Professor Michael Strmiska will offer an historical overview from Kyivan Rus as an original Ukrainian/Russian state circa 1000 through the creation of independent Ukraine at the end of the Soviet Union in 1991; Ukraine's relationship with East and West: with Russia and the EU and USA; Russian seizure of Crimea and Russian-Ukrainian Conflict in the Eastern Ukrainian Donbas region; Russia’s attack on Eastern Ukraine; Putin's rejection of Ukraine’s existence as an independent nation, and the role of Russian propaganda.

SUNY Orange Global Studies Professor Michael Strmiska is a scholar of World History and a researcher of eastern and northern Europe. As a Fulbright Fellow, he was a visiting lecturer at Šiauliai University in Lithuania in 2004, and has been a guest lecturer for Vilnius University in Lithuania. He was a visiting professor at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic in 2015, and in 2020 was a Fulbright Fellow teaching at Rīga Stradiņš University in Latvia. Dr. Strmiska has traveled extensively in Eastern Europe, including Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Croatia, Russia, and Ukraine. In 2017, he was chosen as a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor's Award, Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. He holds a B.A. from Hampshire College, an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. from Boston University. He is the author of "Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives," and is currently working on a book tentatively entitled "Unchristian Eastern Europe: Pagans, Jews, Gypsies and Muslims." He also has published articles on new religious movements in Iceland, Lithuania, and Latvia.