Rory Finnin

Biography

Rory Finnin is the Notre Dame Collegiate Mission Chair in Ukrainian Studies and Global Affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is also the director of the Ukrainian Studies Hub at the Keough School’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies. In addition, Finnin is a core-affiliated faculty member of the institute. 

Finnin’s primary research interest is the interplay of culture and identity in Ukraine. He also focuses on the history of colonialism in Crimea and studies Crimean Tatar literature and culture. His broader research interests include nationalism studies, solidarity studies and cultural memory in the region of the Black Sea. 

His 2022 book, “Blood of Others: Stalin’s Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity,” won eight international book awards, including the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies, which is administered by the Nanovic Institute. The work earned distinctions in the fields of Ukrainian studies, European studies, Slavic studies, nationalism studies and genocide studies.

In 2026, Finnin received the inaugural Ukrainian Studies Distinguished Award for Personal Contribution to the Development of Ukrainian Studies, presented by the Global Coalition for Ukrainian Studies at the L’viv National Opera.

Finnin has appeared on broadcast media outlets including the BBC, CNN, NBC, Sky News and Al Jazeera. His commentary has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, The Times, The New Yorker and Newsweek. 

He joined the University of Notre Dame in 2026 from the University of Cambridge, where he served as professor of Ukrainian studies and launched the university's Ukrainian studies program. 

While at Cambridge, Finnin curated and organized more than 40 exhibitions and cultural events, from the Cambridge Festival of Contemporary Ukrainian Film to the Cambridge Vsesvit Literary Evening, which enriched public understanding of Ukraine’s language, history and society in Great Britain and beyond. He also convened Cambridge’s Disinformation and Media Literacy Special Interest Group, part of the university’s Trust and Technology Strategic Research Initiative. In addition, he won a Teaching Award for Outstanding Lecturer from the Cambridge University Students’ Union. 

Finnin is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and a graduate of Georgetown University (B.A.) and Columbia University (Ph.D). He also served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine (1995-97).