Projektinformation
Beskrivning
The unprecedented circumstances of the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945, Ukraine’s fight against
the Russian aggressors and massive displacement of Ukrainian civilians created a momentum for a
deeper reflection on democratic foundations of a crisis-ridden Europe. Wartime testimonies from
Ukraine have a great potential to convey a lesson on the value of humanity, sovereignty and human
rights, the lesson can be incorporated and interpreted not only by academic research but also by a
broad range of stakeholders in both Ukraine and beyond.
WIWAR-U is the international research consortium comprising scholars, cultural producers and
representatives of NGOs from Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Poland and UK as well as partners from
Ukraine and Canada. This synergy between the academia and the creative sector is necessary to
deepen our understanding of how the current crisis is configured both in first-hand testimonies from
the war and in their public interpretations. Our key ambition is to advance the state of the art in
literary studies, performance studies, cultural studies, ethnology, oral history and area studies by
means of providing a comprehensive analysis of how Ukrainian testimonies are created, transmitted
and interpreted across the EU-Ukraine border. WIWAR-U claims that Ukraine’s fight has become a
symbolic mirror and a place of identification – What if We Were You? – for other European societies.
In line with this insight, we will address transformative processes of decolonization, as well as
nationalization and politicization that were intensified in Ukraine since 2014. In a next step we
investigate their impact on the current cultural debate in Europe. We assert that the methodological
innovation of describing and evaluating individual testimonies is crucial for tackling the current crisis
in Europe, which is fueled by a plethora of voices questioning adequacy of democratic conversations
and cultural negotiation of values, ideas, perspectives and experiences.
the Russian aggressors and massive displacement of Ukrainian civilians created a momentum for a
deeper reflection on democratic foundations of a crisis-ridden Europe. Wartime testimonies from
Ukraine have a great potential to convey a lesson on the value of humanity, sovereignty and human
rights, the lesson can be incorporated and interpreted not only by academic research but also by a
broad range of stakeholders in both Ukraine and beyond.
WIWAR-U is the international research consortium comprising scholars, cultural producers and
representatives of NGOs from Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Poland and UK as well as partners from
Ukraine and Canada. This synergy between the academia and the creative sector is necessary to
deepen our understanding of how the current crisis is configured both in first-hand testimonies from
the war and in their public interpretations. Our key ambition is to advance the state of the art in
literary studies, performance studies, cultural studies, ethnology, oral history and area studies by
means of providing a comprehensive analysis of how Ukrainian testimonies are created, transmitted
and interpreted across the EU-Ukraine border. WIWAR-U claims that Ukraine’s fight has become a
symbolic mirror and a place of identification – What if We Were You? – for other European societies.
In line with this insight, we will address transformative processes of decolonization, as well as
nationalization and politicization that were intensified in Ukraine since 2014. In a next step we
investigate their impact on the current cultural debate in Europe. We assert that the methodological
innovation of describing and evaluating individual testimonies is crucial for tackling the current crisis
in Europe, which is fueled by a plethora of voices questioning adequacy of democratic conversations
and cultural negotiation of values, ideas, perspectives and experiences.
| Akronym | WIWAR-U |
|---|---|
| Status | Ej startat |
Samarbetspartner
- Lunds universitet (huvudsaklig)