GREIFSWALD, 6-18 August: Summer School “XXIII Greifswalder Ukrainikum: Murderous Identities?”

The “Greifswalder Ukrainicum” is a 14-day international summer school on science, culture and language of Ukraine, organised by the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald and the University of Greifswald.

Ukrainian language courses and seminars provide the unique opportunity to learn more about Ukraine in its diversity. Film screenings as well as public lectures complement the program and offer further views on Ukraine. Programme download.

Academic chair: Professor Dr. Roman Dubasevych (Greifswald).

The Greifswalder Ukrainikum is funded by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung, Essen, Germany.

This year the invited lecturers are:

  • Laada Bilaniuk (Seattle): The Politics of Hybridity and Purity in Ukrainian Language and Identity (Language of instruction: English)
    This seminar will examine the ways that Ukrainian language and identity are constructed as “pure” or “hybrid”. We consider the bases for determining hybridity and purity, purism in language standardization and nationbuilding, surzhyk (Ukrainian-Russian mixed language), post-Euromaidan “boyovyi surzhyk”, Anglicization, non-accommodation and receptive bilingualism, ethnolinguistic conversions, and language activism in wartime. In addition to academic analyses, we will draw on material from daily life, popular culture, and social media.
  • Georgiy Kasianov (Kyiv): Return of the Native. History, Politics and Culture in Ukraine and the Post-Communist Space (Language of instruction: Ukrainian)
    The major theme of the course: instrumental use of the past for the sake of the present. Politics of memory, cultural representations of the past, interaction between groups of interest, state and individuals in use and abuse of the past will be considered in the context of ‘nationalization of the past’. The Ukrainian case will be presented and analyzed in the light of geopolitical shifts occurred after the demise of the Communism in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
  • Roman Dubasevych (Greifswald): Vom Kanon zu Kanonen (Language of instruction: German)
    Roman Dubasevych wird die Koexistenz der Kulturen der Ukraine und ihre Spiegelung im Kanon in das Zentrum seines literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Seminars stellen. Dabei orientiert er sich an der von Solomija Pavlyčko initiierten kritischen Befragung der Gewaltdiskurse in der ukrainischen Kultur, also nach dem Verhältnis von Kanon und Kanonen. Beachtet man die Versuche Oksana Zabuškos, Autoren wie Michail Bulgakov oder Barden wie Vladimir Vysockij als Vertreter der „russischen Welt“ zu personae non gratae der ukrainischen Kultur zu erklären, erscheint eine Neudefinition der Begriffe ukrainische Literatur und Kultur im Sinne der Inklusivität und Polyphonie von eminenter Bedeutung für eine friedliche Koexistenz der Sprachen und Kulturen des Landes.

Call for Applications

Students and PhD candidates can apply for a travel scholarship for attending the Ukrainicum. Attending the Ukrainicum at your own expense (there is no participation fee) is open to anyone interested. Registering will be possible from June on via the website.