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Verschlagwortet: Ukraine

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

An Angry Ukrainian Syndrome: Stereotypes About War and Peace, and Injustice

By Olena Komar. In this article, the author aims to demonstrate that a set of prejudices exists in Western countries against Ukrainians, which she terms the “Angry Ukrainian Syndrome” (similar to the “North African Syndrome”). This is a set of biases that have emerged through the way Ukrainians communicate about the war and how they meet the stereotypical expectations of Westerners. Furthermore, these prejudices are colonial, stemming from an inability to see Ukrainians as independent people, distinct from Russians.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

Dual-Intent Approach to Ukrainians Abroad: A Post-Script to the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024

By Lidia Kuzemska. Berlin was an epicentre of Ukraine-focused events in June 2024. Apart from the massive Ukraine Recovery Conference with over 3400 participants gathered with the intent “to strengthen the resilience of Ukraine for as long as needed” (URC, 2024), numerous pre, side and post-events took place across the city. Smaller publics, targeted discussions and less scripted opinion exchanges were also a chance for Ukrainians abroad to reflect on their role in the recovery of their homeland.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

Enduring Through Liminality: Across and Beyond the Borders of Eastern Europe in the Wartime

By Julia Buyskykh. For decades, anthropologists have been studying borders and borderlands, concentrating on marginalised groups (whether minorities, migrants, or refugees), cross-border state relations, border shadow economies, and the multiple identities of populations settling along borders, whose silenced voices often contradict official state narratives of history, identities, and religion. In this article, the author reflects upon her own experience, entangling it with current anthropological scholarship, exploring the tragic semantics of being displaced and misplaced.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

War, Displacement and the Shifting Meaning of ‘Donbas’: Initial Findings from the Field

By Qianrui Hu. Although Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine shocked the whole world, Russia’s war against Ukraine started already in 2014 with the illegal annexation of Crimea and the military interventions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Eastern Ukraine. This blog post tries to unpack the dialectical relationship between war, migration, and memory, the central research theme at Prisma Ukraїna, from the perspective of the people who have been experiencing this war since 2014.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

In Search of Stability and Purpose: Ukrainian (Displaced) Researchers in Germany

By Lidia Kuzemska. In April 2024, major German foundations organised a networking event for their Ukrainian fellows. Two days of discussions and exchange served not only to give the scholars from different fields space to mingle, but also to brainstorm about how they see their current role and future in academia (be it in Ukraine, in Germany or elsewhere). This text provides an overview of what Ukrainian researchers in Germany currently consider to be the most important challenges and how they perceive their prospects.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

Decolonizing Family Metaphors in the Context of the Russian-Ukrainian War and Beyond

By Illia Ilin. The recent history of Ukraine can be metaphorically described as a journey to break away from the abusive “triune Russian people” family and reconnect with the democratic “European peoples” family. This long process of decolonization has been ongoing for over 30 years and signifies the reclamation of Ukrainian territories, history, and identity by the Ukrainian people. This article will explore the family metaphors of (de)colonization of Russia and unified Europe in relation to Ukraine, and the potential for their expansion and decolonization.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

Complicity, Past and Present: Portrayals of Involvement in Mass Violence and Terror in Documentary Fiction

By Juliane Prade-Weiss. One of the puzzling questions about Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and other conflicts is why people participate in, support, or condone mass violence when it appears, for observers, so glaringly wrong. Reasons for becoming complicit with violence against civilians vary with individual positions as well as historical and regional contexts. Participation in, aiding and abetting mass violence and the structures of authoritarian, totalitarian or other regimes exerting it are key issues in the social sciences and in history. Yet, literary texts can contribute to understanding complicity, too.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

“Strong Sea – Resistance on the Krym “, 20 April 2024, Berlin

In Germany, little is known about the Krym and the decades-long resistance of the local population against Russian and Soviet rule, including the resistance of indigenous peoples such as the Krym Tartars.
For this reason, the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (BpB) hosted a multimedia event entitled “Strong Sea – Resistance on the Krym” at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. A Review by Martin Lochthofen.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

„Starkes Meer – Widerstand auf der Krym“, 20 April 2024, Berlin

Über die Krym und den jahrzehntelangen Widerstand der dort wohnenden Bevölkerung gegen die russische und sowjetische Herrschaft, inklusive dem Widerstand der indigenen Völker wie der Krymtartaren, ist hierzulande erstaunlich wenig bekannt.
Aus diesem Grund lud die Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (BpB) zu einer multimedialen Veranstaltung mit dem Titel „Starkes Meer – Widerstand auf der Krym“ in die Staatsbibliothek preußischer Kulturbesitz zu Berlin ein. Ein Bericht von Martin Lochthofen.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

“War and war-induced displacement create ruptures in people’s sense-making narratives that are at the core of their identities and understanding of the past.” – 5in10 with Viktoria Sereda

Viktoria Sereda is a sociologist, head coordinator of the Virtual Ukraine Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS) and academic senior advisor to the project “Prisma Ukraïna: War, Migration and Memory”. She has been a member of the Prisma Ukraïna War, Migration, Memory research group since 2022. Her latest publications include Displacement in War-Torn Ukraine (2023, Cambridge University Press).

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

“In times of upheaval, the social fabric is eroded and the social sciences help producing reflections on the new reality” – 5in10 with Natalia Zaitseva-Chipak

Natalia Zaitseva-Chipak is a sociologist and a professor in the Department of Sociology at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Her scientific interests focus on problems of modern Ukrainian society and individual social groups, such as youths or internally displaced persons (IDPs). She has been a non-resident Fellow and member of the Prisma Ukraïna War, Migration, Memory research group since 2022.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

Rule of Two Walls as a Strategy of Resistance

The film Rule of Two Walls (2022), directed by David Gutnik, was part of the main program of the fourth Ukrainian Film Festival under the theme “No Time Like Home” in Berlin. The documentary was screened at Filmtheater Colosseum on the evening of 28th October 2023. A review by Olha Haidamachuk

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

Retrospective as a New Perspective: An Insight into the 4th Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin

With this year’s motto No Time Like Home (Дім в часі in Ukrainian), the fourth edition of the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin took place from the 25th to 29th October. Having screened a total of 19 short films, ten recent full-length films and three additional films in the Retrospective programme, as well as three recent Georgian films, across five different cinemas, the festival proved to be a growing success in Berlin’s cultural landscape. A review by Oleksii Isakov.

TRAFO / Transregionale Studien

Politics of Distorted Numbers: How Russia is Counting Displaced Ukrainians and Why?

By Lidia Kuzemska. The scales of displacement and return have symbolical meanings for state actors, either of political failure (massive outflow of population) or political success (high number of returns). In the case of forced displacement of Ukrainians to Russia, the inflated and unverified number of border crossings between Ukraine and Russia, moreover, provided only by the Russian side, mistakenly transformed into a number of supposedly real individual Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion in the direction of the aggressor state.