Joint project "(Un)Disciplined: Pluralizing Ukrainian Studies—Understanding the War in Ukraine" (UNDIPUS) / Subproject "After Masculinity. Female Perspectives on the War in Ukraine"
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), funding line "Small Disciplines—Great Potentials" ("Kleine Fächer – Große Potentiale”), 02/2022—01/2026
The joint project "(Un)Disciplined: Pluralizing Ukrainian Studies—Understanding the War in Ukraine" (UNDIPUS) is a research network comprising five subprojects, four disciplines, and three locations: the universities of Greifswald, Regensburg, and Giessen. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the "Small Disciplines—Great Potentials" initiative, the project has several objectives. Thematically, it aims to conceptualize the war in Ukraine from a gender perspective, investigate its cultural dimensions and far-reaching backgrounds, and most importantly, examine the impact of the war on Ukrainian society and identity discourse. Methodologically and institutionally, the project intends to pluralize and consolidate Ukrainian studies in Germany and internationally through networking. Of particular significance are critical perspectives on the interplay between nation-building and Ukrainian studies, as well as attempts to "discipline" and instrumentalize them, especially in times of war.
UNDIPUS is coordinated by PI PhD Olga Plakhotnik and Prof. Dr. Roman Dubasevych of the Chair of Ukrainian Cultural Studies at the University of Greifswald. Through a series of academic events such as workshops, conferences, and exhibitions, as well as collective publications, it seeks to bundle the most significant research initiatives on Ukraine in Germany. This will raise the profile of Ukrainian Studies as a distinct discipline and as part of East European Studies both at home and abroad. Through these efforts, the UNDIPUS network aims to address the urgent need for Ukrainian expertise in Germany and contribute to more effective peace efforts.
See here for more information on the joint project.
The subproject "After Masculinity: Female Perspectives on the War in Ukraine," conducted by Dr. Oleksandr Chertenko at the University of Giessen, explores specific representations of femininity in Ukrainian fiction and nonfiction written by women within the context of the ongoing war. The project analyzes women’s war narratives as polyvalent models of women’s self-constitution in times of war and situates them within the Ukrainian identity debate since 1991 and especially after 2014. Thus, it contributes to a better understanding of the highly complex conflict dynamics in post-2014 Ukraine and other Eastern European crisis areas.
How are literary and cultural topoi, stereotypes, and representations developed, re-actualized, and instrumentalized under different ideological auspices in Ukrainian literary texts by women that emerged in the wake of the war in Ukraine? What cultural and historical traumas are addressed in Ukrainian women’s fiction and nonfiction dealing with the ongoing war, and why? How do processes of women’s identity formation shape their writing about war and the (re-)production of gender roles and stereotypes in literature and culture in general? In what ways are women’s self-perceptions and self-enactments "nationalized" and/or inscribed into colonial, postcolonial or decolonial frameworks? What strategies for pluralization are—or could be—fostered by Ukrainian women’s literature on war to counter these tendencies? How do literary and cultural models of Ukrainian women’s self-constitution during wartime relate to similar models in other post-socialist countries? By addressing these questions, the subproject attempts to gain a deeper understanding of the causes of the conflict and its cultural repercussions. This also plays a crucial role in searching for more adequate and differentiated identity politics in Ukraine, both during and after the current war.
After the end of the subproject, the establishment of the supraregional interdisciplinary research network “War and Peace in Post-Socialist Space” (WARP) is planned in Giessen. The aim of WARP is to bring together researchers from the fields of cultural and literary studies, linguistics, political science, history, and sociology who specialize in wars and violent conflicts in the post-socialist space by involving them in joint, comparative research and educational projects. In this way, the network tries to actively co-shape the current paradigm shift in Eastern European and Slavic/Ukrainian Studies, which has sparked a broad (and long overdue) discussion about decentering and decolonization, as well as their limitations. The kick-off workshop for WARP is tentatively scheduled for November 2025. Further information on the objectives and strategy of the center, which is currently under development, can be found here.
Contact:
Dr. Oleksandr Chertenko (head of the project)
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Institute of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Otto-Behaghel-Strasse 10D, room 511
35394 Giessen
Phone: +49 (0)641 99-31164
E-mail: oleksandr.chertenko@slavistik.uni-giessen.de
Laura Puhze (student assistant)
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Otto-Behaghel-Straße 10D, room 308
35394 Giessen
Phone: +49 (0)157 57-527442
E-mail: laura.puhze@geschichte.uni-giessen.de