Surviving and Working in the War: The Situation of Historians in Ukraine
Abstract
The panel discussion will shed light on the current situation of historians in Ukraine in the face of Russia's criminal war of aggression against their country. The three participating Ukrainian colleagues represent different regions and cities of Ukraine. They will report from their own experience on how it is to live and work under war conditions. The consequences of the frequent Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy and communication infrastructure and the switch to online teaching will be discussed. In addition, Ukrainian universities are unfortunately currently even worse funded than before 2022, leading to job cuts and increasing workloads. Furthermore, there will be a discussion about the content-related innovations in Ukrainian historiography that the war will lead to. Here, for example, it is a question of an even greater significance of historical politics, also as a topic of investigation, as well as the complete separation from Russia, the "decolonisation".
The panel discussion will be opened to the audience after about half of the event, so that a broad discussion can develop in which the effects of the war on historiography in Germany (admission of academics from Ukraine, the war as a major caesura, etc.) can also be addressed.
The discussion will be held in Ukrainian and interpreted into German.