The Institute for Advanced Study at CEU, in cooperation with the Virtual Ukraine Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS) on 9th of May 2024 co-organized the workshop “The University as a Battleground –The Dilemmas of Ukrainian Higher Education in a Global Context”.

The workshop aimed to place the practical and theoretical dilemmas facing Ukrainian academia after the full-scale Russian invasion into a broader and multi-dimensional framework of discussion and interpretation. It focuses on two heated issues, which also have certain linkages, namely the question of academic freedom and autonomy in crisis situations, and the relevance of the decolonial/postcolonial framework as a new setting for academic self-positioning and political agency. Is it possible to argue for academic freedom and also opt for certain ideological directions in interpreting the past and the present of a country. Is it possible not to aim at certain kinds of ideological directions in wartime? Does the decolonializing agenda offer an emancipatory drive for knowledge production, or it reproduces yet another “newspeak”? What is the place of politics on campus? What is the role of academic diaspora during wartime? What will be the role of higher education in a post-conflict society?

The event involves both Ukrainian colleagues involved in the rethinking of the educational system and individual disciplinary directions in Ukraine and also scholars from the region dealing with similar questions. All this is all the more important as culture wars are raging around the universities both in the USA and in Europe, as autocratic regimes seek to reshape them while in democratic societies often radically incompatible political and cultural agendas are clashing violently at the campuses.
The format of the workshop is meant to facilitate a dialogue, with short position papers presented by the participants and inviting the audience to participate actively in the discussion. Given the limitations of border-crossing for some of the Ukrainian colleagues, the workshop will run in a hybrid format, with a possibility to join also online.

Organised by

the Institute for Advanced Study at CEU, in cooperation with the Virtual Ukraine Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS)