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Category: Prisma Ukraïna

Prisma Ukraïna – Research Network Eastern Europe is a research program at the Forum Transregionale Studien that opens up new regional and transregional perspectives on and from the east of Europe through the prism of Ukraine. Initiated in 2015 and directed by Andrii Portnov, Prisma Ukraïna provides scope for academic research, transregional exchange and communication through fellowships, workshops, panel discussions, seminars, lectures and science communication.
Prisma Ukraïna: War, Migration and Memory is an interdisciplinary research group of Ukrainian scholars in Ukraine and Germany that has been constituted in 2022. The research group is directed by Viktoria Sereda and investigates the transformational effects of war and dislocation on people’s memory, history, and sense of belonging.
Prisma Ukraïna – Research Network Eastern Europe has been realized with funding from the Land Berlin.
The remote/non-resident fellowships for participating scholars in Ukraine have been provided for by the Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius and the Marga und Kurt Möllgard-Stiftung.
Editors: Jacqueline Wagner, Lidia Kuzemska, and Viktoria Sereda

A two-part collage showing a rustic brick house with a blue door frame on the left, and on the right, a woman in an apron near an outdoor table with another person in a green garden setting.

A Body of Clay: The Vanishing Tradition of House-Building in the Donetsk Region

By Anton Dorokh. A traditional Ukrainian village house (khata) had one floor, white clay-and-wood walls, a hay-covered roof, and small windows. Is there something in this architectural tradition that can serve as a counterpoint to the Soviet narrative? Our family house, which was built in the same style, was destroyed, the ability to return there every summer taken away, and this article is an attempt to resist further dehumanisation and erasure. This purpose made me ask my grandmother questions I had never asked before, to learn histories I did not know as a kid, and I hope that by sharing them with other people I can spark curiosity toward other aspects of Ukrainian culture that are now being erased.

A statue covered in plastic bags full of sand, facing away from the photographer.

On Images and Objects of Russia’s War against Ukraine: An Introduction

By Miglė Bareikytė, Natasha Klimenko and Viktoriya Sereda. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has swiftly spread through both social and traditional media on a global scale. Meanwhile, with the spread of widely available generative AI technologies and its misuse for strategic disinformation by authoritarian regimes like Russia, the future of visualising war and conflict zones seems poised for confusion and uncertainty. The aim of the dossier is to analyse the difficult and painful environments that have emerged in Ukraine in the aftermath of various legacies of violence, including Russia’s full-scale invasion.

A group of women wearing folk attire and headscarves.

Is Folk Music a Flashback to the Past or a Promise for the Future?

By Ganna Goncharenko. Folk music and folklore preserve collective memory, traditions, and values of a people, combining the past, the present, and the potential of the future. Today, folklore includes not only songs and tales, but also ritual practices, urban legends, anecdotes, and even internet memes. Its remarkable ability to preserve historical experience and remain a support for the community will be further examined in this article.

Four women standing in front of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Tartu University.

“Resilience and Adaptation in Difficult Times”: Reflections on the 2025 Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies

By Olha Haidamachuk, Lidia Kuzemska, Taisiia Ratushna, and Yuliia Soroka. In June 2025, four Fellows of the Prisma Ukraїna: War, Migration, Memory research group at the Forum Transregionale Studien Berlin took part in the 9th annual Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies dedicated to “Resilience and Adaptation in Difficult Times”. On the second day, the Fellows organised a very well-attended panel entitled “Memories of War: Barriers and Bridges between Past, Present, and Future in the Ukrainian Experience”. They reflect on the different panels and talks and give an insight into the topics discussed.

Two girls are sitting on a wooden bench in the park. One is looking at the camera, both are wearing jeans and sleeveless tops.

