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Articles by Uffe Østergaard

1. The public pedagogy of Ukrainian flag displays: A view from Lithuania & Estonia

   The material landscape of the Baltic states has dramatically changed with the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine: the Ukrainian flag, or its distinctive blue-yellow, has saturated the public space. In places once reserved only for the national flag, the Ukrainian flag flies right next to it. Building facades, windows, and walls serve as new surfaces for the display of the yellow and blue. The periodic, holiday-driven appearance of national flags has given way to the constant show of Ukrainian flags.

2. Russian cultural expansion in Ukraine. Exploring new perspectives for international relations in the region

   The paper examines Russia’s cultural expansionism that extends beyond the military invasion in Ukraine since 2014. In the first part, I trace Russia’s systematic efforts to seize and manipulate Ukrainian heritage, often under the guise of protection. I also touch on the role of museums in this expansion, where they are used to preserve collections through coercive acquisition and to promote a Russian-centric narrative. The second part of the article delves into the historical relationships between Russia and Ukraine, especially in the context of the Soviet era’s museum infrastructure. Overall, the text calls for new concepts and international efforts to critique Russia’s actions and protect Ukrainian culture.

3. Childhood in the conditions of war. The Ukrainian experience

   The war crimes committed by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian children include physical harm (murders, injury, mutilation, child abuse, rape), violations of the rule of law (illegal imprisonment; denial of children’s rights to education, security, and access to humanitarian support; abduction; illegal transfer to custody), psychological damage, destruction of educational institutions’ resources, and using children for propaganda and military purposes.

4. The Missing and the Mass Graves

   Nearly three decades after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, thousands of people are missing and mass graves are regularly found. Relatives still search for knowledge about their loved ones in the midst of secrets, rumors and ethnonationalist denial. As the country struggles to come to terms with this dark legacy of the war, art has emerged as a space for recognition of the lingering presence of absence of the missing.

5. Call for Abstracts

   Call for Abstracts (until January 31, 2024) for the Special Issue of Baltic Worlds "Sounds in times of war. Popular Music, (contentious) politics and social change since Russia's war on Ukraine"

6. Standing Up for Democracy and Academic Freedom

   Current research tell us that we are presently facing a global wave of autocratization. Gradual declines of democratic attributes characaterize political regimes worldwide. Technology opens up for democratic interaction, but also makes it easy to spread fake news. Freedom of expression is in peril. Universities all around the world encounter repression of academic freedom. To discuss these and other challenges, Linnaeus University (in Växjö) organized a digital conference on A Questioned Democracy, on November 15, 2023.

7. Sustainable Development in the Baltic Sea Region

   On November 7-8, 2023, Baltic University Programme organized the BUP Symposium, an annual online event to discuss different aspects of ongoing research on sustainable development in the Baltic Sea region.

8. Supporting Ukrainian Researchers

   Shortly after the outbreak of the war (the full-scale Russian attack on February 24, 2022), the European Commission set up a fellowship scheme (called MSCA4Ukraine) to provide support to displaced researchers from Ukraine.

9. Contested Feminism

   Gefjon Off, Contested Feminism: Backlash and the Radical Right (Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, September 15, 2023): Public defense of doctoral dissertation. External opponent: Professor Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, Department of Government, University of Bergen.

10. After Space Utopia Public defense of doctoral dissertation: Roman Privalov

    Public defense of doctoral dissertation: Roman Privalov, After Space Utopia: Post-Soviet Russia and Futures in Space (Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, May 12, 2023), 210 pages. External opponent: Associate Professor Arita Holmberg, Swedish Defence University, Stockholm.

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