Our World FACULTY/STUDENTS Ukraine, Russia
Breaking Down the Conflict Faculty discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This spring, many Americans watching distressing images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wanted answers. Why is Russia waging war on Ukraine? And how can other countries help? To examine the issues at stake, the USC Global Policy Institute — a student-run foreign affairs think tank and education institute — teamed up with USC Dornsife’s Department of Political Science and International Relations, Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies and Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures to present three crisis briefings on the situation in Ukraine. Thomas Seifrid, professor of Slavic languages and literatures, explained that although many countries have accepted Ukraine as an independent state since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Vladimir Putin and other Russians have continually regarded the country as culturally, historically and geographically tied to the former USSR. “Putin has now made a clear decision to go for it at all costs, which is why this fear of a Grozny-like outcome is well-founded,” said Robert English, associate professor of international relations, Slavic languages and literatures, and environmental studies, referring to the damage Putin inflicted on Chechnya when the republic sought independence in the 1990s. The experts agreed that sanctioning Russia and opening borders to Ukrainian refugees are good first steps in terms of countermeasures, but that time will tell whether these initiatives will prove sufficient. —M.M.
For years, Steve Swerdlow, associate professor of the practice of political science and international relations at USC Dornsife and a human rights lawyer, has been researching and advocating for the release of political and religious prisoners in many former Soviet states, including Uzbekistan. Now, he is giving his students an insight into human rights work through his international relations courses by providing them with profiles of prisoners and encouraging students to investigate their cases. “There are thousands of nameless, faceless religious prisoners out there who we know were largely innocent and not connected to terrorism,” he says. “They need someone to advocate for them.” Swerdlow recently presented a report to Congress on the state of religious prisoners in Uzbekistan. He hopes that his classes will impart to students the necessity of human rights work. “My students are the next generation of human rights defenders,” says Swerdlow. “I hope these experiences will inspire them to fight for an end to the phenomenon of the political prisoner, or at least to ensure that political prisoners around the world will always have an advocate.” —M.M.
ALUMNUS California The indigenous Patwin people have lived in California for more than 1,500 years, but after decades of forced assimilation, their language is nearly extinct. Thanks to Lewis Lawyer ’05, the Patwin language finally has its first grammar book. Lawyer’s love of linguistics was first sparked in an undergraduate class at USC Dornsife. It inspired him to switch from jazz studies to a linguistics and music major. While working on his PhD at the University of California, Davis, Lawyer realized his dissertation topic felt too esoteric. “I really wanted to take all these years of linguistics training that started at USC Dornsife and write something that people could actually use,” says Lawyer. He reached out to the UC Davis Native American Studies Department and discovered that the university was situated on the site of a former Patwin village. The tribe’s language was severely endangered and tribe members were working to revitalize it. Using archival records, Lawyer wrote the first book on Patwin grammar. It’s work that reflects his belief in the power of linguistics, first sparked at USC Dornsife. “Language is an essential part of the cultural fiber of a people,” says Lawyer. —M.C.
IMAGE SOURCE: ISTOCK
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FACULTY/STUDENTS Uzbekistan, Worldwide
