Chornobyl 40 Years After the Disaster

A panel discussion on Chornobyl 40 years after the disaster and the impact of the ongoing war, with invited panelists from Ukraine.
The event is organised by Baltic Worlds in collaboration with the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl Disaster, Baltic Worlds published 10 essays by historians, art researchers, ethnologists, and life scientists working on Chornobyl-related issues, mostfrom Ukraine but also from Belarus, Western Europe, and North America. The multidisciplinary theme section is guest-edited by Tatiana Kaspeski, a researcher at Södertörn University, and Oksana Semenik, an art historian, curator, and researcher based in Kyiv. Together, these essays give an overview of the multiple, layered memories of Chornobyl—as a symbol of technological failure, a reminder of national tragedy and resilience, and a place for international technoscientific cooperation and collective reflection on nuclear and other technogenic risks. The particular focus of the issue is on the Chornobyl exclusion zone and the ongoing war that constitutes the background of the disaster's 40th commemoration.

Tatiana Kasperski will lead the discussion with the four presenting panellists. Olena Pareniuk, a radiologist at the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants, and Kateryna Shavanova, a specialist in genetics currently serving in the National Guard of Ukraine, will discuss the achievements of science in the Chornobyl zone and how scientific work has been affected by the war. Art historian Oksana Semenik and ethnologist Florence Fröhlig will explore meaning-making about the disaster in art and literature, respectively. Semenik will discuss the political and metaphysical dimensions of Maria Prymachenko’s striking, colourful paintings dedicated to disaster. Florence Fröhlig will consider how the remembrance of the disaster in Svetlana Alexievich's Chornobyl Prayer and the poem "To Prypiat" by Lyubov Sirota are invisible scars, silent traumas people carry and cannot erase or suppress.

Welcome remarks:
Lars-Göran Orrevall, board member of the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies and
Ninna Mörner, Editor-in-Chief, Baltic Worlds, Centre for Baltic and East European Studies