UNDIPUS Workshop “Decolonizing Ukrainian Studies” (December 8-9, 2022, ZOiS/ZfL, Berlin)
Organized by UNDIPUS project in collaboration with ZOiS (Center for East European and International Studies) and ZfL (Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research)
The rhetoric of decolonization has been used increasingly with respect to Ukraine since 2014, and even more so after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion on 24 February 2022. In public and academic discourse, decolonization of Ukraine predominantly means resistance to Russian (and, less often, western) imperial powers that deny Ukrainian agency and its cultural and political self-determination. Examples of this approach range from the military struggle against the Russian hegemonic aspirations to widespread calls to “cancel the Russian culture,” that is, to cleanse Ukraine from the influence of the “russkii mir” (“Russian world”). While the latter is perceived as Ukraine’s toxic and destructive Other, its main obstacle “on the way to Europe” or implementation of “European values”, there is also growing criticism of western academic and human rights institutions for “westsplaining” the war or denying Ukraine’s agency and subjectivity.
Following these debates, the UNDIPUS workshop seeks to relate the contemporary discussion on the decolonization of Ukraine to the conceptual apparatus developed within transnational postcolonial and decolonial studies. In doing so, we hope to explore its analytic potential with respect to Ukraine and develop new ideas and theoretical models for understanding the current war. Keeping in focus the complexity and dynamic character of global colonial relations, the workshop aims to facilitate scholarly dialogue about the prospects of Ukrainian Studies’ decolonization project, given the growing political instrumentalization of the decolonial terminology.
The workshop opens on December 8 at 18.30 with the panel discussion “Navigating Ukrainian Studies in Time of War” at ZOiS. On December 9, we continue with the discussion centered around three impulse lectures at ZfL. The program for this day follows in a short while.
Program:
Panel discussion “Navigating Ukrainian Studies in Time of War” Dec 8 (Thursday), 18:30-20:00 Center for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), Mohrenstraße 60, 10117 Berlin
Presenters:
- Gwendolyn Sasse (ZOiS)
- Roman Dubasevych (University of Greifswald)
- Maria Mayerchyk (University of Greifswald)
Chair:
Matthias Schwartz (ZfL)
Workshop “Decolonizing Ukrainian Studies”
Dec 9 (Friday), 9:30-18:00
Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL), Schützenstraße 18, 10117 Berlin
9:30-9:45 Opening
9:45-11:00 Session 1: Keynote Ina Kerner (University of Koblenz)
Problematizing Colonial Logics and Legacies: Post- and Decolonial Theories
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-13:00 Session 2: Keynote Inna Melnykovska (CEU Budapest/Vienna)
Ukraine's Reconstruction through Economic Integration: Forward to What (Post-Colonial) Capitalism?
13:00-14:30 Lunch
14:30-16:00 Session 3: Keynote James Mark (University of Exeter)
Eastern Europe in the Global History of Decolonization
16:00-16:30 Break
16:30-18:00 Session 4: Arts and Literature (TBA)
18:00 - 18:30 Closing remarks