The Department of History and the Institute of Global Studies have been pleased to host visiting professor Oleksandr (Alex) Komarenko from spring 2024 through spring 2025. He has taught one course in our department each semester as well as giving lectures in the Minnesota region. He provides students unique opportunities to learn about the making of history and another perspective on the antecedents in addition to the entire faculty whose experience will be enriched by his presence.
What brought you to the University of Minnesota?
I am an associate professor at the faculty of history of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, where I have been teaching for about 35 years. I have also been invited to lecture at universities in the USA, Japan, and Turkey on numerous occasions. During my second Fulbright Scholarship in 2017–18, I was a visiting professor at Hamline University, St. Paul, where I taught courses on the history and politics of the Russian Empire, the USSR, and the post-Soviet space, along with the history and politics of Eastern European countries. During my work, I met and began to fruitfully collaborate with many American colleagues, including those from UMN. The collaboration continued after my return to Ukraine and reached a new level after the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, when the entire world, and the United States in particular, became extremely interested in the causes and historical roots of what led to the bloodiest conflict in Europe since WWII. Thanks to the Institute for Global Studies, the College of Liberal Arts, the Department of History at UMN, and the esteemed donors my visit here became a reality, for which I am sincerely grateful to everyone involved.
