URIS Ukrainian Research in Switzerland

27/10/2026

We're getting really excited for this Friday! 🎉

We're celebrating 10 years of the URIS Fellowship Programme, bringing together former and current fellows, colleagues and friends who have been part of URIS over the years. It's going to be a very special day for us!

And to round off the celebrations, we're inviting everyone to join us for a public panel discussion in the evening:

Beyond the Headlines: Rethinking Ukraine since 2014 – Academic Knowledge and Public Engagement

🇺🇦 How has the way we talk about Ukraine changed over the past decade? Which misconceptions persist? And what can academic research contribute beyond the daily news cycle?

We're delighted to welcome Tetiana Kyselova, Gwendolyn Sasse, Maryna Shevtsova and Claude Wild for this conversation, chaired by Benjamin Schenk.

We are also delighted that H.E. Iryna Venediktova, Ambassador of Ukraine to Switzerland, will join us for the anniversary celebrations and offer a few words of welcome.

📅 Friday, 30 October 2026 | 18:00–19:30
📍 Alte Universität, Rheinsprung 9, Basel (Room -101)

We'd love to see you there!

22/10/2026

You know you're in the middle of the semester when you can barely keep up with announcing all the events!🎉

So here comes the next one: On 13 November, we're hosting a URIS workshop on feminist and q***r knowledge production, academic power structures and epistemic justice.

Who gets to produce knowledge? Whose perspectives are heard – and whose are overlooked? And how can researchers work together more fairly across institutions, countries and academic traditions?

Our workshop, Producing Feminist and Q***r Knowledge from (Semi-)Peripheries, brings together scholars working across Central and Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, Central Asia and beyond.

We're especially looking forward to the keynote by Mila O’Sullivan (Institute of International Relations Prague), who will explore feminist knowledge production and resistance in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine.

The day will also feature two panel discussions on navigating Western academia and building more equitable research collaborations.

The workshop is organised by our current URIS Fellow Maryna Shevtsova and Anna Dobrowolska from the University of Basel.

📅 Friday, 13 November 2026, 9:30–16:00
📍 Europa-Institut, Orangerie, Riehenstrasse 154, Basel

We're looking forward to a day of discussions and exchange!

20/10/2026

Waffe – Opfer – Widerstand: Kultur in Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine

Welche Rolle spielt Kultur in einem Krieg? Und wie unpolitisch kann sie überhaupt sein?

Russland zerstört und plündert in der Ukraine gezielt Bibliotheken, Museen und andere kulturelle Einrichtungen. Ukrainische Bücher, Sprache und Geschichte werden verdrängt. Gleichzeitig setzt Russland Kultur auch als Instrument der Soft Power ein – etwa durch internationale Auftritte russischer Künstler und Kulturinstitutionen.

Wo beginnt kulturelles Whitewashing? Und wie kann ukrainische Kultur angesichts von Krieg und Zerstörung sichtbar bleiben?

Darüber diskutieren Kateryna Rietz-Rakul, Direktorin des Ukrainischen Instituts in Deutschland, und Ulrich Schmid, Professor für Osteuropa-Studien an der Universität St.Gallen (HSG). Moderiert wird das Gespräch von Benjamin Schenk , Professor für Osteuropäische Geschichte, Universität Basel).

Im Anschluss wird es musikalisch: GANNA, das Projekt der ukrainischen Sängerin und Komponistin Ganna Gryniva, verbindet traditionelle ukrainische Volkslieder mit Jazz, Improvisation und elektronischen Klängen. Mit ihren Neuinterpretationen macht sie ukrainische Musiktraditionen auf ganz eigene Weise hörbar – ein schöner Abschluss für einen Abend, an dem die Bedeutung von Kultur im Mittelpunkt steht.

📅 Sonntag, 29. November 2026, 19:00 Uhr
📍 Kaserne Basel, Reithalle
🎟️ Eintritt frei

Eine gemeinsame Veranstaltung des Osteuropa-Forums Basel, der Kaserne Basel, URIS, des Profilbereich Osteuropa Universität Basel und des Vereins Ukrainer in Basel.

Wir freuen uns auf einen spannenden Abend und viele interessierte Gäste!

16/10/2026

Eastern Europe in Comics – and a familiar face! 📚

How do comics tell stories of war, displacement, memory and identity? And how is Ukraine represented in graphic narratives – both at home and abroad?

On 22–23 October, the University of Innsbruck is hosting the international workshop Eastern Europe in Comics: Perspectives from Within and Beyond, bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines.

We're especially happy to see our former URIS Fellow Світлана Підопригора closely involved! Svitlana already explored Ukrainian comics and graphic narratives during her fellowship in Basel in 2023–24. Today, she continues this research at the University of Innsbruck, where she is part of the organising team.

She will also present her research on how Ukrainian comics address war trauma and disability, and moderate a discussion with the Ukrainian comics publisher UA Comix.

