Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Frankfurt (Oder) – Berlin (KIU)

About

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The KIU competence network is a four-year DAAD-funded project to strengthen Ukraine-related research, teaching, networking and transfer activities. The competence network, initiated and led by the European University Viadrina, includes the ZOiS, the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin.

KIU – Competence Network for Interdisciplinary Ukraine Studies Frankfurt (Oder)-Berlin, led by the European University Viadrina, and the ‘Denkraum Ukraine’ Regensburg are the two Ukraine Centers in Germany funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). Together, they are working on building Ukraine-related academic research and teaching, disseminating Ukraine expertise in politics, academia, media, and civil society, as well as promoting a Europe-wide dialogue with Ukraine.

 

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KIU – Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukraine Studies

Frankfurt (Oder)-Berlin

News

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New publication: ‘War as a singular crisis? An analysis of the singularity and continuity of crises using the example of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine’ - Susann Worschech

This article analyses Russia’s war against Ukraine according to the criteria of a singular crisis as formulated by Kraemer and Steg (2025), combining this approach with Charles Tilly's persective on crises, conflict and contentious politics. The article argues that the singular character of any crisis is strongly influenced by its spatial, temporal, and factual dimensions, which can blur the boundaries between crisis, normality, and ‘new normality’. Finally, it states that crisis response and the concept of resilience are also contingent and need to be integrated in our understanding of singular crises.

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Elena Korosteleva: ‘Complexity and Community in IR: nurturing resilience in Central Eurasia’ - book presentation and discussion

TUESDAY, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. | GD HS 08 (Gräfin-Dönhoff-Building), Europa-Universität Viadrina I Hybrid format I This book offers a unique IR perspective on resilience-nurturing generally, and with a focus on Central Eurasia, using the lens of complexity-thinking and community of relations. Steeped in centuries-long traditions, social memory, and culture, Central Eurasia,spanning Belarus and Ukraine in the west, South Caucasus in the south, and Kazakhstan in the east, faces multiple challenges today—from rampaging poverty and climate emergency, to democratic struggles, conflicts, and a devastating war in Ukraine, with global consequences for the planet. And yet, this region demonstrates remarkable resilience being stubbornly affirmative about their better (alternative) futures, and visions of the good life, in the context of the Anthropocene. Central Eurasia avidly showcases aparticular kind of resilience—that is, deeply ideational, spiritual, and always communal. This book will guide the reader towards discovering the real meaning of resilience, reclaimed from neoliberal thinking, and instead immersed into complex life, using Central Eurasia as a case study. Resilience on this journey becomes not just a quality of a complex system, or an analytic of governance to manage uncertainty. Resilience comes to encapsulate an almost revolutionary process of community’s worlding into a universe of more-than-human complex relations, attuned to the precarious conditions of the Anthropocene, and more crucially, able to act on them, with a political agency, collectively.

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‘Everything for Everybody: Archival resilience in wartime Ukraine’ - Viktoria Donovan

TUESDAY, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. I GD HS 08 (Gräfin-Dönhoff-Building), Europa-Universität Viadrina I Hybrid format I This talk presents and explores the questions central to the exhibition ‘Everything for Everybody’ (curators: Natasha Chychasova, Victoria Donovan, Kateryna Rusetska), which forms part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025 and is currently on display at the Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture in Dnipro, Ukraine. ‘Everything for Everybody' raises questions about how archives come into being, who has access to their contents, and who controls their meaning. It explores the role of the archive during wartime and how these collections form unique testimonies about places that have vanished or been destroyed. The exhibition takes as its point of departure two photographic archives from the UK and Ukraine: the Franki Raffles Photography Collection at the University of St Andrews and the Mykola Bilokon photographic archives held by the Pokrovsk Historical Museum. Despite the distances that separated these photographers in space and context, they shared common interests in documenting working-class life, gendered labour, and the shifting political landscape at the end of socialism. Their work raises issues about the politics of documentation and the factors governing the preservation of archival histories. The exhibition's reflections on the nature of the archive unfold against the backdrop of the war’s reality, in which the Pokrovsk Historical Museum—which holds Bilokon’s legacy—has been evacuated, while the city itself is gradually turning into ruins. In this context, the exhibition’s title ‘Everything for Everybody’ reads both as a promise and a provocation: Whose stories are we archiving now, and for whom?

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Book talk and screening of the video essay ‘Images and Objects of Russia’s War Against Ukraine’ with Natasha Klimenko, Miglė Bareikytė, Viktoriya Sereda

TUESDAY, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. | GD HS 08 (Gräfin-Dönhoff-Building), Europa-Universität Viadrina I Hybrid format I Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has destroyed lives, communities, and cities. From the start, images of this destruction spread across various media platforms. Paintings, photographs, drone footage, TikToks, and Instagram posts shaped how the war is experienced, represented, and archived. In the multidisciplinary volume Images and Objects of Russia’s War against Ukraine (Natasha Klimenko, Miglė Bareikytė, Viktoriya Sereda, eds.), artists, scholars, and writers from Ukraine and beyond explore how art, media, infrastructures, and material culture respond to and contest the Russo–Ukrainian War. This book-talk will feature a presentation of the volume Images and Objects of Russia’s War against Ukraine. The editors of the book will explore how different forms of media and artistic expression document and interpret the war, influence collective memory, and engage with the lived realities of the war. In addition, the event will include a screening of an essay film based on selected contributions from the book, highlighting the intersections of art, media, and war. By combining a presentation, video essay, and discussion, the event aims to provide an interdisciplinary reflection on war, visual culture, and media-infrastructural practices in Ukraine.

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Call for Applications: KIU Research Fellowships on Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies, Summer Term 2026

The KIU Research Fellowship supports outstanding, interdisciplinary research related to Ukraine. Scholars from fields such as history, the social sciences, science andtechnology studies, economics, media and legal studies, cultural and conflict studies, and related areas are invited to deepen their projects, expand academic networks, andcontribute to a dynamic Ukraine-focused research environment. For the summer term 2026 we are offering both on-site and non-residential fellowships for committed scientists from all the above-mentioned disciplines. Research topics should be related to our recent semester topic: ‘Nationalities, minorities and identity: (Re)Configuring Ukraine?’. Applications are accepted until 15 January 2026.

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Bounded Solidarity: Poland and Ukraine amid Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has taken a harder line on Ukraine: he opposes Kyiv’s NATO bid, rules out sending Polish troops under any circumstances, and has tightened domestic support for Ukrainian refugees. The country remains strongly critical of Russia, but this does not mean unlimited solidarity with Ukraine.

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Fellowships and Programmes

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Fellowships

The KIU Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies supports innovative and significant research on topics related to Ukraine.

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Programmes

The KIU Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Frankfurt (Oder) – Berlin offers various programmes. Among them is its first Summer School on "War in Ukraine: Destruction of heritage – mastering legacy".

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Partners

Funded by

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with funds from the Federal Foreign Office (AA)