A free, day-long symposium, “Women and Holodomor-Genocide: Victims, Survivors and Perpetrators,” will be held Oct. 5 at the Henry Madden Library (Room 2206) at Fresno State. The symposium marks the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine-genocide that resulted in the deliberate starvation of millions of victims.

This is the second year of the symposium, which is designed to raise awareness about the genocide that has been edited out of history for more than half a century, said Dr. Victoria A. Malko, a Fresno State history professor.

Discussions of gender aspects of the Holodomor will help personalize the history of genocidal practices in Ukraine and their consequences. The goal is to help high school teachers and college and university faculty develop curricula for teaching the subject.

The symposium will open at 8 a.m. with a poster exhibit, “We Were Killed Because We Are Ukrainians,” presented by the Holodomor Victims Memorial. The program will conclude with songs performed by Ola Herasymenko-Oliynyk, Merited Artist of Ukraine.

Renowned speakers from Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ukraine will share their stories and research findings. Dr. Myroslava Antonovych, director of the Centre for International Human Rights, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine, will focus on the three techniques of genocide — biological, physical and cultural eradication of the Ukrainian nation.

Dr. Olga Bertelsen, a visiting research scholar from the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute in Florence, Italy, will share her findings on the least investigated phenomenon of survivor cannibalism at sites of genocide in Soviet Ukraine.

A screening of “Hunger for Truth: The Rhea Clyman Story” will be held Nov. 9 at the Alice Peters Auditorium in the University Business Center. This feature-length documentary was an official selection at the 2018 USA Film Festival in Dallas, where it won honorable mention in the International Short Film Competition. A post-screening discussion with Emmy award-winning filmmaker Andrew Tkach and Dr. Michelle DenBeste, dean of the College of Social Sciences at Fresno State, will follow.

All of the symposium events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Victoria A. Malko, coordinator of the Holodomor Symposium, at vmalko@csufresno.edu