Oleksandra Visych
Fellow 2024/2025
Linguistics/Literature/Journalism
The National University of Ostroh Academy
Open Society University Network/CEU Institute of Advanced Study, Budapest-Ukraine
oleksandra.visych@oa.edu.ua
Bio
Oleksandra Visych is a researcher, lecturer, and cultural activist. She was born and raised in the Ukrainian Crimea. After completing her MD in 2008 at the Crimean Humanitarian University, she secured a lecturer position there and began her PhD program on the topic of aesthetics of non-finito in literature. Additionally, she worked as a researcher and later as a director of the Museum of Lesya Ukrainka in Yalta.
This experience enabled Dr. Visych to reveal her organizational and creative potential and initiate cultural projects, including founding the unique amateur theatre at the museum, which performed Lesya Ukrainka’s plays both within the institution and at festivals throughout Ukraine.
Due to the annexation of Crimea by Russia, Oleksandra Visych and her family had to relocate from Crimea. She is a professor at the National University of Ostroh Academy. The scholar has developed a series of courses for BA and MA programs (Literary Anthropology, Cognitive Genre Studies, Metadrama in Ukrainian and World Drama, Crimea in Ukrainian Literature, etc.) Her scholarly output includes four monographs, two textbooks, and an extensive collection of scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Oleksandra Visych participated in a project of national importance – the Complete Works of Lesya Ukrainka – as a co-editor of three volumes (2020).
The researcher has been consistently studying the Crimean theme in Ukrainian and world literature, which is presented in her scientific research, interviews for media, participation in public discussions, and her role as an expert consultant for various cultural projects. In 2023, she was awarded a BASEES Non-Residential Fellowship for research in this field.
Multicultural Space of Crimea in Ukrainian Literature
This study focuses on the collection and analysis of texts written by Ukrainian authors about Crimea during the 20th and early 21st centuries. Crimea has long been a subject of interest for Ukrainian writers, who shaped it into an artistic space. The study identifies five key periods of Crimean discourse in literature: early 20th-century travels by Ukrainian writers, the development of the resort industry in the 1920s and 1930s, Crimea's annexation to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954, its status within independent Ukraine since 1991, and Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
While earlier periods have been studied, they require further systematization. The Crimean texts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, especially those addressing Crimean Tatar issues, remain underexplored. Notable works include L. Hyde’s The Dreamland (2008), A. Kurkov's Grey Bees (2018), and A. Levkova's There is a Land Beyond Perekop (2023). Additionally, the Crimean Figs anthologies and works by young authors expand perspectives on Crimea but remain largely unexamined in literary studies.
The research will focus on imagological aspects, exploring Crimea's multicultural landscape through various historical, ethnic, and mythical contexts. Using comparative and postcolonial methods, the study will deconstruct imperial stereotypes and examine the marginalization of Crimean fiction. The outcome will be a monograph addressing the evolution of the cultural landscape in Ukrainian literature, the depiction of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar relations, and the issue of identity in Crimea's multi-ethnic space.