Ukrainian Academic Takes Refuge In Medford Thanks To Tufts Program

By Morgan Gozales, reporter at The Daily Voice

The work of a lifetime does not stop because of political or humanitarian crises, at least for academics supported by Tufts University’s Scholars at Risk program. 

Tufts has participated in the international umbrella program “Scholars at Risk” since 2011, according to the university. The program has recently expanded and is currently supporting four academics from war-torn countries, two from Afghanistan and two from Ukraine.

Volodymr Dubovyk, who has a permanent position in Ukraine as an associate professor at Odesa Mechnikov National University, now holds a temporary position as a visiting professor at Tufts University in Medford. 

Dubovyk moved to Medford in October 2022, months after receiving an offer to participate in the Scholars at Risk program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The delay was caused by Ukraine’s martial law which makes it difficult for men to leave the country, he said.

The process of getting the proper paperwork and leaving his country was an emotional one, Dubovyk said. 

“Everything’s emotional for us since this massive war started,” he said. “We’re really traumatized in Ukraine.” 

Dubovyk, a two-time Fulbright scholar, has continued teaching his students in Ukraine since the war began but has done so virtually. 

“They need to continue their studies and get to their degree, we need to do our jobs as well,” he said. “It’s some kind of a contribution to the entire nation and effort, to show resilience and not let Russia’s invasion disrupt our lives.”

Meeting in the virtual classroom has become increasingly fraught, Dubovyk says, because Russian drones and missiles can disrupt students wifi and electricity. In-person teaching remains impossible frequent air raid alerts that can happen multiple times a day, sending people to basements to shelter. 

Along with his online classes for his university in Ukraine, Dubovyk is currently teaching a course on Ukraine security and foreign policy at Tufts, where he shares a lot of information from his personal experience.

The Scholars at Risk program was primarily used for Afghani scholars before the war in Ukraine, according to Dubovyk, but the program continues to support Afghani refugees as well. 

One of the Afghani refugees currently involved in the program is Sima Samar, a medical doctor, activist, and human rights defender.

Samar, who is also a Carr Center fellow at Harvard University, is using the Tufts Scholars at Risk program to work on her autobiography and is working on establishing a center for Afghani human rights at Fletcher.

“It’s really good for people like me who are forced to flee their country, because of my political thinking and the work I do on human rights,” Samar said of the Scholars at Risk program. “It’s a place we can survive and share our experience with our students.”

Samar believes people should know about the realities of Afghanistan other than what is shown by the media and believes that this program facilitates that education. 

“Afghanistan is not a backwards country,” Samar said. “The issue is a collective issue … a failure of many groups, including the US and the UN.”

For Samar and Dubovyk, Scholars at Risk is a mutually beneficial program in which academics can further careers that may otherwise have been left on pause and the university gets access to talented scholars with unique perspectives.

This post is republished from The Daily Voice.