KIU Summer School: Nationalities, minorities and identity: (Re)Configuring Ukraine?

Participants are invited to discover Ukraine’s impressive ethnic, religious and cultural diversity and to learn more about its more than 100 minority and indigenous groups, their history and culture, and their situation in today’s Ukraine – including against the backdrop of Russia’s war of aggression. Communities such as Crimean Tatars, Roma and Sinti, Hungarians, Romanians, and Jews contribute significantly to Ukraine’s multilingual and multicultural landscape. Since 2014, and particularly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, minority groups have confronted increasing challenges related to displacement, security, and the safeguarding of human, social, and cultural rights. In territories under temporary Russian occupation, communities including the Crimean Tatars as well as the North Azovian Urums and Roumeans face systematic persecution and violence.

Through a series of intensive modules lasting between two and four academic units, the summer school will provide detailed and in-depth knowledge of minorities, nationalities, and collective identity in Ukraine in both historical and contemporary perspectives. Courses will focus on the multifaceted impacts of culture, diversity, heterogeneity, resistance, self-empowerment, and transnational integration on Ukrainian identity.