Scholars and audience from Ukraine and other European countries are invited to take part in a two day conference "Historians Facing New Challenges in the Context of the Russian War Against Ukraine", which will take place at the Institute of History of Maria-Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin on 13-14 October 2022. The ENRS is among the co-organisers of the event. The ultimate goal of the symposium is to develop common ground for an international conference of East European Studies planned in Vilnius for 2023.
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine confronts us, as historians and scholars, involved in East European Studies with different challenges.
First, there is a need to exchange information about our Ukrainian colleagues who, despite all horrors of the war, decided to stay in their homeland and defend it. This defense also includes personal involvement in saving their national heritage and continuing their activities as scholars and academic teachers. However, we must also learn about and exchange information about the fate of those who had to leave their country and attempt to continue their research abroad. At the same time, our Byelorussian colleagues connected with the opposition are struggling with other serious problems resulting from the current political situation in Belarus.
What are the most important needs of Ukrainian and Byelorussian scholars at the moment? How can the rest of the international scientific community support them and their research, teaching projects, and activities? How can we contribute to strengthening the voices coming out of Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora abroad?
Secondly, we would like to discuss how the ongoing war changes our perspectives on East European Studies.
How should we rethink the history of Ukraine and reinterpret it from a more transnational angle in order to make it more understandable for the western European public, as well as the public in the neighboring EU-countries? To what extent should we rethink well-established, for at least 30 years, topics and themes of our research in the field of Ukrainian Studies? Can we perhaps reinvent them in a broader European context? Should we also work on rethinking and reinventing national politics and cultures of memory in the Ukraine-Lithuania-Belarus-Poland region to make them more transnational?
Organizers:
Institute of History, Marie Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Institute of Lithuanian History in Vilnius, German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Representation of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, Center for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin European Network of Remembrance and Solidarity, Verband der OsteuropahistorikerInnen e.V.
Conference languages: Ukrainian and English (simultaneous translation)