Course Director: Tetiana Vodotyka (Institute of History of Ukraine, NASU, Senior Research Fellow; Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Guest Researcher, vodotyka@mics.org.ua)
Course Coordinator: nadiya chushak (nadiya.chu@gmail.com)
Course Description
This course aims to examine how contested memory of the First and Second World Wars and mass violence was reshaped in Ukrainian and East European urban social space after 1989/1991, and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine and destruction of Ukrainian cities influenced current cultural perception of the twentieth-century past. The course starts with an overview of the dominant theoretical concepts of memory studies and then re-examines them by discussing specific features of the politics of memory and commemorative practices. It also seeks to deconstruct identity-driven interpretations of past events which aim to neutralize accounts founded on truthfulness. The course will address the role of the state, academia, public intellectuals and new mnemonic actors (including new business elites) in the reshaping of collective memory and will focus on selected urban sites of memory in this process. We will also explore how historical memory can be instrumentalized and used as a weapon, and how the Russian state managed to move the historical debates from the university to the real battlefield in Ukraine.
Contents. The course is structured into three modules, each covering specific problems such as basic theoretical issues of Memory Studies, spaces and places of memory, and finally, ways of instrumentalization of the memory (especially during Russia’s hybrid aggression). Each module opens with a theoretical lecture, explaining the basics of the problem (what is memory studies and how they had developed, the interconnection of urban space and memory, the basic principles of securitization of memory) followed by lectures on more specific topics or/and case studies.
The chronology of the course covers the XX-XXI centuries. The geography of the course is limited basically by Central and Eastern Europe.
Learning Outcomes:
The course offers an intensive learning experience, placing questions relevant for Ukrainian students into a transnational comparative perspective. It aims at familiarizing the students with various cutting-edge interpretative paradigms and methodological traditions. The program is not meant to replace or duplicate the existing online education in Ukrainian universities, but to support them and provide help for filling the lacunae that temporarily emerged due to the Russian military invasion. At the end of this course, students will have expanded their knowledge on key issues of political theory and history of principal political ideologies in a European and global transnational perspective and explored the applicability of these for the Ukrainian context. The course also develops the participants’ critical thinking and skills in academic discussion in English
Learning activities and teaching methods:
Each session will consist of approximately 60 minutes of presentation by two invited lecturers. It will be followed by 40 minutes of open discussions. Within two weeks after the class participants should send their overviews, based on the scheme “X-2-1”. Students analyse the lecture for X key points (3-5) the author makes in the paper; as well as 2 things that they have questions about, and finally, the reflection on 1 issue/topic/argument that was really interesting and encouraging for the further search/reading.
Each session will be recorded and downloaded to moodle.
During the course, participants will work individually and in groups, building on their individual experiences and learning, and sharing their progress and findings with other groups and members of faculty.
Preparation:
For each session, you are required to read the essential readings suggested by the presenter. Readings are available online and sorted in dedicated folders.
Assessment: This course is possible to take for grades or for a pass/fail grade. Those who write research papers at the end by default receive grades. Others can choose pass/fail or grades. Passing the course means that the students have participated in the classes actively.
Participation: Please, try to attend as many classes and seminars as possible: by skipping a class, you deprive the other students to learn from you. Class participants are expected to contribute actively in class discussions, building off on the comments from classmates and the class instructor to work towards understanding problems. A contribution is considered meaningful if a student added something new by sharing knowledge, asked a critical question, explained a tricky detail, raised a new possibility, synthesized from examples, or summarized arguments.
Lectures will be on Mondays at 5 P.M. CET in the digital classroom. The course starts on October 3 and finishes on December 19. Each session will be recorded and available online for the course participants afterwards. This, however, does not exempt you from personal attendance. Sessions are held in English and Ukrainian.
