The series of lectures on interdisciplinary Ukrainian studies called Ukrainian Winter, which began on January 29, 2025, ended on the first day of March. The series of lectures was jointly organised by the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv in cooperation with the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Vision Ukraine Netzwerk: Bildung, Sprache und Migration and the UCL Ukrainian Society.
The Ukrainian Winter series gathered over 300 registered participants and consisted of 14 lectures by Ukrainian and international scholars on a wide range of topics related to Ukrainian culture, history and society. The inaugural lecture on decolonization processes in Ukraine was given by Myroslav Shkandrij, Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba.
From the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a lecture entitled “Decolonial Content on Ukrainian YouTube: Revealing «kakaya raznitsa» and Blurring Cultural Boundaries with Russia” was delivered by dr Olha Tkachenko on February 21, 2025.
Lecture by Dr. Olha Tkachenko. Photo: private archive.
Their research involves queries in national and local archives as well as ethnographic fieldwork in three selected regions, namely Pomerania in Poland, Northern Bohemia in Czechia, and Upper Nitra Basin in Slovakia. In the initial two years of the project, researchers successfully gathered nearly 200 interviews. This dataset encompasses both oral history interviews and ethnographic approaches. The research team spent many hours looking for the relevant documents in the archives, talking with interview partners, documenting the material objects being studied, and exploring the locations they investigated.
The team led by Dr Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska actively disseminates the results of its research through participation in radio shows, podcasts and open events, thus effectively reaching a wide audience, including those outside the academic community.
We invite you to visit the project website, where you can read more about the summary of the team’s work so far and follow the researchers’ activities on social media.
The project will last until 2027. We wish you good luck and keep our fingers crossed for further successes!
We are pleased to announce that two projects will be carried out at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences within the fifth edition of the Polish National Agency of Academic Exchange (NAWA) programme POLONISTA:
From 1 September this year until 29 February 2024, Dr Vadzim Shkliaryk from Belarus will be implementing the project “Little-known Polish-Belarusian texts in manuscripts from the 18th century: linguistic description in the context of historical dialectology” at the ISS PAS. Prof. Alena Rudenka will be the project supervisor on behalf of the Institute.
Dr. Vadzim Shkliaryk. Photo: private archive.
In turn, from 1 April to 30 September 2024 Doc. Dr. Olena Pelekhata from Ukraine will conduct a project at the Institute entitled “The influence of linguistic ideologies on the value of the Polish language and Polish identity”. Dr Gabriela Augustyniak-Żmuda will be the project supervisor.
POLONISTA is a scholarship and fellowship programme of the Polish National Agency of Academic Exchange (NAWA) addressed to students and researchers. The objective of the Programme is to promote Polish language in the world by enabling foreigners interested in Polish language and Polish culture to study or carry out research projects in Poland.
On May 31, 2023, Dr. Orest Semotiuk conducted an online workshop entitled “How to analyze political cartoons”. The event was organized by the Center for Journalist Solidarity of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. More information about the workshop can be found on the organizer’s website.
Photo: personal archive of Orest Semotiuk.
On June 2, at the invitation of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), Dr. Semotiuk gave an online lecture entitled “Humor as a Weapon of War”.
Photo: personal archive of Orest Semotiuk.
In turn, from June 7–10, Dr. Semotiuk was in Brno (Czech Republic) for the 16th Congress of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF), “Living Uncertainty”. The Congress was organized by the Department of European Ethnology of the Masaryk University. The Congress was attended by ca. 800 participants, and its program included 100 panels covering 16 topics – from achitecture to religion. Dr. Semotiuk took part in the panel “Heritage as resistance – looking forward to cultural recovery,” during which he delivered a speech entitled “Superhero vs. butcher: Zelensky & Putin in political cartoons on Russian aggression”.
Dr. Semotiuk in Brno. Photo: personal archive of Orest Semotiuk.
Dr. Orest Semotiuk is implementing a project entitled „Laughter during the war: Russian aggression in Ukraine in political cartoons and memes” at ISS PAS as part of the POLONEZ BIS programme of the National Science Centre (NCN).
We present research conducted at ISS PAS as part of the POLONEZ BIS 2 programme of the National Science Centre (NCN):
Dr. Anna Becker from Germany is implementing a project entitled „New multilingual realities in Polish higher education: The negotiation of language practices, identities, and ideologies in times of unprecedented migration and resurgent nationalism”. The supervisor of the project on the part of the Institute is dr hab. Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska, prof. ISS PAS.
We present research conducted at ISS PAS as part of the POLONEZ BIS 2 programme of the National Science Centre (NCN):
Dr. Anton Dinerstein from Belarus is implementing a project entitled „Power and identity in Russian-language political discourse: The case of Belarus”. The supervisor of the project on the part of the Institute is dr hab. Anna Engelking, prof. ISS PAS.
We present research conducted at ISS PAS as part of the POLONEZ BIS 2 programme of the National Science Centre (NCN):
Dr. Orest Semotiuk from Ukraine is implementing a project entitled „Laughter during the war: Russian aggression in Ukraine in political cartoons and memes”. The supervisor of the project on the part of the Institute is dr hab. Roman Roszko, prof. IS PAN.
Project description:
Modern wars differ from the classic ones in that they use not only military equipment and regular troops. Values, ideology, culture, symbols, media, humor are becoming weapons in the 21st century. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which began in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of Donbass, has been evaluated as a “hybrid war”. After the full-scale invasion of Russia on February 24, 2022, Ukraine not only became a theater of hostilities in Europe, but also a topic №1 in the world media. Political humor in Ukraine and worldwide became a weapon. The heroic resistance of Ukrainians and Russia’s war crimes against civilians have been reflected in political humor both in Ukraine and around the world. Accordingly, the project aims to analyze the implementation and evolution of the discursive dimension of the Ukrainian-Russian War in cartoons and memes. We are going to investigate similarities and differences in conflict depiction („self-image” and “external image” of the conflict course, conflict participants, conflict consequences) in Ukrainian and World political cartoons and memes. Special attention is paid to a) rapid growth of global interest in Ukraine, opposing the aggressor; b) gradual changes in the attitude of world leaders to the Russian-Ukrainian war, due to public pressure and diplomatic efforts of Ukraine; с) Putin’s transformation into a global pariah; d) the evolution of President Zelensky’s attitude to ways to resolve the conflict before and after 24.02. The project integrates national and international (global) levels of political humorous discourse and proposes a contrastive analysis of the discursive dimension of the Russian-Ukrainian war and its implementation in political humor. The project is based on significant correlation of the real and discursive dimension of the conflict (international military and political assistance to Ukraine and the reflection of this support in the national and international political humor).
Dr. Orest Semotiuk. Photo Franz Kurz (Regensburg).
Dr. Orest Semotiuk — media linguist, political humor researcher, MAXQDA trainer (computer-aided content analysis). His research interests include: political cartoons and memes, medialization of armed conflicts and hybrid warfare, quantitative and qualitative research methods. Member of the International Society of Ethnology and Folklore (Amsterdam, NL), Association for Slavic East European and Eurasian Studies (Pittsburgh, USA), International Association of the Humanities (Kyiv, UA). Author of the book Rossijsko-ukrajinska vijna v suchasnij politychnij karykaturi. Mediatizatsia vojennych konfliktiv suchasnosti/The Russian-Ukrainian war in modern political cartoon. Mediatization of modern military conflicts (2021).
Dr. Orest Semotiuk. Photo: Zofia Świrek
POLONEZ BIS is co-financed by the European Commission and the National Science Centre under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND grant.
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