Report on the public lecture about Ukraine on the topic “Re-thinking Polish and Ukrainian Studies in the Context of the Ongoing Russia`s War against Ukraine " given by a Prof. Dr. Andrii Portnov at WBZ
A series of public lectures titled "Ukraine Between History and Modernity: War Challenges, Historical Narratives, and a Conflict of Interpretations" was continued in October with a lecture by Prof. Dr.Andrii Portnov at the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies (WBZ), the project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). This lecture on the topic “Re-thinking Polish and Ukrainian Studies in the Context of the Ongoing Russia`s War against Ukraine" was the second lecture in the series. Our partner in the implementation of this project is the German Studies Center (ZDS) at Peking University, FU Berlin.
The lecture series has now been successfully concluded, generating significant interest and fostering the development of new ideas. We continue to publish reports on the events to share the key ideas and questions that were raised.
Prof. Dr. Andrii Portnov, Director of the Viadrina Centre of Polish and Ukrainian Studies in Oktober shared his observations about the dynamics of methodological discussions as well as institutional changes in international Academia in the context of Russia`s full-scale invasion in Ukraine.
At first, he focused on the most vivid and broadly discussed theoretical suggestion – an implementation of post-colonial approach to analyzing “the complex Russo-Ukrainian relations”. Prof. Portnov reflected on the historiographical claims on the necessity to “decolonize Russian and Soviet studies”, existing attempts to apply post-colonial optics to Ukraine`s history and the discussions about the essentializing content of some post-colonial reasoning and dangers of reviving of national narratives related to them.
The lecturer also touched upon a disputable notion of applicability of post-colonial approach to Polish-Ukrainian history. In this context he referred to his newly published overview of Polish-Ukrainian relations, available in Polish (https://cbh.pan.pl/sites/default/files/download/A_Portnov_Polska%20i%20Ukraina%20Warszawa_Berlin_2023.pdf) and Ukrainian (http://resource.history.org.ua/item/0017510) languages.
In the second part of his talk Prof. Portnov briefly summarized the institutional changes in German Academia, caused by the Russia`s war against Ukraine. He particularly focused on the activities of the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies (https://www.vcpu.europa-uni.de/en/index.html), launched in 2023 in Frankfurt/Oder as a research institution integrated into the European University Viadrina.
The discussion was skillfully moderated by Prof. Dr. hab. Sören Brinkmann (WBZ). Both the in-person and online audiences actively participated, posing numerous insightful questions. While it is impossible to include all the questions, answers, and comments from the audience in this summary, the following highlights offer a glimpse into the core topics and ideas discussed. Among the questions raised by the listeners were the following.
Dr. Lukasz Kaczynski, director of the National Ossolinski Institute (Poland, Wroclaw), asked Professor Andrei Portnov whether the changes caused by the full-scale war which he described in relation to the German environment, were similar to the changes in the scholarly approach of Polish historians to the history of Ukraine.
Professor Dr. Thorsten Bonacker (Director of the Collaborative Research Center “Dynamics of Security” (DFG) and head of the Master’s programs in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Marburg Professor Peace and Conflict Studies at the Philipps University of Marburg) thanked for very inspiring talk and asked the following question: "Could you elaborate a bit more on the potential consequences that a postcolonial understanding of the Russian war of aggression and perhaps the history of Ukraine could have for European-Ukrainian relations?"
Peter Schiffauer (Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Law at Fernuniversität in Hagen, Deputy Director of the Dimitris Tsatsos Institute for European Constitutional Studies) asked the following question: “Would you consider useful for the analysis of Ukrainian history to make a distinction between state-building and nation-building?” The discussion was also attended by Dr. Julia KobzarCenter of the German Studies Center (ZDS) at Peking University and lecturers of the November lectures of the series" Ukraine Between History and Modernity: War Challenges, Historical Narratives, and a Conflict of Interpretations": Doctoral Student from Warsaw University Ivan Posylnyi and Prof. Dr.Tetyana Panchenko from V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.
Ivan Posylnyi asked about postcolonial theory and its applicability for explaining the roots of Russian aggression in Ukraine: “In your opinion, what exactly are the problems of existing English-language academic literature on postcolonialism (like E. Said)? What are the weaknesses, or white spots, of these existing approaches in explaining the Russian colonialism?”. Among the questions asked by Professor Dr. Tetyana Panchenko was, for example, the following: “What topics of Polish-Ukrainian studies, in your opinion, will be in demand in the coming years?” There were also other questions during the engaging discussion.
Professor Andrii Portnov's detailed answers during the discussion not only brought into the discussion various interpretations of the term "postcolonial" but also outlined the related influence of various discourses in academic aria on the relationship of Ukraine as a European country with Western European countries, as well as with other countries of the world.
Andrii Portnov's lecture and the discussion that followed also served as an impetus for further development of the searches of doctoral and master's students. For example, Antonia Francke, Erasmus Student from Germany, remarked the following: “After the first lecture by Prof. Portnov, I noted that I lacked some prior knowledge for his introduction to the topic and that a presentation with the key information would have helped improve my understanding. I found it very interesting to hear the term "colonialism" and to consider Russia as a colonial power, as this point of view was new to me from my previous school and university studies”.
Ivan Posylnyi from the Warsaw University shared his thoughts on the event at the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies as follows: “As a Ukrainian researcher coming from Donbas and focusing my own research on people's identity in the occupied part of Ukraine, expanding the applicability of postcolonial theory on the reality of Ukraine is crucial. Lecturer's remarks about the need to develop studies of postcolonialism in Eastern Europe, and particularly in Ukrainian institutions, are highly relevant. The broad perspective on Ukraine's past and its relations with other European nations (especially with Poland) was an added value of the lecture”.
Below are some more comments from the event participants sent to us after the lecture.
„It was a very interesting lecture, first of all because of its clearly balanced conceptualization of definitions, which actualize scientific language under current changes caused by the Russia’s war against Ukraine” (Svitlana Luchik-Musiyezdova, MA, Center for Advanced Studies of Population and Religion).
„Knowing the deep and detailed approach of Andrii Portnov I was waiting for interesting lecture and I wasn't disappointed. His thoughts surely enable better understanding of contemporary processes. I have no doubt that his new book „Dnipro: an Entangled History of a European City“ mentioned during event and presented to WBZ, is also extremely helpful for those who study history of Ukraine and modern society, as the previous book “Poland and Ukraine. Entangled Histories, Asymmetric Memories”. (Dr Oleksiy Musiyezdov, independent researcher, Krakow).
The Report was prepared by scientific coordinator of the project Prof. Oksana Danylenko in co-authorship with Prof. Andrii Portnov