Course Coordinator: nadiya chushak (nadiya.chu@gmail.com)
Course Description
This course aims to examine how contested memory of the First and Second World Wars and mass violence was reshaped in Ukrainian and East European urban social space after 1989/1991, and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine and destruction of Ukrainian cities influenced current cultural perception of the twentieth-century past. The course starts with an overview of the dominant theoretical concepts of memory studies and then re-examines them by discussing specific features of the politics of memory and commemorative practices. It also seeks to deconstruct identity-driven interpretations of past events which aim to neutralize accounts founded on truthfulness. The course will address the role of the state, academia, public intellectuals and new mnemonic actors (including new business elites) in the reshaping of collective memory and will focus on selected urban sites of memory in this process. We will also explore how historical memory can be instrumentalized and used as a weapon, and how the Russian state managed to move the historical debates from the university to the real battlefield in Ukraine.
Contents. The course is structured into three modules, each covering specific problems such as basic theoretical issues of Memory Studies, spaces and places of memory, and finally, ways of instrumentalization of the memory (especially during Russia’s hybrid aggression). Each module opens with a theoretical lecture, explaining the basics of the problem (what is memory studies and how they had developed, the interconnection of urban space and memory, the basic principles of securitization of memory) followed by lectures on more specific topics or/and case studies.
The chronology of the course covers the XX-XXI centuries. The geography of the course is limited basically by Central and Eastern Europe.
Learning Outcomes:
The course offers an intensive learning experience, placing questions relevant for Ukrainian students into a transnational comparative perspective. It aims at familiarizing the students with various cutting-edge interpretative paradigms and methodological traditions. The program is not meant to replace or duplicate the existing online education in Ukrainian universities, but to support them and provide help for filling the lacunae that temporarily emerged due to the Russian military invasion. At the end of this course, students will have expanded their knowledge on key issues of political theory and history of principal political ideologies in a European and global transnational perspective and explored the applicability of these for the Ukrainian context. The course also develops the participants’ critical thinking and skills in academic discussion in English
Learning activities and teaching methods:
Each session will consist of approximately 60 minutes of presentation by two invited lecturers. It will be followed by 40 minutes of open discussions. Within two weeks after the class participants should send their overviews, based on the scheme “X-2-1”. Students analyse the lecture for X key points (3-5) the author makes in the paper; as well as 2 things that they have questions about, and finally, the reflection on 1 issue/topic/argument that was really interesting and encouraging for the further search/reading.
Each session will be recorded and downloaded to moodle.
During the course, participants will work individually and in groups, building on their individual experiences and learning, and sharing their progress and findings with other groups and members of faculty.
Preparation:
For each session, you are required to read the essential readings suggested by the presenter. Readings are available online and sorted in dedicated folders.
Assessment: This course is possible to take for grades or for a pass/fail grade. Those who write research papers at the end by default receive grades. Others can choose pass/fail or grades. Passing the course means that the students have participated in the classes actively.
Participation: Please, try to attend as many classes and seminars as possible: by skipping a class, you deprive the other students to learn from you. Class participants are expected to contribute actively in class discussions, building off on the comments from classmates and the class instructor to work towards understanding problems. A contribution is considered meaningful if a student added something new by sharing knowledge, asked a critical question, explained a tricky detail, raised a new possibility, synthesized from examples, or summarized arguments.
Lectures will be on Mondays at 5 P.M. CET in the digital classroom. The course starts on October 3 and finishes on December 19. Each session will be recorded and available online for the course participants afterwards. This, however, does not exempt you from personal attendance. Sessions are held in English and Ukrainian.
- Instructors: Vladimir Petrovic, Oleksii Rudenko, Ostap Sereda, Nataliia Shuliakova, Marsha Siefert, Balazs Trencsenyi, Yevhen Yashchuk, Nadiya Chushak, externalp dfdsfd, Thomas Fetzer, Julia Giese, Xymena Kurowska, Anastasiia Morozova, Petar Odak, Oleksandr Okhrimenko, Tina Polek, Oksana Sarkisova, Tetiana Vodotyka