URI Political Science Professor Nicolai Petro will join the Google+ Hangout from Ukraine, where he’s been engaged in discussions with Ukrainian politicians, religious leaders and academics. URI Business Professor Michael De Angelis, who has been consulting with Ukraine on behalf of the U.S. Department of Treasury to help develop the country’s debt laws, will join the Hangout from Paris. And Ukrainian Bogdan Prokopovych, a visiting business professor at URI, will join the Hangout from his office on the URI Kingston campus with his perspective.
URI Political Science Professor Kristin Johnson will moderate the discussion with questions submitted by viewers in the Livestream chat box. Viewers can also connect during the live interview via Twitter by tweeting their questions and comments and adding the hashtag #URIukraine.
Visit Facebook or Livestream for updates and more information, or contact social media coordinator Shelbey Bidell with any questions about this event at sbidell@uri.edu or 401-874-5190.
Petro, a scholar of Russian politics and culture, is living in Odessa, Ukraine for a year on a Fulbright grant to study the role of the Russian Orthodox Church. He has not only been engaged in discussions with Ukrainian politicians, religious leaders and academics, but Petro has also written widely about the situation and even had an op-ed piece featured in the New York Times. A contributor to several recent media interviews, Petro has also Skyped from Ukraine with a URI International Political Economy class to share his views on the Ukrainian protests, the role of Europe, the US and Russia in Ukrainian politics, and the prospects for reconciliation and unity.
De Angelis is a lecturer of law with a specialization in finance for URI’s College of Business Administration. In 1995, he began consulting in Ukraine on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Technical Assistance to help develop the country’s sovereign and sub-sovereign debt laws. He has also met with various Ukrainian government agencies as part of The World Bank Group’s Economic Policy and Debt Department, to discuss local government debt and debt adjustment and bankruptcy, and to explore the development of a Municipal Bond Bank to provide financing for infrastructure. As a result of his work in Ukraine the last 20 years, several stakeholders have sought De Angelis’ counsel in the current Ukrainian debt crisis.
Prokopovych, who is originally from Poltava, Ukraine, completed his Ph.D. in Business Administration at URI in 2012, and is now a visiting assistant professor of entrepreneurial management for URI’s College of Business Administration. A former Kauffman Dissertation Fellow and URI Coastal Institute IGERT Fellow, Prokopovych’s research includes strategic management, entrepreneurship, and international business with a focus on environmental and sustainability issues. Prior to joining the doctoral program at URI, Prokopovych worked at the International Finance Corporation of The World Bank Group in Kyiv, Ukraine, on a survey of the business climate for small and medium enterprises.
Johnson joined URI’s Political Science Department in the Fall of 2007. Her current research interests include examining the relationship between state capabilities and civil conflict, resource distribution and development, remittances, and the subnational study of political and economic transitions. She is also the former co-editor of International Interactions and current member of the TransPacific Consortium.