Digital resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities OpenEdition Our platforms OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypotheses Calenda Libraries OpenEdition Freemium Follow us

Verschlagwortet: Ukraine

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

„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.

“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).

“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.

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

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.

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.

“Photographers are very eloquent speakers” – A Conversation with Jessica Zychowicz and Mariia Kravchenko on the exhibition Ukraine: War and Resistance

This year, the exhibition “Ukraine: War and Resistance”, featuring a collection of 40 images by Fulbright Alumni from Ukraine, or American Fulbrighters who have lived and worked for several years or longer in Ukraine, had its premiere in Germany at Hotel Continental – Art Space in Berlin. For this occasion, Sophie Schmäing interviewed Mariia Kravchenko, Program Officer and Jessica Zychowicz, Director at Fulbright Program in Ukraine & Institute of International Education Kyiv Office, about how resistance was literally enacted when the exhibition was first launched in the city of Vinnytsia and how intensive exchanges on the curation of the photos contributed to forming local and intellectual communities.

Identity Migration of Orthodox Churches During the War in Ukraine (Since 2014)

By Denys Brylov and Tetiana Kalenychenko. With the beginning of its independent history, Ukrainian society experienced a religious renaissance, which also began to define identity. Identities did not always remain purely religious, but could also have a cultural and traditional character, such as the self-definition of a Ukrainian as a Christian, despite the country’s multi-religious and multicultural map. Since 2022, the problem of the transformation of religious identities is further exacerbated. Dramatic changes are taking place among the believers and clergy. This study explores precisely these transformations of religious identity taking place under the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war.