Four JMU professors are live streaming a panel discussion Tuesday [March 1] on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
WMRA's operating license is held by JMU's board of visitors, and JMU sponsors our programming .
Daniel Beers, who teaches justice studies at JMU, said their target audience is –
DANIEL BEERS: Anybody who wants to understand more about some of the backstory, history of Russia and Ukraine and the relationship between them; anybody who wants to kind of understand what this conflict actually means for the people of Ukraine, for the region more broadly, for international peace and stability, and as well for the humanitarian consequences of the conflict.
He worked for USAID's Parliamentary Development Project in Ukraine for three years in the mid-2000s.
BEERS: I've been following events in Ukraine closely for a number of years, and I've written on the development process there – the political and institutional development. But I've also kind of done quite a bit of work on humanitarian assistance and I've been watching the humanitarian situation closely … I'm afraid the number of refugees have really swelled in the last few days. We kind of saw this coming, but it's actually even a little bigger than I had anticipated.
As of Monday morning, more than 500,000 refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees. Questions for the panelists can be sent to civic@jmu.edu. The panel will be held on Tuesday at 4 p.m. on the JMU Civic Youtube page.
