Skip to content
Explore what’s happening at the Museum

Marnie Howlett: Understanding Ukrainian Resistance Amidst Russia’s Full-Scale War

Date: 2026 Jan 28

Time 7pm - 8:30pm

  • Events & Programs
  • Lecture

How do past generations shape how Ukrainians understand and defend their country today? In this timely talk, Dr. Marnie Howlett examines how historical memory—war, borders, and political upheaval—continues to shape Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s full-scale invasion. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and national public opinion research since 2022, she offers insight into how Ukrainians view the state, the land, and their role in defending it.

Dr. Marnie Howlett is a lecturer at the University of Oxford whose research focuses on geopolitics, nationalism, and territory in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. She is currently writing a book on why ordinary Ukrainians volunteered to defend their state after 2022.

Free for members / $7 non-members
No registration required

Events & Programs

Description

How do the experiences of past generations shape how Ukrainians understand and defend their country today? In this timely talk, Dr. Marnie Howlett explores how memories of earlier wars, shifting borders, and decades of political upheaval continue to influence Ukraine’s extraordinary resistance to Russia’s full-scale invasion. Drawing on a full year of fieldwork and six national public opinion studies conducted since 2022, Dr. Howlett offers fresh insight into how ordinary Ukrainians see the state, the land, and their role within it—and what this means for Ukraine’s future at home and on the world stage.

Dr. Marnie Howlett is a Departmental Lecturer in Russian and Eastern European Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations and the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford. She completed her PhD in International Relations at the LSE in 2021 and holds a BA (High Honours) in International Studies and an MA in Political Science from the University of Saskatchewan.

Her research explores the intersections of geopolitics, cartography, and nationalism in the former Soviet Union, with a focus on Ukraine. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, she has led multiple projects on war outcomes, nationalism, and territory, including six public opinion and conjoint surveys. She is currently writing a book on why ordinary Ukrainians volunteered to defend their state after the invasion.