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Mechella Yezernitskaya, a Ph.D. candidate in the history of art department, is a Ukrainian American. She began work on her dissertation, “Wartime Art and Conflict in the Russian and Soviet Avant-Gardes, 1914–1928," shortly after the events of the Maidan Revolution, the annexation of Crimea, and the war in Donbas.

In 2016, she travelled to the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine to participate in the Eighth International Social Science Summer School's workshop titled “War and Violent Conflict in Soviet and Post-Soviet Societies” hosted at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

"At the time, the city was a crucial transit point for internally displaced people from the conflict areas and combatants returning from the war in Donbas, and today the city is a complete war zone," says Mechella. "The workshop was a formative experience as it brought me closer to the varied actors of war than I had ever been before. During the fieldwork component of the workshop, I learned about the humanitarian efforts of a local NGO and the role of the  in maintaining objective reporting and the fostering of peace and stability on the ground. Now, as I complete the final chapters of my dissertation, I am bearing witness to the horrors of the ongoing war in Ukraine."

As a Ukrainian American, this war hits close to home for Mechella, whose immediate family members and many friends remain in Ukraine. Her correspondence has consisted of daily text messages with friends in Kharkiv, and phone calls and video calls with her father, brother, aunts, cousins, and grandmother in the city of Dnipro as air raid sirens continuously ring and explosions are heard in the background. Located in central eastern Ukraine, Dnipro has emerged as a humanitarian hub for those fleeing the eastern parts of the country and for wounded soldiers returning from the frontlines.

"One of the questions I ask in my dissertation is, what does it mean to be physically far but psychologically close to a conflict? I find myself in the role of someone who is experiencing this war from afar yet incredibly close to my loved ones," says Mechella. 

Mechella has tried to harness this trauma and grief into a positive outlet by helping those in need. She started a focusing on individuals and organizations that operate on a small, local, and grassroots level. Many of these volunteers are risking their lives in order to deliver essential humanitarian aid such as food, drinking water, hygiene items, baby care, and medicine to people who are displaced and who remain in Ukraine. 

"It was important for me to utilize an accessible and continuously updating platform in order to ensure donor confidence, transparency, and accountability," says Mechella. "I am amazed by the outpouring of support from the ������̳ community and beyond."

Know about a Mawrter making a difference? Send us an email at news@brynmawr.edu