The Annual Cambridge Lecture in Medieval and Early Modern Slavonic Studies was launched in 2016 to examine key questions of early Slavonic Studies, with a particular focus on the lands of present-day Ukraine. It features leading scholars who study the ever-changing cultural landscape of the Ukrainian lands and the varied composition and character of their inhabitants from the medieval period to the late eighteenth century.

In line with current trends in scholarship, the series moves beyond deep-rooted national paradigms and adopts a transnational approach to the study of the Rus and Ruthenian past and to the early modern history of Ukraine and its neighbours. It casts Ukraine as a multifocal centre for the formulation and transformation of political notions, social paradigms and cultural identities.

In March 2017, the Second Annual Lecture was delivered by Dr Yury Avvakumov, Assistant Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame. His topic was 'The “Uniates” and the Invention of Eastern Orthodoxy: Late Byzantine and Kyivan Advocates of Church Union in the Crossfire between Rome, Constantinople, and Moscow'.

Prior to joining the Department of Theology at Notre Dame University, Dr Avvakumov taught at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv where he taught Historical Theology before becoming the Rev. Basil Galyarnyk Professor of History, Dean of the Humanities Faculty and Founding Director of the Classical, Byzantine and Medieval Studies Department (2003-2009). He also was Visiting Professor in Church Slavonic at the Ukrainian Free University (2002-2007), Munich, and Lecturer in Latin and Greek language and Patristic literature in the Russian Orthodox Theological Seminary and Academy in Leningrad (1984-1991).