LIVE FROM KYIV: Ukraine's New Social Covenant, Part II: Decolonizing Ukrainian Language and Culture
A video live stream Saturday, April 29, 10:00 a.m. US Eastern Time on YouTube
LIVE FROM KYIV: A Refounding Democracy conversation live on YouTube
Ukraine's New Social Covenant: A 4-part series
Part II: Decolonizing Ukrainian Language and Culture
April 29, 2023, 10:00 a.m. US Eastern Time
Refounding Democracy is a sustained examination of the current authoritarian assault on liberal democracy in the US and worldwide, through the lenses of political philosophy, history, and economics. A central theme is the concept of a social covenant -- the compact, both secular and spiritual, that articulates the commitments members of a polity make to one another, and that thereby binds a nation together.
In a time of crisis, a nation's social covenant can evolve rapidly. Nowhere today shows this process unfolding more vividly than in Ukraine. As the Ukrainian people organize themselves to defend democracy and repel Russia's brutal invasion, a new nation is emerging.
Refounding Democracy is pleased to host a four-part series in which we examine this evolution. Streaming live from Ukraine, co-hosts Athena Small and Peter Lupu are joined by a range of Ukrainian voices to discuss what happening, what it means for Ukraine's future, and what lessons it implies for democracy in the U.S. and worldwide.
The series examines these changes from four directions:
April 22, Kyiv: Civil society & volunteerism in Ukraine
April 29, Kyiv: Culture - decolonizing the mindset, shifting to Ukrainian language
May 6, Kyiv: Ukraine’s education system
May 13, Lviv: Sex, Gender, and LGBT in the Ukrainian Social Covenant
Part II: Decolonizing Ukrainian Language and Culture
Russia's assault on Ukraine has triggered a seismic reaction in Ukraine's culture. Especially since the full-scale invasion starting February 24, 2022, Ukrainians have widely rejected everything Russian, including Russian language and literature. Many Ukrainians, even those who grew up speaking Russian as their native language and revering Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, are pivoting away, towards Ukrainian language, literature, and culture. Many are taking a critical look at their own educational upbringing, arguing that Ukraine needs to 'decolonize' its own culture, to free itself from Russian influences and attitudes.
Should culture be kept separate from politics and war? Can it be? When Putin makes war, how should we deal with Pushkin?
Refounding Democracy is pleased to be joined by three guests with deep expertise in what's happening in the ferment of literary culture in Ukraine today.
OLHA POLIUKHOVYCH, PhD, is a literary critic & scholar, writer, and Associate Professor in the Department of Literature of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Her work has been featured on LitHub, Literary Life, BBC, Silicon Curtain podcasts, Los Angeles Review of Books, Agni, Consequence forum, Arrowsmith journal, and Prospect Magazine.
MARIIA SHUVALOVA is a Kyiv based literary scholar and translator. She teaches at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and works as an Acquisition Editor of the Ukrainian Language Open Access Series at Academic Studies Press (Boston, MA). Mariia was a Fulbright Scholar at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University (2019-2020).
In 2020, Dr. Poliukhovych and Ms. Shuvalova co-founded the New Ukrainian Academic Community (Kyiv), a nongovernmental organization focusing on popularization of Ukrainian literature and culture.
MARIA KOVALCHUK is currently a doctoral student and instructor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and a member of the research staff at the German-Ukrainian Historical Commission in Munich. She served previously as International Project Manager at the Ukrainian Book Institute, and as Managing Editor at the Smoloskyp Publishing House.
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Host: Athena Small, Lecturer, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Virginia, USA
Co-host: Peter Lupu, Chair, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Glendale Community College, Glendale, Arizona, USA