Ukrainian Youth in Denmark: Growing Up and Working Amid Forced Migration

By Nataliia Varha and Kathrine Vitus. Ukrainian youth who have experienced a full-scale war and who have found themselves in situations of forced migration undergo the process of growing up at an accelerated pace, often without the usual support systems – family, home, stability. Their transition to adulthood occurs in new cultural, economic, and social environments where personal choice, adaptability, and self-reliance become critically important. The project “The Transitions of Displaced Ukrainian Youth – A Qualitative Longitudinal Study” examined their adaptation strategies and transitions into adulthood.

Street art of two birds with text reading "Stop war in Ukraine".

“Russia is Unequivocally a ‘Cannibal Country’”: How Ukrainian Officials Talk About the ‘Russian World’

By Liudmyla Pidkuimukha. What is the ‘Russian World’ – russkij mir – and how is it understood today from a Ukrainian perspective? Officially, this doctrine is built on a mix of shared language, culture, Orthodox Christianity, historical memory, and reverence for the so-called ‘Great Patriotic War’, often framed as the Soviet Union’s greatest victory. In Ukraine, this ideology has taken on a very different meaning in the shadow of the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war. Ukrainian officials draw on powerful imagery to make sense of violence, occupation, and loss – and to challenge the narratives coming from Moscow.

Drawing of Putin.

Dismantling Matter: Ukraine’s Attempts to Decolonize its Culture

By Nadiia Honcharenko. In Ukraine, there has been a strong public demand that certain elements of heritage should be removed from public space, as they contain distinct symbols of colonial and totalitarian domination and therefore aggravate the sense of trauma that Ukrainians are currently experiencing, as well as increase the pain of grief and loss caused by Russian aggression. This demand can be seen as both, reason and result of Ukraine’s struggle to reject the false and deeply violent so-called ‘brotherhood’ between Ukrainian and Russian society. Two main trends are evident: The desire of Ukrainians to free themselves from Russian shackles on one side and the attempts of the Russian political regime to slow this desire down, or even prevent it, on the other side.

Witnesses, Participants and Creators: the Two-Day Workshop “Ukrainian Scholars and Artists at War”

By Olena Sobolieva. In May 2025, the two-day workshop “Ukrainian Scholars and Artists at War” was held at Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin. The event was organized in partnership with several organizations: the Forum Transregionale Studien, the Interdisciplinary Research Network “Prisma Ukraїna – Eastern Europe Research Network”, the academic website “Ukraine Moderna”, the NGO “The Center for Applied Anthropology”, and the European University Institute. By organizing such an event, Lidia Kuzemska, Oksana Ovsiiuk, and Iulia Lashchuk created a platform for Ukrainian scholars and artists to engage with how Russia’s full-scale invasion has impacted their professional, ethical, and existential horizons.

Traumatised Decolonial Transit: Constructing Historical Narrative in Ukrainian Culture in the Early ХХІ Century

By Tamara Hundorova. The Orange Maidan was a form of consolidation of the national community and had distinct signs of anti-colonial protest, but it ended in significant disappointment. The period between the two Maidans, or the two Ukrainian revolutions of the early twenty-first century, revealed past traumas and recorded different models of historical memory, primarily national–Eurocentric and nostalgic–Soviet–centric. The time has come to build historiographical narratives out of fragments, films, and paintings, out of the remnants of the memory erased by the era of colonialism and totalitarianism.

Травмований деколоніальний транзит: конструювання історичного наративу в українській культурі на початку ХХІ століття

від Тамара Гундорова. Помаранчевий майдан був формою консолідації національної спільноти і мав виразні ознаки атиколоніального протесту, який однак закінчився значними розчаруваннями. Період між двома Майданами, або двома українськими революціями початку ХХІ століття, проявив минулі травми і зафіксував різні моделі історичної пам’яті, передусім націо-євроцентричну і ностальгійно-радяноцентричну. Прийшов час розбудови історіографічних наративів із фрагментів, плівок і картин, із залишків стертої епохою колоніалізму і тоталітаризму пам’яті.