📅 22–23 October 2026
📍 University of Innsbruck & online
🎟️ Free registration

👉 Full programme and registration: https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/congress/eastern-europe-in-comics/

12/10/2026

Discover Ukrainian modernism! 🎨

From avant-garde art and modernist literature to architecture, theatre, dance and music: Ukrainian modernism has a fascinating history to explore.

The Ukrainian Institute London is launching Kultura Moderna, an eight-week online course bringing together international experts to explore Ukrainian cultural life from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.

And we're especially happy to see two familiar faces in the programme: Olena Palko from the University of Basel, who will open the series, and Katia Denysova, our former URIS Fellow, who will contribute her expertise on Ukrainian art and modernism.

📅 28 October – 16 December 2026
🕢 Wednesdays, 19:30–21:00 Swiss time
💻 Online via Zoom, in English
🎟️ Individual sessions or full course available

👉 Programme and registration: https://uil.org.uk/events/kultura-2026-kultura-moderna-full-course/

05/10/2026

How have Ukrainian Studies changed over the past decade – and what challenges does the field face today? 🇺🇦

On 30 October 2026, URIS brings together former and current URIS Fellows and members of our Academic Advisory Board from across Europe and beyond for an international workshop “Ukrainian Studies in Times of War and International Crisis: Challenges, Achievements, and Perspectives 2017–2026.”

And there is good reason to celebrate: this year marks 10 years of the URIS Fellowship Programme – a milestone we are very proud of and delighted to celebrate together with so many former and current Fellows in Basel. 🎉

In three roundtables, we will discuss how Ukrainian Studies have developed in different countries and academic disciplines, how research conditions, academic careers and networks have changed, and what the future of the field might look like.

And in the evening, we open the conversation to the wider public. At “Beyond the Headlines. Rethinking Ukraine since 2014: Academic Knowledge and Public Engagement”, Gwendolyn Sasse, Tetiana Kyselova, Maryna Shevtsova and Claude Wild will discuss how public debates about Ukraine have changed since 2014, which misconceptions persist, and what academic research can contribute beyond the daily news cycle.

We are also delighted that H.E. Iryna Venediktova, Ambassador of Ukraine to Switzerland, will join us for the anniversary celebrations and offer a few words of welcome.

📅 30 October 2026
📍 University of Basel
🕘 Workshop: 09.00–17.00 | Europa-Institut, Orangerie
🎙 Public panel: 18.00–19.30 | Alte Universität, Rheinsprung 9

Everyone is welcome to both events – no registration needed.
We look forward to seeing you in Basel! 💙💛

02/10/2026

🇺🇦 What role could the OSCE play in or after the war against Ukraine?

Russia’s war against Ukraine has fundamentally shaken Europe’s security order – and presented the OSCE with major challenges. At the same time, it raises an important question: What role could the organisation play in a possible end to the war and in the period that follows?

On 14 October, former OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger will discuss these questions at the University of Basel.

The lecture will explore possible roles for the OSCE in conflict management, military risk reduction, confidence- and security-building measures and arms control – as well as the political conditions under which the organisation could once again play a more significant role in European security.

📅 14 October 2026, 18:15
📍 Orangerie, Europainstitut, University of Basel

The lecture is organised as part of the General Assembly of the Friends and Alumni Association of the Europainstitut der Universität Basel.

Am 14. Oktober 2026 spricht der ehemalige OSZE-Generalsekretär Thomas Greminger in Basel über die Rolle der OSZE im und nach dem Krieg gegen die Ukraine.

24/09/2026

Congratulations, Serhiy! 🎉📚

We’re very happy to share some wonderful news from former URIS Fellow Serhiy Kudelia: his book "Seize the City, Undo the State: The Inception of Russia’s War on Ukraine" has received the 2026 Davis Center Book Prize in Political and Social Studies from ASEEES.

The book examines the beginnings of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2013–14, comparing developments across towns in Donbas, Kharkiv and Odesa. It asks why separatist control succeeded in some places but failed in others, looking closely at the interplay between local actors, Russian intervention and resistance within local communities.
We’re especially happy for Serhiy, who joined us in Basel as a URIS Fellow in spring 2022. It’s wonderful to see his work receive this recognition – congratulations, Serhiy! 👏

👉 More about the award: https://aseees.org/news/2026-aseees-prize-winners-announced/

17/09/2026

When a novel becomes music 🎶

Something a little different from us today.

We usually share research, conferences and academic events – but Ukrainian Studies doesn’t end at the seminar room door. And Yuri Andrukhovych hardly needs an introduction to many of us.

At the end of September, the Ukrainian author and the Polish Karbido Trio bring Radio Nacht to St. Gallen and Chur: a live radio play somewhere between performative reading, literature and electroacoustic improvisation.

📍 29 September, 19:30 · Palace St. Gallen
📍 30 September, 19:30 · Postremise Chur

Thanks to our colleague Ulrich Schmid at the University of St. Gallen for bringing this to our attention.

🎧 Here’s a short excerpt from the programme: https://vimeo.com/1200048821?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci