"Movement to the West": Ukrainian scientists in the context of forced migration (2014-2022)
The project is dedicated to the forced migration of scientists from the territory of military operations in Ukraine. The first wave of migration began in 2014 from the territory of Donbas and was internal migration, involving the relocation of educational institutions and part of their academic staff to the territory of Central and Western Ukraine. The second wave began after 24 February 2022 and turned into migration to European countries.
The aim of the project is, on the one hand, to study the change in survival strategies, career building in extreme conditions, and the degree of solidarity and cooperation within the scientific community. On the other hand, we will be interested in the motives and degree of involvement of host country representatives in relation to forced migrants.
The authors of the project plan to study the dynamics of these phenomena throughout the entire period of forced migration, which involves analysing "expectations" and "first encounters" with reality. In the future, this project can become the basis for studying the long-term processes of changing the configuration of the European scientific community, the scientific climate, and the degree of integration of Ukrainian scientists into the global scientific community after the end of the military conflict.
The project's methodology involves collecting and analysing oral history interviews with representatives of Ukrainian higher education institutions. This work will be carried out in two stages. The first stage involves the study of "expectations and the process of adaptation," and the second will focus on the analysis of the behavioural strategies chosen by Ukrainian scholars (return to their homeland, isolation, integration into the cultural, scientific, and social space of the host countries, and further emigration) in a historical perspective. Particular attention will be paid to scholars from Donbas whose experience will allow us to see the dynamics of the relevant processes. At the same time, interviews with scholars from other regions of Ukraine will expand opportunities for comparative analysis. In addition, the project will collect interviews with representatives of the scientific community of European countries who are directly involved in the accommodation of migrants from the academic environment, thereby contributing to the preservation of the scientific potential of Ukrainian scientists.
The project is implemented with the support of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Responsible persons
Viktoriia Ivashchenko
PhD in History, Associate Professor of the Department of Historiography, Source Studies and Archaeology
https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/vivashchenko
https://history.karazin.ua/pro-fakultet/Vikladachi/IvaschenkoViktoriyaYuriivna.html
E-mail: ivashchenko@karazin.ua
ORCID
Yuliia Kiseliova
https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/ykiselova
http://historiography.karazin.ua/~kiseleva
E-mail: yu.a.kiselyova@karazin.ua
ORCID