Interviews

Tereza Hendl on RUTA and epistemic communities in solidarity for Ukraine: “We are reclaiming debates on our societies so that they are no longer conducted about us without us”

RUTA is an association formed by epistemic communities and solidarity networks in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. RUTA promotes and supports Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asia Studies in the global conversation. Tereza Hendl is one of the founding members. In conversation with Elisa Satjukow she discusses the need to reclaim the debate, and emphasizes the decolonial forces set in motion to protect academia in the region from Russia’s violence and epistemological domination.

By Elisa Satjukow April 16, 2025

Olga Shparaga on Belarusian Academia in exile: “It is clear that something is happening in the field of education within and around Belarus”

The repression in Belarus is targeting academia. Olga Shparaga is one of the co-founders of the European College of Liberal Arts in Minsk (ECLAB), and former lecturer at the European Humanities University (EHU), that was forcibly closed 2004 and moved into exile in Vilnius. In a conversation with Friedrich Cain, she describes how the Belarusian exile Academia, although persecuted even abroad, still works to educate Belarusian students and support teachers inside Belarus as well as in exile through various networks and strategies.

By Friedrich ´ Cain April 16, 2025

Serhii Plokhy, professor in Ukrainian history: “Land doesn’t buy peace in the case of Ukraine”

Serhii Plokhy, professor in Ukrainian history at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, in a conversation on the history of Ukraine, knowledge production, decolonization, the role of the Church and the ongoing war, with Professor Barbara Törnquist-Plewa.

By Barbara Törnquist-Plewa April 16, 2025

“‘Historical consciousness’ imposed from above is always dangerous”

In a conversation with Irina Sandomirskaja, Luba Jurgenson explores how the epoch-making event of Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to changes in the research field Slavic Studies, particularly memory studies and the studies of camp literature. They discuss how ideas of repetition and the return of history have a new resonance, and how increasing concerns are impacting a historical consciousness that demands epistemic justice.

By Irina Sandomirskaja April 16, 2025

Olli-Pekka Martikainen: Music education for new needs

Olli-Pekka Martikainen is the Secretery General of the Association of Finnish Music Schools, an umbrella organization that includes 97 schools. He has a doctorate in music and he previously worked as the vice dean of the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. Apart from leadership in higher music education Martikainen has worked as an orchestral and chamber musician and as a teacher at the Sibelius Academy. Martikainen holds the first artistic Doctoral degree in the field of percussion music in Finland. Ann Werner asked him questions about higher music education in the Baltic region with her own research on nation and gender in higher music education as background.

By Ann Werner September 18, 2024

Valentina Izmirlieva:“The Church has promoted specific ‘martial’ strategies of scriptural exegesis to justify military aggression”

The projection of imperial power through overtly religious pageantry, symbols and narratives has been a key element of Russia’s identity politics under Putin, informing the Kremlin’s aggressive international policies, but also shaping the domestic perceptions of Russia’s global role.  In a conversation with Irina Sandomirskaja, Valentina Izmirlieva explores the utility of the Russian Orthodox Church in this process, and the significant transformations within the Orthodox sphere that facilitate the radical militarization of Russian society. She also discusses the role and future of multidisciplinary area studies as such, and in particular Slavic Studies.

By Irina Sandomirskaja September 18, 2024

“We face a lot of catastrophic forest fires during war”

The following interview was conducted during the Pyrogeography course — the study of fires — at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. We talked with the Ukrainian scientist about forest fires in war and the challenge of conducting research in the field.

By Elena Palenova April 23, 2024

Alexandra Talaver, coordinator of Feminist Anti-War Resistance: “War represents a culmination in the continuum of patriarchal violence” A conversation based on an e-mail interview with Alexandra Talaver conducted by Yulia Gradskova

Alexandra Talaver is one of the coordinators of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR), that was promptly launched on February 25, 2022, with a manifesto that was later translated into dozens of languages. The manifesto called for peaceful resistance to the war and Putin’s regime, support for Ukraine, and solidarity with feminists in Russia resisting the invasion (see next page). Together with the manifesto, social media accounts were launched on Telegram, Instagram, and Twitter as the main means of mobilization. FAR immediately gained dozens of thousands of subscribers due to the number of feminist media activists joining FAR, and due to a strong and clear anti-war stance, while many political forces and organizations in Russia failed to articulate it that fast.

By Alexandra Talaver and Yulia Gradskova June 20, 2023

“Vegetarianism was part of social reformism”

Corinna Treitel, Department Chair and Professor of History at Washington University in St. Louis, in conversation with Julia Malitska on dreams about and attempts at dietary reform in the 19th and 20th centuries, and on German life reformers and their long lasting, but forgotten, impacts on the ways we think today about eating naturally and environmentally consciously.

By Julia Malitska June 22, 2022

The post-communist legacy in the shadow of the Empire

Professor Andrzej Leder, psychoanalyst and professor of philosophy, in a conversation with Aleksandra Reczuch about the history and social transformations in the region, the threat of Russia, and the historical memory embodied in buildings, symbols, commemorations, and family albums.

By Aleksandra Reczuch June 22, 2022