(Deut­sche Ver­sion: hier klicken)

On Wed­nesday, November 1, 2023, a weekly series of lec­tures and events will begin at Hum­boldt Uni­ver­sität zu Berlin, focu­sing on Ukraine in times of the full-scale Rus­sian war of aggres­sion. Gwen­d­olyn Sasse of the Center for Eas­tern Euro­pean and Inter­na­tional Stu­dies (ZOiS) will kick off the series with a pre­sen­ta­tion of her new book Russia’s War Against Ukraine (Polity, 2023). The inter-faculty lec­ture series is orga­nized by the Insti­tute for Slavic Stu­dies (Prof. Dr. Susanne Frank, Dr. Nata­liya Tsisar). novinki recom­mends: go!

More than 600 days after the full-scale inva­sion of Ukraine by Rus­sian troops, Rus­sian attack and Ukri­nian defense con­tinue unab­ated. The capital Kyiv and num­e­rous other cities of Ukraine, from Kharkiv to L’viv, are regu­larly bombed, and at the moment (October 2023) there is even talk of one of the most mas­sive offen­sives in recent months in the Donetsk region. The human losses are enormous on both sides, but peace is far from in sight. Nevert­heless, life in Ukraine not only goes on in spite of all this, main­tai­ning a nor­malcy has even become one of the most important and stron­gest tac­tics of sur­vival in this per­ma­nently life-threa­tening situa­tion. Through the tire­less repair and recon­s­truc­tion of des­troyed infra­struc­ture, as well as through num­e­rous initia­tives in the spheres of industry, busi­ness, and art and cul­ture, not only forces are being deployed, but also ener­gies are being released that are so important for Ukraine’s sur­vival and vic­tory. It is hard to believe, but new visions of the future are con­stantly emer­ging in Ukraine, and not only visions, but very real pro­jects – civic, tech­nical-indus­trial, entre­pre­neu­rial or artistic-cul­tural -, which design a new Ukraine and even now, in the midst of war, are working on its sym­bolic and con­crete construction.

In the inter­di­sci­pli­nary series “Rethin­king and Reim­agi­ning Ukraine in Times of War – and After”, which is enri­ched by artistic con­tri­bu­tions and in which several facul­ties of Hum­boldt Uni­ver­sity are par­ti­ci­pa­ting, we ask how the situa­tion of threat, attack by Russia and the ongoing war shapes and changes Ukrai­nian society and cul­ture, and what this means for the future. Scho­lars, artists and poets from Ukraine will dis­cuss with col­le­agues from Hum­boldt Uni­ver­sity cur­rent deve­lo­p­ments, or deve­lo­p­ments of the past that are of par­ti­cular rele­vance for the pre­sent, and future per­spec­tives. Experts from the fields of poli­tics, reli­gion, law, history and cul­tural stu­dies will reflect on war-related deve­lo­p­ments in society, reli­gion, law, lan­guages and cul­ture or mul­ti­cul­tu­ra­lism, as well as in aca­demia and its insti­tu­tions. And con­tri­bu­tions from the field of visual arts, lite­ra­ture and music will show how signi­fi­cant the role of art is as a medium of mour­ning and empathy, as a remedy of deep woun­ding and trau­ma­tiza­tion, but also as an instru­ment of cul­tural self-reflec­tion and self-dis­co­very and the deve­lo­p­ment of visions beyond the limits of cur­rent reality.

The series takes place (mostly) on Wed­nes­days from 6–8 p.m. in the HU buil­ding Doro­theen­straße 24 in lec­ture room 1.101 in pre­sence. Please refer to the pro­gram for detailed infor­ma­tion on some devia­ting dates. The series will be opened by the Pre­si­dent of HU, Julia von Blu­men­thal, on November 1 and will begin with the pre­sen­ta­tion of the Eng­lish trans­la­tion of Gwen­d­olyn Sasse’s book on the war in Ukraine.

