European University Viadrina opens Germany's first graduate programme for Ukrainian studies

Frankfurt (Oder), 

On Monday, 16 June, the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) will celebrate the opening of the first graduate programme for Ukrainian Studies. Twelve doctoral students will begin to work on their dissertations in June at the Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Frankfurt (Oder) - Berlin (KIU). The opening ceremony for the programme will begin at 6 p.m. in the Logensaal of the Viadrina, Logenstraße 11, in Frankfurt (Oder).

Interested parties are invited to attend the event in English. Registrations are requested by Friday, 13 June, by email to kiu@europa-uni.de.

Grand Opening Graduate Programme (1920x670px)

Speakers at the opening ceremony of the KIU graduate programme: Volodymyr Sheiko (Director Ukrainian Institut Kyjiw), Prof. Dr. Oksana Mikheieva (Ukrainian Catholic University Lwiw), Prof. Dr. Yuliya Yurchuk (Södertörn University) and KIU Coordinator Dr. Susann Worschech (from left to right)

At the opening of the ceremony, Volodymyr Sheiko, Director of the Ukrainian Institute in Kyiv, will speak about the importance of Ukrainian studies for the security of Ukraine and Europe. Volodymyr Sheiko, Prof. Dr Yuliya Yurchuk (Södertörn University, Sweden) and Prof. Dr Oksana Mikheieva (Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, Ukraine) will then discuss resilience and the role of universities and research in the reconstruction of Ukraine. Finally, the doctoral students will present their dissertation projects.
The event will be accompanied by music from Frankfurt pianist Søren Gundermann. From 8.00 pm, KIU invites you to a reception.

More about the opening ceremony

Dr Susann Worschech, academic coordinator of KIU, said about the opening: "Our programme is not only the first doctoral programme specifically on Ukraine in the whole of Germany - it is also extremely interdisciplinary. The topics range from Ukrainian resistance during the Second World War and literary studies of the 1920s and 1930s to civil society, communication and the rule of law in the context of the Russian war of aggression and the development of inclusive easy language in Ukrainian. But what I am most pleased about is the great academic curiosity that defines the tone of the whole group, and which Ukraine undoubtedly deserves."

The KIU graduate programme serves to train a new generation of researchers who will focus their PhD on a networked understanding of Ukraine in its diverse historical, political and institutional contexts.

More about KIU

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