Speaker: Francine Hirsch, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Speaker: Francine Hirsch is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches courses on Russian and Soviet history, postwar Europe, and the history of human rights. Her first book, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Cornell, 2005), received several awards, including the Wayne S. Vucinich Prize of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Her second book, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War Two (Oxford, 2020), won four book prizes including the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association. Hirsch has published in a number of venues including the New Republic, Time, the LA Times, and The Washington Post. Hirsch has launched a new book project on the long history of Russian-American entanglement, tentatively titled Enemies, A Love Story.

Abstract: As Russia continues to wage a predatory war against Ukraine, international lawyers and world leaders have been drafting proposals for a “special international tribunal” to try Putin for waging an illegal war of aggression—committing crimes against peace. What are crimes against peace? Why will it be critical to hold Putin and other Russian leaders accountable for waging an illegal war? Why is it important to talk about postwar justice now? How can the history of war crimes trials help us to think about and plan for the future?

Registration link: illinois.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QdZqsZhkSKiJhDahgOSKqw