Over the course of his career, Rohde has reported for major news outlets including The New York Times, Reuters, and The Christian Science Monitor, covering global hotspots and high-stakes political issues.
He is currently serving as executive editor of newyorker.com, the digital platform of The New Yorker, and continues to write and speak on topics related to foreign affairs, investigative journalism and press freedom.
SECWAC members are free. Non-Member in-person attendance is $20. Non-Members mayvisit this link to register. A post-presentation dinner will follow at the Old Lyme Inn for members only.
OLD LYME–On Monday, Oct. 6, the Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) will host historian Julia Irwin for a talk on her book, “Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century.”
Irwin’s presentation will begin at 6 p.m. in the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme and online. It will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.
SECWAC in an event description said Irwin, a history professor at Louisiana State University, will discuss her account of how the United States came to use foreign disaster assistance as a key instrument of diplomacy throughout the twentieth century.
Spanning the early 1900s to the mid-1970s, the book examines how the U.S. government, military, and voluntary organizations responded to major international catastrophes—including earthquakes, tropical storms, and floods—and how these efforts shaped the broader landscape of American foreign relations.
By weaving together diplomatic, military, environmental, and humanitarian histories, Irwin reveals the complex politics behind emergency aid and situates U.S. responses within a larger global context. Her work demonstrates the central, and often overlooked, role that disaster relief played in advancing American influence abroad.
Irwin earned her doctoral degree in history from Yale University and is a founding co-editor of The Journal of Disaster Studies and the book series InterConnections: The Global 20th Century. Her scholarship has been recognized with numerous national honors, including the Stuart L. Bernath Lecture Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
SECWAC members are free. Non-Member in-person attendance is $20. Non-Members mayvisit this link to register. A post-presentation dinner will follow at the Old Lyme Inn for members only.
Charov will talk about the book she wrote based on her mother’s diaries.
OLD LYME–The Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) this month hosts author Helen Charov in a presentation on her book “Tatyana’s War: Escape and Survival on the Eastern Front in World War II.”
The Thursday, Sept. 25 event will be held at 6 p.m. in the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme. It will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.
SECWAC in an event description said Charon was born Brooklyn, New York, to émigré parents, who came to the U.S. as displaced persons after World War II. Charov grew up in Sea Cliff, a village on Long Island’s north shore. After graduating from New York University, she traveled extensively throughout the USSR with a U.S. government exhibit. She lives in Connecticut.
Charov’s book has its origin in diaries belonging to her mother that were found in a Connecticut attic. There, Charov discovered an account of her mother’s life as a teacher in the Stalinist Soviet Union, the 1941 Nazi invasion of Donetsk, her survival under Nazi occupation, and her harrowing escape to the West.
“Tatyana’s War” tells the story of Tatyana Artemyeff, a 25-year-old teacher, as Nazi troops invaded her home of Donetsk, Ukraine, in 1941. The 25-year-old teacher was left on her own to save her two children and mother when her conscripted husband’s unit retreated from the city. Tatyana, who spoke German, was determined to find a way to survive the brutal occupation and keep her family from dying of starvation or execution.
