Tag: Ukrainian

It was an interesting experience, speaking with St. Martin students from Edmonton AB this afternoon. We always log in on the virtual visit fifteen minutes or so early to ensure everything is working, and it was. But Microsoft Teams gods were not with us, because once the students settled in, the screens for both classrooms went blank and no matter what Ms Pohoreski or Ms Alexandruk did, that’s how the screens remained. So I presented to two blank screens. When students asked questions, their voices were crisp and clear and their questions were well-considered. I made eye contact with the web-cam and pretended it was a student. I was grateful to get this pic to see all the lovely students I was talking to! Many thanks to HREC ED for the funding!

It was a lively and informed discussion with a great group of students, alumni, scholars and readers, touching on the research I did in order to write this book and the reasons for including uncomfortably historically accurate Canadian characters. We also discussed the tendency in Holodomor literature to portray people as all good or all bad and why I went out of my way not to do that, and also what else I consciously avoided.