CGSC & EJIS Annual Lecture - Recording Available Now

Ukraine’s defiance in the face of a full-scale invasion by Russia has been a source of inspiration and surprise. Russia’s offensive that involved sophisticated military deployments with the intention of taking over the country’s capital was met with unprecedented grassroots mobilisation among the country’s population. From the objects of military violence, targets of Russia’s attacks have emerged as sites of productive resistance, using affordances of their physical and digital environment to forestall the impending occupation. This annual lecture presents an investigation into the role everyday digital technologies play in facilitating civilian resistance in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Olga Boichak is a lecturer in Digital Cultures at the University of Sydney. She is a media sociologist whose interests span networks, narratives, and cultures of activism in the digital age. Boichak is an editor of the Digital War journal and the author of a series of commentaries and publications on contemporary Ukraine. Her scholarship adds a participatory dimension to wars with a focus on information operations, volunteering, military crowdfunding, and diasporic humanitarianism. Prior to relocating to Australia, she co-led a project that explored the influence of social bots in political conversations online (Syracuse University, USA), and currently leads the Computational Social Science Lab at the University of Sydney. Her work has appeared, among others, in Big Data & Society, International Journal of Communication, Media, War & Conflict, Intelligence and National Security, and the Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Digital Media. She is the recipient of several fellowships and awards, including the Young Generation Will Change Ukraine, Fulbright, and the SOAR Prize.