Darya Tsymbalyuk: ‘War, ecocide and the living worlds of Ukraine’

The lecture explores transformations in social fabric and collective self-perception triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion – both within Ukraine and across the EU. It highlights a striking homology in how the affected and implicated communities undergo internal reshuffling: from the mitigation of pre-existing cleavages (often framed along essentialist or historical lines, e.g. the ‘East vs. West’ divide), through a phase of short-lived – yet remarkable – unity, to the emergence of new stratifications shaped by differing reactions to, and experiences of, the war.

In this talk, Darya Tsymbalyuk discusses her book ‘Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia's War’. In the book, Tsymbalyuk offers an intimate portrait of her beloved homeland against the backdrop of Russia's war and ecocide. She addresses multiple ways in which conditions of living of people and more-than-human beings have been eroded by Russian ongoing military violence and occupation, and questions what it means to be inhabiting the lands under attack. "Ecocide in Ukraine" was published by Polity in 2025, and received the 2025 Kovaliv Prize from Ukrainian National Women League of America, 2026 Book Award from the Humanities Institute, Arizona State University, and the 2026 Book Prize from the American Association of Ukrainian Studies.

Darya Tsymbalyuk is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU) at the University of Chicago. She is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of environmental humanities and artistic research, and her practice includes writing and image-making. Tsymbalyuk is the author of ‘Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War’ (Polity, 2025). Among her many shorter scholarly publications is a double special issue on the environmental humanities of Ukraine co-edited with Tanya Richardson and forthcoming with East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies. Her other scholarly texts have been published by Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of International Relations and Development, Narrative Culture, REGION: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, to name a few. Her public-facing writing appeared in BBC Future Planet, Public Books, openDemocracy, The Funambulist, KAJET, NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment, and many other platforms. In 2023, she received Mary Zirin Prize from the Association for Women in Slavic Studies. You can learn more about her work here: https://daryatsymbalyuk.com/