Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Frankfurt (Oder) – Berlin (KIU) • European University Viadrina

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New Course Catalogue for the Winter Semester 2025/2026 has arrived!

About

The KIU competence network is a four-year DAAD-funded project to strengthen Ukraine-related research, teaching, networking and transfer activities. The competence network, initiated and led by the European University Viadrina, includes the ZOiS, the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin.

KIU – Competence Network for Interdisciplinary Ukraine Studies Frankfurt (Oder)-Berlin, led by the European University Viadrina, and the ‘Denkraum Ukraine’ Regensburg are the two Ukraine Centers in Germany funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). Together, they are working on building Ukraine-related academic research and teaching, disseminating Ukraine expertise in politics, academia, media, and civil society, as well as promoting a Europe-wide dialogue with Ukraine.

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News

Call for Papers for the Workshop: Ukrainian (Working) Lives – Vulnerabilities, Shifting Geographies, Resistance

We invite scholars to submit paper proposals for the workshop ‘Ukrainian (Working) Lives: Vulnerabilities, Shifting Geographies, Resistance,’ focusing on how Russia’s war against Ukraine has reshaped working lives, labor, and forms of agency since 2014, particularly after the full-scale invasion in 2022. Proposals may include such topics as: war-related transformations of labor, economic geography, agriculture, war-related vulnerabilities, migration, and labor markets under conditions of mobilization and displacement. Organised by: • Centre Marc Bloch (Berlin) • ZOiS – Centre for East European and International Studies • KIU – Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Frankfurt (Oder)–Berlin. Submission deadline: 20 February 2026. More details...

06. February 2026

Panel with Timm Beichelt and Yuriy Matsiyevsky

Friday, 10.45-12.00 a.m. | Collegium Polonicum | Join this panel discussion on how Europe is responding to contemporary security challenges. The session features impulse talks by Timm Beichelt (Europa-Universität Viadrina), ‘Zeitenwende – Is Germany capable of European resilience?’, and Yuriy Matsiyevsky (Ostroh National University; KIU alumnus), ‘Russia’s war, Ukrainian resistance, and its implications for Central and Eastern Europe’. The panel is part of the 26th International Scientific Conference Europe of the 21st Century: The resilience of Europe, the European Union, and its Member States to security threats. Current state and future scenarios (5–6 February 2026, Collegium Polonicum, Słubice)

New publication: ‘War as a singular crisis? An analysis of the singularity and continuity of crises using the example of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine’ - Susann Worschech

This article analyses Russia’s war against Ukraine according to the criteria of a singular crisis as formulated by Kraemer and Steg (2025), combining this approach with Charles Tilly's persective on crises, conflict and contentious politics. The article argues that the singular character of any crisis is strongly influenced by its spatial, temporal, and factual dimensions, which can blur the boundaries between crisis, normality, and ‘new normality’. Finally, it states that crisis response and the concept of resilience are also contingent and need to be integrated in our understanding of singular crises.

27. January 2026

Elena Korosteleva: ‘Complexity and Community in IR: nurturing resilience in Central Eurasia’ - book presentation and discussion

Online format I TUESDAY, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. | GD HS 08 (Gräfin-Dönhoff-Building), Europa-Universität Viadrina I This book offers a unique IR perspective on resilience-nurturing generally, and with a focus on Central Eurasia, using the lens of complexity-thinking and community of relations. Steeped in centuries-long traditions, social memory, and culture, Central Eurasia,spanning Belarus and Ukraine in the west, South Caucasus in the south, and Kazakhstan in the east, faces multiple challenges today—from rampaging poverty and climate emergency, to democratic struggles, conflicts, and a devastating war in Ukraine, with global consequences for the planet. And yet, this region demonstrates remarkable resilience being stubbornly affirmative about their better (alternative) futures, and visions of the good life, in the context of the Anthropocene. Central Eurasia avidly showcases aparticular kind of resilience—that is, deeply ideational, spiritual, and always communal. This book will guide the reader towards discovering the real meaning of resilience, reclaimed from neoliberal thinking, and instead immersed into complex life, using Central Eurasia as a case study. Resilience on this journey becomes not just a quality of a complex system, or an analytic of governance to manage uncertainty. Resilience comes to encapsulate an almost revolutionary process of community’s worlding into a universe of more-than-human complex relations, attuned to the precarious conditions of the Anthropocene, and more crucially, able to act on them, with a political agency, collectively.

19. January 2026

Filmvorführung Dokumentarfilm „Gefangene: Das System des Terrors"

29. Januar 2025 | KINO KROKODIL, Greifenhagener Str. 32, Berlin | Anmeldung erforderlich | Wir laden Sie herzlich zur Vorführung des Dokumentarfilms „Gefangene: Das System des Terrors“ von Activatica ein. Der Film dokumentiert das von Russland in den besetzten Gebieten der Ukraine errichtete System aus Entführung, Haft und Folter. Auf Grundlage eindringlicher Zeugenaussagen entführter Zivilist*innen zeigt er, was mit Menschen geschieht, wenn sie in russische Gefangenschaft geraten, wie sie zu überleben versuchen und für ihre Freilassung kämpfen. Der Film macht sichtbar, dass dieses System des Terrors historisch gewachsen ist und völlig außerhalb eines rechtlichen Rahmens funktioniert. Bis heute befinden sich tausende Menschen in den Foltergefängnissen. Zugleich stellt er die dringende Frage, was internationale Akteur*innen tun müssen, um weitere Menschenrechtsverletzungen zu verhindern und zivile Geiseln zu befreien.

Bounded Solidarity: Poland and Ukraine amid Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has taken a harder line on Ukraine: he opposes Kyiv’s NATO bid, rules out sending Polish troops under any circumstances, and has tightened domestic support for Ukrainian refugees. The country remains strongly critical of Russia, but this does not mean unlimited solidarity with Ukraine.

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Fellowships and Programmes

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Fellowships

The KIU Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies supports innovative and significant research on topics related to Ukraine.

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Study

The KIU Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Frankfurt (Oder) – Berlin offers various programmes. Among them is its first Summer School on "War in Ukraine: Destruction of heritage – mastering legacy".