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Category: Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

This TRAFO Blog series discusses issues and concerns of East European studies in times of change and upheaval – in the context of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, and beyond. The series is conceived in relation to the research program Prisma Ukraïna, at the Forum Transregionale Studien, initiated by Andrii Portnov with the idea to investigate historical and contemporary European questions through the prism of Ukraine; the research project European Times: A Transregional Perspectives on the Societies of Central and Eastern Europe (EUTIM), that addresses narratives of time and space at the edges of Europe; and the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies (VCPU) that focuses on interdisciplinary research on Polish and Ukrainian history and the present day. Contributions to this blog series can touch upon the concepts of times and location of East, West or Southeast Europe, on the place of the so called east of Europe in World or Global History, in comparative Literature or other disciplinary fields of inquiry, the legacies of chronologies, empires and ideologies, on the uses and misuses of history and identity. We are interested in reassessments of area studies and the humanities and social sciences, in past and current issues of and in the region, like nationalism, pluralism, war, resilience, displacement, destruction and re-construction, questions of language, traveling theory, alternative archives and popular histories. We invite looking into more neglected topics as well, such as new approaches to the pluralist past and present of Eastern Europe, or comparative perspectives to other regions of the world. Contributions can address questions on the state and future of East European studies, of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria or Hungary. What is the potential of decolonization and what might decoloniality in different contexts mean? Which themes are important and for whom? What may historical reconciliation look like? Texts in this series need not connect to only Ukraine but can be situated in Eastern Europe. We also encourage transregional approaches through comparative perspectives, for example, those on former Yugoslavia, the Arab Spring, Latin American revolutions, or other case studies.
The series is edited by Andrii Portnov, Olha Haidamachuk, and Judith Sieber.

If you are interested in contributing or have any questions, please contact us at communication@trafo-berlin.de. For more information on general contribution requirements, please visit our Contributions page.

Two books, one yellow and one blue.

Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

The Ethics of Solidarity in Soviet Camps: a Ukrainian-Jewish Dialogue

By Yuliia Kravchenko. The history of Soviet camps contains little-known yet inspiring pages from the lives of political prisoners. One of them is the story of the humanity and dignity demonstrated by dissidents, against which the repressive system was powerless. In particular, it shows how the relationships between Ukrainians and Jews in the camps challenged the authoritarian system. Their mutual understanding and cooperation defining the struggle for their rights was a way of asserting their agency. Researching this is highly relevant in the context of the contemporary discussion around the deimperialisation of Russia and the decolonisation of Ukrainian studies.

A golden sculpture depicting a man standing in front of a horse, holding the reigns and carrying a pistol in his belt.

Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

“The Frontier Creates Its Own World On Both Sides” – Conversation with Denys Shatalov

Olha Haidamachuk in Conversation with Denys Shatalov. In this piece, Olha Haidamachuk and Denys Shatalov discuss the question: What historiographical misunderstandings could the frontier theory reveal when applied to the study of the Ukrainian Cossacks as a border phenomenon? To do so, they engage with scholarly approaches to Ukrainian history throughout the centuries, parsing myth and reality in order to better understand ‘the nature of borderland communities’ themselves..’ and the ‘process of the emergence of modern Ukraine.’

Three people seated on a stage with a large screen behind them showing a fourth person participating remotely.

Conversations / Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

What Could War Monuments Be Silent About? – A Conversation with Misсha Gabowitsch and Mykola Homanyuk

Olha Haidamachuk in Conversation with Misсha Gabowitsch and Mykola Homanyuk. Conflicts of interpretation and the semiotic contradictions of the war monumentscapes in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories were recently explored by Misсha Gabowitsch and Mykola Homanyuk. In their book Monuments and Territory[1], focusing on memory study, they also raise issues of political and symbolic borders and, therefore, offer rich empirical and analytical materials for rethinking аpproaches to border study.

Drawing of Putin.

Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

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.

Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

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.

Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

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.

Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

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.

Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

Dichotomy of Methodology Between the American and the French Approach in Frontier/Border Studies: Sloboda-Ukraine in the 18th Century

By Yuliia Koniva. Historical geography as an interdisciplinary discipline offers many of the conceptions for studying space and territory. In this essay, I want to address that there is no common ground on how to apply these conceptions. In every national historiography we can find plenty of historians who utilize the approaches of studying space or territory according to the research goals which were put forward in front of each scholar.

Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

Ukraine and Ukrainians in the Panels: Global Comics Perspectives on the War

By Svitlana Pidoprygora. Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and the subsequent full-scale invasion in 2022 have brought Ukrainian issues to international headlines and sparked extensive reflections in various genres of fiction and non-fiction, with documentary comics and graphic reportages being no exception. International authors bring varied perspectives to Ukrainian historical and contemporary issues, striving to explain to their audience what is happening right now – why there is war, why the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine. I am focusing on arguably the most significant documentary comics that emerged after the beginning of the full-scale invasion and primarily focus on depicting the war experience. In this essay, I will delve into several key aspects of how these comics depict Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Prisma Ukraïna / Rethinking East European Studies in Times of Upheaval

Liminality and Museums in Ukraine: the Khanenkos’ Case

In this essay, I apply “liminality”—linked to the idea of a specific contact zone characterized by ambiguity, high potential to hybridization of identities and subversion of authority—to examine the case of Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko. The Khanenkos were prominent collectors of Ukrainian cultural heritage and the founders of the first public museums in Kyiv in the late 19th and early 20th century. Mentally shaped by the empire(s), the Khanenkos started acting on both sides of the colonial divide since the 1890s: At the Russian court, they played impeccably loyal subjects. Simultaneously, in Kyiv, they converted the empire’s trust into a new freedom of action enabling grand, future-oriented cultural changes.