Pro­gramm der Vor­trags- und Veranstaltungsreihe:

1.11. “Russia’s War Against Ukraine“ (Polity, 2023): Gwen­d­olyn Sasse (ZOiS), Vor­trag & Buch­prä­sen­ta­tion; Eröff­nung: Julia von Blu­men­thal, Prä­si­dentin der HU

8.11. “Unhei­lige Allianz: Die pro­pa­gan­dis­ti­sche Recht­fer­ti­gung des Russ­land-Ukraine-Krieges durch das Mos­kauer Patri­ar­chat“: Rein­hard Flo­gaus (HU) / “Die Ukrai­ni­sche Ortho­doxe Kirche: Situa­tion und Per­spek­tiven im Kon­text des Krieges“: Serhij Bortnyk (Kyjiw)

‑> Hör­saal 008, Theolog. Fakultät, Burgstr. 26, 16–18 Uhr

15.11. “Con­se­quences of Rus­sian Aggres­sion and Dis­pla­ce­ment on Ukrai­nian Ethnic and Reli­gious Diver­sity”: Vik­toria Sereda (Forum Trans­re­gio­nale Stu­dien, Berlin), Mode­ra­tion: N. Tsisar (HU)

22.11. “Mykhailo Dra­ho­manov and His Oppon­ents in the 1870s. First Public Debate among the Ukrai­nian Intel­li­gentsia on Natio­na­lism, Popu­lism, Socia­lism, Pro­gress and Moder­nity”: Ostap Sereda (CEU Vienna, L’viv/Berlin), Mode­ra­tion: N. Tsisar (HU)

29.11. “Islam in Ukraine: Com­mu­nity and Per­spec­tives”: Oleh Jarosch (Kyiv NAS of Ukraine, FU Berlin) / “Cri­mean Tatars’ Coll­ec­tive Iden­tity, Memory and Islam”: Elmira Mura­tova (Geneva Gra­duate Insti­tute), Mode­ra­tion: J. Schmoller

6.12. “Bet­ween Tra­gedy and Trans­for­ma­tion. The Battle for Ukrai­nian Cul­ture”: Yurii Gurzhy (Musi­cian, Author), Mode­ra­tion: N. Tsisar (HU)

13.12. “The Lem­berg Machine” (2023): Dana Kave­lina (Artist), Film scree­ning & Dis­cus­sion, Mode­ra­tion: S. Frank (HU)

10.1. “Theater of Hopes and Expec­ta­tions. A Docu­men­ta­tion”: Pry­kar­pat­tian Theater (UA), Exhi­bi­tion Ope­ning with Tereza Yako­vyna (Artist), Mode­ra­tion: E. Bauer (HU)

‑> Institut für Sla­wistik und Hun­ga­ro­logie, Doro­theenstr. 65, 5. OG

17.1. “Coun­tering Rus­sian Aggres­sion Against Ukraine Within the UN”: Natalia Mud­renko (UN), Mode­ra­tion: N. Tsisar (HU) -> Zoom ses­sion, 12 am / “Babyn Jar. Stimmen”: Mari­anna Kiya­novska (Dich­terin), Lesung mit Über­set­zungen von Claudia Dathe & Gespräch, Mode­ra­tion: S. Frank (HU)

24.1. “From Crisis to Oppor­tu­nity: The Future Tra­jec­tory of Ukrai­nian Stu­dies during and after the War”: Alyona Bidenko, Evgen Zinger, Kateryna Chernii, Mode­ra­tion: Juliane Fürst (Leibniz-Zen­trum für Zeit­his­to­ri­sche For­schung, Head of Depart­ment “Com­mu­nism and Society”)

31.1. “Accoun­ta­bi­lity for Atro­ci­ties in Ukraine: Chal­lenges and Per­spec­tives”: Flo­rian Jeß­berger (HU) in con­ver­sa­tion with Dmytro Koval (National Uni­ver­sity Kyiv-Mohyla Aca­demy and Legal Director of Truth Hounds)

7.2. “Unre­gel­mä­ßiger Gang. Das post­re­vo­lu­tio­näre Jahr­zehnt in der Ukraine”: Kateryna Mish­chenko (Autorin, Ver­le­gerin, Grün­dungs­mit­glied des Ukrai­nian Insi­tute for Advanced Study)

14.2. “‘Spi­ri­tual Inde­pen­dence’ and the Future Reli­gious Land­scape of Ukraine”: Regina Elsner (Uni­ver­sität Münster), Mode­ra­tion: G. Sasse (HU)