KIU Upcoming and past events

6 p.m. - 8 p.m. // Russia’s war against Ukraine has changed Ukraine’s religious landscape. Due to its ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), once the biggest Christian denomination in the country, has faced declining membership, public scrutiny and restrictive government policies. Since February 2022, UOC members have been under pressure from society, the media, and the authorities to change their affiliation to the other religious jurisdiction, one that has the largest share of support in the country. 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. // Russia’s war against Ukraine has changed Ukraine’s religious landscape. Due to its ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), once the biggest Christian denomination in the country, has faced declining membership, public scrutiny and restrictive government policies. Since February 2022, UOC members have been under pressure from society, the media, and the authorities to change their affiliation to the other religious jurisdiction, one that has the largest share of support in the country.

6 p.m. - 8 p. m. // Since 1990, citizens of Ukraine have used two distinct forms of struggle against Russian domination of their country: first, many episodes of civil resistance including mass demonstrations on the Maidan in Kyiv, and then armed defense against Russian invasion and occupation, symbolized by the fight against the siege of Mariupol, now under Russian control. How does civil resistance persist in the occupied territories? What is the connectivity between 1990, 2004, 2014 and 2024? What lessons can be learned about the combination of two approaches?

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has not only led to military aggression but also sparked a new type of information war. In this context, the destruction of Ukraine's sovereignty and national identity has become a central theme in Russian narratives, which serve to construct anti-Ukrainian myths. Krylova-Grek examines the dual functions of language in information warfare: 1) how verbal ideological structures have been used by Russian authorities and media to construct anti-Ukrainian myths, and 2) the transformation of language in the context of armed conflict. The talk will analyze the evolution of Russian propaganda narratives, from hate speech to direct calls for inciting hate crimes. Special attention will be given to human rights violations in the context of international law.

4 - 6 p.m. // The undermining of the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant (KHPP) on 6 of June 2023 became one of the biggest russian war crimes in Ukraine. In the lecture, the multiple roles of rivers, the historical, economic and cultural context of hydropower development, and dam building with a special focus on the case of the Dnipro Hydropower Cascade, part of which is the KHPP, will be considered. The possible scenarios for the future of the area will be outlined. The presentation of the KIU-Fellow Tetiana Gardashuk is part of the seminar program ‘Sociology of Water’ of Estela Schindel. Location: European University Viadrina, Audimax, Logenstraße 4, 15230 Frankfurt (Oder), Room: AM 205

6 - 8 p.m. // Russia invaded Ukraine at a small scale in 2014 and then at full-scale in February 2022. The end of this war is uncertain, and the price of the continued war is already immense. About 20% of Ukraine’s territory has been occupied with the total infrastructural damages amounting to almost its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Combined economic losses and infrastructural damages make up more than 2.5 times Ukraine’s 2023 GDP. Despite the ongoing war, Ukraine is already rebuilding and has been able to reconstruct more than 5% of its damaged infrastructure. The reconstruction and recovery efforts require joint efforts and coordination from Ukraine and its partners and donors. A huge challenge will be to strike a balance between the urgent reconstruction needs and a more sustainable development path in accordance with the EU acquis and sustainability goals.

11: 00 a.m. // In his book, political philosopher Mykhailo Minakov examines the period from 1989 to 2022 as an unprecedented chapter in human history. Combining historical, sociological and philosophical perspectives, Mykhailo Minakov’s new book delves into the achievements and failures of this period. After the presentation, the author will discuss key results with ZOiS Director Gwendolyn Sasse.

In this lecture we will present a publication project whose idea emerged from a joint master's seminar at the HU. It is about nothing less than rewriting the legacy of Slavic literary theory. To this day, all Slavicists and, more generally, all literary scholars begin their studies by reading the ‘Texts of the russian Formalists’, which are generally regarded as the founding texts of 20th century literary theory. By making important essays by Ukrainian literary theorists accessible through translation from Ukrainian and Yiddish, we want to decenter the traditionally russocentric perspective and thereby also rewrite the canon of theory history. We want to show that russian formalism and the Ukrainian theoretical developments of the 1920s have a common Ukrainian origin and that important theoretical approaches also emerged in Kharkiv and Kyiv in response to formalism, which, through their regional focus and their sociological and reception-aesthetic orientation, not only contributed significantly to the general development of theory at the time, but also still appear inspiring and relevant today.

The US Embassy, together with the Competence Network for Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies (KIU) and the European University Viadrina, invite you to a film screening with lecture of Michael Kimmage on Wednesday, November 27, 6 p.m., in the main building of the Viadrina. Michael Kimmage’s presentation delves into the origins of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, starting in 2008, when war was not predestined, and traces Russia’s growing antagonism toward Ukraine as well as tensions with Europe and the United States. He examines why the war started and how its origins have influenced the war’s ongoing course, now in its third year. Kimmage concludes with insights on the lessons learned — or still to be learned — from the conflict, particularly focusing on their importance for Berlin, Washington, and the U.S.-German relationship Venue: Große Scharrnstraße 59, Frankfurt (Oder), Senate Hall, Room 109.

Wednesday, 11 December 2024, 1 - 2 p.m. - Launch of the KIU Brown Bag Lunch Lectures with Mykhailo Minakov: ‘Goodbye to Homo Sovieticus: Reviving the Heroic and Creative Spirit of the 1990s’

War is an ultimate disruption in human experience; it causes reevaluation and reframing, as the predictability of everyday life is lost due to violence and destruction. People learn to navigate in a new reality and search for possible connections—to experiences of others, family narratives, history textbooks, stories available in the culture, etc. Natalia Otrishenko will refer to the documentation project ‘24/02/22, 5 am: Testimonies from the war’ that was launched in March 2022 as a reaction to the russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She will reflect on the examples from the interviews where people refer to the idea of ‘impossible war’ but also provide different meaning-making frames to explain the event. The lecture will describe the transformation of the extended self during the war as people reframe their lives regarding the past(s)—their personal ones, families, communities, and society in general. It will conclude with notes on new war temporalities that not only disentangle personal stories but also make new connections within them.

During the russian invasion of Ukraine, archives and cultural heritage were severely damaged and lost. Arolsen Archives' research shows that the destruction of historical documents was often deliberate and premeditated.

For Michel Foucault, the archive opens up a new discursive field that offers additional possibilities for understanding what is said and what remains beyond what is said in individual texts. In the intensified process of revising the Ukrainian cultural tradition, literary archives become an important resource not only for the reinterpretation of individual texts, but also for the reconceptualization of cultural history itself. The archive of Yuri Mezhenko, a literary critic and one of the leading Ukrainian bibliographers of the 20th century, contains unique evidence of an intensive process of theoretical reflection and emotional experience of the cultural reality of the 1920s, a period that today is one of the most important and at the same time the most controversial for understanding cultural continuity.

The opening ceremony of the Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies (KIU) was celebrated on 11 July 2024, a good five months after the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) made the decision to support the KIU in Frankfurt (Oder) – Berlin with 2.5 million Euros. During the ceremony, tangible and specific steps for action were presented and a debate was held on the role that Ukrainian studies will play in those steps.

On 7 March 2024, Viadrina President Prof. Dr Eduard Mühle and Prof. Dr Gwendolyn Sasse, Director of the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), gave an insight into the projects of the "Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Frankfurt (Oder) - Berlin (KIU)" during a media conference. Following the decision of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to fund a Ukraine Centre under the direction of Viadrina, they described the research and teaching projects in detail for the first time in public.