01/05/2026
(Dis)Comfort Zones: Resilience and its Limits (10-22 August 2026)
###. Greifswalder Ukrainicum – Greifswald Ukrainian Summer School under the scientific direction of Professor Dr. Roman Dubasevych (Greifswald) and Dr. Alexander Chertenko (Gießen)
This year’s 30th anniversary Greifswalder Ukrainicum explores the multifaceted, often contradictory nature of resilience, its limits, and its complex relationship to peacebuilding. It also seeks to connect Ukrainian suffering and responses to it with Europe’s intensive engagement with the traumatic events of the “extreme” twentieth century (Eric Hobsbawm). Alongside (geo)political and large-scale economic perspectives, the program places particular emphasis on grassroots strategies of resilience, survival, and coping with trauma in society and culture. Through this focus, it aims to reveal how these strategies transcend—or even subvert—official narratives, compensating for shortcomings and oversimplifications at the state or ideological level while shaping everyday practices beyond prescriptive models. Special attention will be paid to the potential of scholarship and art to unsettle society’s discursive comfort through critical interrogation, so as to avoid the fate of a new “uncomfortable place” (endroit inconvénient), as astutely documented by Jonathan Littell in his eponymous book on Babyn Yar and the war-torn Ukraine (2023).
As always, Ukrainicum begins with language courses, which are taught by our experienced instructors:
• Dr. Ksenia Borodin (Ukrainian Catholic University, L’viv) – Beginners
• Dr. Lesia Nazarevych (Pedagogical State University, Ternopil’) – Intermediate
• Prof. Ihor Datsenko (Hokkaido University, Japan) – Advanced
A traditional highlight marks the opening of our 30th anniversary summer school: a keynote address – this time by the renowned Ukrainian artist, author, and activist Yevgenia Belorusets (Kyiv/Berlin). Her photographic work has been exhibited at the German Bundestag, among other venues, and her books have been translated into several languages, including German.
At the course level, we approach the topic of resilience from four distinct angles. The first course, which is devoted to psychology and taught by the psychotherapist and psychoanalyst Prof. Igor Romanov (Kharkiv/Bucharest), introduces participants to classical and contemporary psychoanalytic models of conflict at both individual and societal levels. It also explores the role of social defenses against anxiety as manifested in the traumatic histories of wars and civil conflicts.
The second course, taught by Prof. Alessandro Achilli (University of Cagliari), a scholar of Ukrainian Studies and translator, examines Ukrainian literature as a platform for identity formation, collective memory, and resilience. In light of the Russian invasions of 2014 and 2022, and the resulting heightened attention to culture in a society at war, the course will investigate how ideas of responsibility and duty have shaped contemporary literary production in Ukraine.
During the second week, we turn our attention to one of the most prominent and debated elements of Ukrainian identity: language. Prof. Ihor Datsenko (Hokkaido University) will provide an overview of its historical evolution and analyze the sources of its enduring vitality and dynamism. The course will also examine how language policies and ideologies shaped the development of the modern Ukrainian standard in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Another highlight of the second week is the course taught by PD Dr. Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (Freie Universität Berlin), a historian who specializes in the Holocaust, nationalism, antisemitism, and violence in Central and Eastern Europe. His critical biography of Stepan Bandera and his recent work on the participation of Polish mayors in the Shoah exemplify academic integrity and resilience against national “centering,” mythologization, and silencing.
A roundtable discussion on resilience with Dr. Maryna Rabinovych(Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø) and Dr. Sofie Rose (Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark) will critically engage with the concept of resilience in Ukraine’s official domestic and international communication, setting the agenda for discussion. Dr. Rabinovych, who was trained in law and governance studies, will address the issue from territorial, sectoral, and group-based perspectives. Dr. Rose, by contrast, will present her research on the experiences of men of fighting age who left Ukraine to avoid military mobilization, adopting a more grassroots approach.
While dominant discourses on resilience often center on the “heartland’s” resistance to the Russian invasion, Prof. Andrei Vazyanau, a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer at the European Humanities University (Vilnius), shifts the focus to the occupied territories. His talk will highlight the less visible forms of violence—such as dispossession, restricted mobility, bureaucratic coercion, and political repression—experienced by residents of frontline regions. Drawing on his fieldwork in Horlivka, Mariupol, and digital environments, he challenges the political and analytical “abandonment” of these areas and explores how individuals navigate disrupted temporalities, sustain everyday aspirations, and generate situated knowledge under prolonged occupation.
At the end of the first week, Annegret Becker, a promising young translator of Ukrainian literature into German and herself a graduate of the Slavic Department at the University of Greifswald, will host our traditional and acclaimed workshop on translation.
The second week will feature two further highlights. Prof. Alois Woldan (University of Vienna), a doyen of Ukrainian Studies in the German-speaking world, will lecture on literary and cultural translation as forms of dialog and resistance. Together with Alessandro Achilli and other scholars, including Ulrich Schmid, Giovanna Brogi, Maria-Grazia Bartolini, and Alexander Kratochvil, he co-authored the first comprehensive German-language history of Ukrainian literature (2026) and has also translated such Ukrainian classics as Mykola Khvyliovyi, Lina Kostenko and Iurii Andrukhovych into German. Prof. Woldan’s lecture will be complemented by that of Prof. Natalia Skorokhod (Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg, Greifswald), a theater scholar who went into exile following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Prof. Skorokhod will focus on Russophone Ukrainian drama written since February 2022, analyzing how resilience is represented through characters, conflicts, and dramatic situations shaped by war, loss, and displacement.
In addition to language instruction, seminars, and evening lectures, the program includes screenings of two films. On the first Sunday, we will also take a group excursion to the scenic Baltic island of Rügen. Now a popular seaside destination, Rügen also bears historical significance as the site of a large-scale resort complex from the N**i era.
We look forward to your applications and to welcoming you to Greifswald!
