Authors
Anna KovalenkoUkrainian art and culture researcher,
critic, and mediator, currently based in Montreal/ Kyiv. Her research
interests include ecocriticism, gender studies and feminism,
postcolonial studies, and collective trauma. She holds an MA degree in
Literature, Visual Culture and Film from the Estonian Academy of Arts
& Tallinn University. She has worked with several art institutions
and events as a mediator. These include the Estonian Pavilion at the
59th Venice Biennale, the “Futuromarennia” exhibition at the Art Museum
of Estonia (in collaboration with Mystetskyi Arsenal), and "The Art of
Caring" pop-up exposition by Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art. She
has also had experience as a museum educator conducting art lessons for
Ukrainian refugee children who fled the country. One of the main
personal interests she commits to nowadays in her writing and curatorial
practice is finding new narratives to decolonize knowledge about
Ukrainian art and culture abroad. Currently, she continues her research
within green studies, colonialism, and memory studies in the context of
contemporary Ukraine and generational trauma.
Postcolonial ecocriticism
Gennadi Poberezny Gennadi Poberezny is an associate professor of political science in the politics and economics department at Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany, where he concentrates on Soviet genocide and colonial studies, as well as the political and human geography of Eastern Europe and North America. Besides, Gennadi was an associate at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, where he was the chief cartographer of the Great Famine project for Digital Atlas of Ukraine (http://gis.huri.harvard.edu/historical-atlas/the-great-famine.html). He is a co-founder of Raphaël Lemkin Center for Comparative Genocide and Colonial Studies and partakes in several genocide-focused research projects: studying Lemkin’s intellectual legacy, particularly his concept of genocide, and working on a book regarding the Soviet Genocide in Ukraine. Dr. Pobereƶny is an alumnus of Rutgers University and holds graduate degrees in geography, sustainable systems, political science, and global affairs, and has taught courses on politics of global affairs, comparative politics of post-communist and post-colonial transitional societies of Eastern Europe, as well as the political culture of North America. He was a Fulbright scholar and a recipient of the Open Society and the Shevchenko Scientific Society fellowship awards.
Raphaël Lemkin’s Concept of Soviet Genocide in Ukraine
“Variable name” Maryna Marinichenko and Valerie KarpanThe collective of Ukrainian curators and artists Valerie Karpan and Maryna Marinichenko was created in the process of collaborative research. Together, they work with topics of memory and commemoration practices, multisensory experiences, visual (digital) anthropology, transformation of symbolic and natural landscapes, inclusivity, research of local narratives, and cultural education.
Unlearning
Daria OrobchukDr. Dariia Orobchuk is a linguist who studied German Studies and English in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and received her doctorate in Germanic Linguistics at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. Since 2021, she has been working as a research associate in the Master's program for German as a Second and Foreign Language and Multilingualism at the Institute for Intercultural Communication at the University of Hildesheim. Her research areas include the Didactics of Language Teaching, German as a Foreign and Second Language, Migration Linguistics, Multimodality, and Metaphor Research.
Abrogation
Lesia SkinteyPostdoc at the Department of German Studies, University of Innsbruck, Austria. She completed her doctorate on early second language acquisition at the University of Bielefeld and worked as a research assistant at the Universities of Cologne and Koblenz. In the summer semester of 2023, she substituted the W2 professorship for German as a second language and German as a foreign language at the University of Koblenz. Her work and research focuses on second language acquisition, Ukrainian as a language of origin, multilingualism, teacher professionalisation in the field of German as a second language, implementation of concepts of language education and qualitative research methods. She is a founding member and coordinator of the interdisciplinary research network “Vision Ukraїne: Education, Language, Migration”.
Abrogation
Svitlana BiedarievaSvitlana Biedarieva is an award-winning art historian, artist, and curator. She received her PhD in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. She is the editor of the book Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives, 1991-2021 (Stuttgart: ibidem Press, 2021) and co-editor of At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019 (Mexico City: Editorial 17, 2020). In 2022/23, Svitlana was selected as the George F. Kennan Fellow at the Kennan Institute, Wilson Center, and the Non-Resident Visiting Fellow at the George Washington University for her research, the CEC ArtsLink International Fellow for her curatorial work, and the Prince Claus Seed Award Laureate for her artistic work. Svitlana has published her texts in such academic journals and media outlets as October, ArtMargins Online, Space and Culture, post at MoMA, Revue Critique d’Art, Financial Times, The Burlington Contemporary, Hyperallergic, and The Art Newspaper, among others. Currently, Svitlana is working on two books: on Ukraine’s decoloniality for Palgrave Macmillan and art and resistance for Routledge.
From the postcolonial condition to the decolonial option
Yaroslav Motenko Motenko Yaroslav PhD in History, Associate Professor, Associate Professor at the Department of Ukrainian Studies, Cultural Studies and History of Science at the National Technical University «Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute» (Kharkiv, Ukraine). Research interests: revolutionary processes in Eastern and Central Europe in 20 - early 21 centuries, the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, regional characteristics of the peasant movement in Ukraine in 1917-1921, technology of hidden political communication. In 2005 he defended his dissertation on «Peasant movement in Kharkiv province in 1917-1921». In the early 2000s, he began to research the problems of socio-political processes in the post-Soviet space in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian hybrid war of 2014-2022. The issues on which the researcher focuses are: methods of information warfare and instrumentalisation of humanities disciplines. He is the author of 70 publications, including four collective monographs.
Mnemonic War (War of Memory)
Stefaniia SidorovaCombining research and activism, Stefaniia Sidorova delves into social and anti-colonial epistemologies, advocating for diverse knowledge systems in Ukraine and beyond. As a PhD student at Kyiv National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, her research focuses on epistemic oppression and resistance, uncovering how power structures shape our knowledge practices. Beyond the academy, she works as a project manager for the educational platform “Plato’s Cave”. Her current focus is on the preparation of an edited volume of 17-19th century women philosophers' works. She lives in Kyiv with her husband, two cats and books.
Coloniality of knowledge
Yurii BoikoI was born in July 1998 in Kyiv, a graduate of the Department of Philosophy at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (master's degree with honors), a PhD student in philosophy at the European University of Viadrina (Frankfurt Oder), engaged in volunteering and cultural activities (cooperate with such local actors as verbuendungshaus fforst e.V., Kulturmanufaktur Gerstenberg, Slubfurt e.V., etc.), initiated a series of informal screenings of Ukrainian poetic cinema with discussions together with Oleksii Isakov (Viadrina). I teach at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Viadrina (I lead a tutorial for the course "Einführung in die Kulturwissenschaften" - "Introduction to Cultural Studies" ).
Сriticism of Anthropocentrism in Oleksandr Dovzhenko's Earth
Lia DostlievaLia Dostlieva (b 1984, Donetsk, Ukraine) is an artist, cultural anthropologist and essayist. Her art and research practice engaged with the issues of collective trauma, decolonial stories seen through multispecies entanglements, and agency and visibility of vulnerable groups. Participant of the National Pavilion of Ukraine on the 60th La Biennale di Venezia.Exhibited her works at the Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), Kolumba Museum (Cologne, Germany), Ludwig Museum (Budapest, Hungary), National Gallery of Art (Vilnius, Lithuania), Tbilisi Photography and Multimedia Museum (Tbilisi, Sakartvelo), National Museum of Fine Arts (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia), etc.
Colonial erasure
Oleksandra KotliarPh.D. student of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Foreign Countries of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Researcher of American intellectual history and decolonial option. Currently working on thesis devoted to the intellectual origins of US foreign policy thought.
Colonialism and Coloniality
Yuliia KishchukYuliia Kishchuk researches and photographs. Her academic interests intersect feminist and decolonial theory, visual studies, and environmental humanities. She holds an MA in Women’s and Gender History from Central European University and is currently completing her second Masters at New York University.
Decolonial Aesthesis
Mariia Varlygina Mariia Varlygina (born 1994, Kharkiv) is a graduate student at Jagiellonian University, specializing in cultural anthropology and research of visual culture. Professional engagements include collaborations with YermilovCentre, Chekachkov Photo Academy, and MOKSOP since 2017. From 2022 onwards assumed roles in Kraków's cultural institutions, contributing as a curator and translator. Scientific interests: the anthropology of time, new sincerity, and the narrativization of history.
Heterochronotopy
Daryna Skrynnyk-Myska Daryna Skrynnyk-Myska, 1980, Head of the Department of Contemporary Art Practices at the Lviv National Academy of Arts, PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor. In 2004, she graduated from LNAM with a degree in Art Works Restoration, and in 2008 completed her postgraduate studies at the Department of History and Cultural Theory of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Co-developer of the educational program "Contemporary Art Practices" and co-founder of the Department of Contemporary Art Practices, which she heads. Participant of more than 30 scientific conferences and seminars. Author of more than 100 publications, including 30 scientific ones; more than 70 are scientific and journalistic texts, articles for art catalogs. Daryna is a guest lecturer, moderator, and speaker of discussions; a member of the jury of art competitions, including the selection committee for the Curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale. Co-curator of the projects "Art of Resistance" (Valencia, Spain, 2022), "Sacred Space" (Lviv, Ukraine, 2020), II Biennale of Young Art (Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2019), "Act of Acceptance and Transfer" (Ivano-Frankivsk, 2018); curator of the project "Oslapia + Time" (Lviv, Ukraine, 2021).
Borderlands
Myroslav Shkandrij Myroslav Shkandrij is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, where he taught Slavic studies until 2019, and was a visiting professor at Columbia University in 2021-23. He has published books on the Literary Discussion of the 1920s in Ukraine, the Russian-Ukrainian discourse on empire, the Ukrainian avant-garde, nationalism, Jews in Ukrainian literature, twentieth-century memory wars, and on the ‘Galicia’ Division.
Decolonial/anti-colonial/post-colonial
Valeriia Buradzhyieva Valeriia Buradzhyieva is a curator and artist from Berdiansk, Ukraine. She holds a BA degree in Cultural Studies from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Performance Studies at Stockholm University. Since 2022, Valeriia has been a co-curator of the online platform SONIAKH dedicated to the research in post- and decoloniality in Ukrainian culture and art. She has worked for IZOLYATSIA Foundation (Kyiv, Ukraine), Wild Theatre (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Milvus Artistic Research Center (Knislinge, Sweden).
Mimicry
Nadiya Kiss Dr. Nadiya Kiss is a sociolinguist and slavist. She works as a posttdoctoral researcher at Justus Liebig University of Giessen. Her research areas include language policy, language activism, lingustic landscape and migration linguistics. She is co-founder of the research network Vision Ukraine: Education, Language, Migration.
Abrogation
Liudmyla Pidkuimukha Dr. Liudmyla Pidkuimukha is a sociolinguist and slavist. Since May 2022, she is a postdoctoral researcher at the Justus Liebig University of Giessen (Germany). In 2016, she defended her Ph.D. thesis devoted to the language situation in Lviv between two world wars. From 2015 to 2022, she occupied the position of an Associate Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine). Dr. Pidkuimukha was a visiting scholar at the universities of Canada, Germany, and Poland. She is a co-founder of the Network “Vision Ukraine: Education, Language and Migration”. Her research interests include language policy, language ideology, bi- and multilingualism, and cultural and media studies.
Abrogation
Eugenia Seleznova Ukrainian researcher, writer, and cultural manager. Founder and former chief editor of the online public scholarship digest "Pro|stir" (prostranstvo.media). Extensively published in Ukrainian, English, and German, including such issues as Korydor, YourArt, and Tagebuch. In 2023 completed a Master's research at Central European University, Gender Studies department, with a topic “Sense of Belonging In LGBTQIA+ Ukrainians Amidst The Full-Scale War With Russia”. Eugenia is currently studying at CEU Comparative Gender Studies Ph.D. program, and is developing a research project on queer and gendered temporalities of the Russo-Ukrainian war. She also writes and publishes childrens' texts under a pseudonym Sonya Zelena.
Minoritarian performance
Maria Vtorushina (they/them) Maria Vtorushina (they/them) are a curator, researcher, and writer. Their curatorial projects are based on analyzing concepts and practices of freedom, while their field of research is the history of queer art in societies that experienced Soviet colonialism. In their ongoing study, Maria aim to reveal and articulate the voices and practices of queer people, censored or repressed by totalitarian government regimes starting from the beginning of the twentieth century. Holding an MA in Art Theory from the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, Maria received post-graduate training at the Centre for Gender and Diversity, a research platform at Maastricht University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. In 2023, Maria were the editor-in-chief of Artslooker Magazine; from 2016 to 2021, they led Kyiv Art Week as the artistic director.
Coloniality of Gender/Patriarchy and power
Maria Kardash Maria Kardash is an independent research and performer working with topics of cultural propaganda, construction of Other in public narratives and notions of 'oriental' and 'exotic' in art. Originally from Izmail, Ukraine, she is currently based in Katowice, Poland. As a Dance Anthropologist, Maria adopted an interdisciplinary approach to her work and combines her academic activities (participation in residences, conferences and public talks) with theatre and dance. She is also a holder of Eramus Mundus, Visegrad Fund and other international scholarships.
Eurocentrism, Euromodernity
Yuliia Kravchenko Yuliia Kravchenko, PhD, Independent research scholar, Educator, Lecturer on “History of Ukrainian Culture”, founder of NGO “Philosophy for Children and Adults” A former Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of Arts and Humanities, Teachers College, Columbia University 2021–2022. Her publications include articles on the Philosophy for Children Program, with a focus on decolonizing educational practices.
Decolonial/anti-colonial/post-colonial
Khrystyna Semeryn I am a researcher, PhD, journalist, and writer, born in Boykos Subcarpathia, Ukraine. I write on cultural memory, Ukrainian and world literatures, gender, women's rights, women in culture, Ukrainian sculpture of the 20th and 21st centuries, imagology and imagined geography of Central and Eastern Europe, and Eastern European Jewish studies. I held research stays at University of Augsburg in Germany, Center for Eastern Studies in Poland, Indiana University Bloomington, Fordham University, and Northwestern University (nonresidential, US). In 2023, I authored the anthology of Ukrainian short fiction about Jews. In 2018—2021, I edited five volumes of Geopoetical Studies. Currently I have been doing analytical studies on Ukrainian culture in wartime, Ukrainian scholars at war and Russian disinformation in regional media for Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. I am also maintaining a list of Ukrainian scholars killed during the Russo-Ukrainian war, jointly with a team of the popular science platform “Моя наука – My.science.ua.” I also serve as an expert for Ukrainian Book Institute. My work was supported by Vidnova Ukraine Fellowship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Think Visegrad Fellowship, Indiana University Bloomington, Fordham University, Regional Press Development Institute, Ukrainian President’ Scholarship and others. Previously, I served as an expert for Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, a university lecturer, and a full-time journalist. I am a member of Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies and Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
Gender subalternity
Daria Popil Daria Popil is a researcher in social philosophy, currently pursuing a master's degree at L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. She obtained her bachelor's degree in philosophy at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and began her master's studies at Aix-Marseille Université, continuing now at EHESS. Her research focuses on the decolonization of humanitarian knowledge in Ukraine using the methodology of social philosophy. She has experience collaborating with the Student Society of Oral History of Philosophy, where she conducted research interviews with representatives of the Ukrainian academy from the 1970s and 1980s, regarding the development of Ukrainian humanitarian studies in the late Soviet Union.
Epistemic injustice