Session 4: In-Conversation: Perspectives from Ukraine
Larysa Zasiekina is a Professor of Psychology at Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, and currently holds a British Academy Researcher at Risk Fellowship, based at the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. Professor Zasiekina is a leading expert in PTSD and cultural aspects of the memory of trauma. Her focus is on the psychological inter-generational impact of genocide in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, including studies of survivors of the Holocaust and Holodomor (man-made famine in the Soviet Union targeting ethnic Ukrainians) and their children. As a Fulbright Scholar (2010-2011 and 2015-2016), she explored the collective traumas of Native Americans and African Americans in the USA. Professor Zasiekina’s clinical perspective and experience in trauma-focused therapies are central to the current project at the University of Cambridge, “Exposure to Continuous Traumatic Stress and Its Consequences among Young Adults in Ukraine”.
In times of crisis, the role of research is to generate evidence on what is the nature of problem? Where is the problem? Who is most affected by the problem and how can we deal with the problem? That being said, pandemics give no warnings, we should not wait for disease outbreaks to understand things that we should have known before. Research in times of crisis should serve to enhance our understanding of how existing control measures can be improved to swiftly end the crisis and prevent future crises.