David R. Marples

Marples is a former President of The North American Association for Belarusian Studies (2010–15) and was formerly Director of the Stasiuk Program on Contemporary Ukraine at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2004–14), University of Alberta. In 2014 he was a Visiting Professor at the Slavic and Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University, Japan. At the University of Alberta he is a recipient of the J. Gordin Kaplan Award for Excellence in Research (2003) and the University Cup (2008), the university's highest award.

He is regarded as one of the leading Western authorities on the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe (social and political aspects), Lukashenko's regime in Belarus, and contemporary Ukraine. In 2014 he published Our Glorious Past': Lukashenka's Belarus and the Great Patriotic War', the product of an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In 2017, he published 'Ukraine in Conflict' with E-International Relations Publishing. In 2020, he co-edited a book with Aya Fujiwara entitled Hiroshima-75: Nuclear Issues in Global Contexts," published by Ibidem-Verlag, and the result of a conference at the University of Alberta. As a historian Marples has written extensively on Eastern European history of the 20th Century including such major historical events as the Russian Revolution 1917-1920, Ukrainian Famine 1932-1933, Stalinism, and fall of the Soviet Union. His most recent work concerns the NKVD executions in Belarus in 1937-1941 and mass burials at Kurapaty, Chajsy, and other sites.

Marples also contributed to ongoing debates surrounding Ukrainian nationalism and nationalistic myth-making. In the February 7, 2010 issue of The Edmonton Journal he authored an opinion piece "Hero of Ukraine linked to Jewish killings; Honorary title sure to provoke divisions among Ukrainians today." The piece sparked a new wave of debate surrounding Bandera's figure and his role in Ukrainian history. Eventually, the most important texts of the debate were republished in Ukraine in the collection "Strasti za Banderoiu" (Passions of Bandera, 2010).

Marples has written frequently on current political matters of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine for Edmonton Journal, Topchubashov Center, Kyiv Post, Moscow Times, Eurasia Daily Monitor, Open Democracy, Politicon, and others.