URIS Ukrainian Research in Switzerland

12/10/2026

Discover Ukrainian modernism! 🎨

From avant-garde art and modernist literature to architecture, theatre, dance and music: Ukrainian modernism has a fascinating history to explore.

The Ukrainian Institute London is launching Kultura Moderna, an eight-week online course bringing together international experts to explore Ukrainian cultural life from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.

And we're especially happy to see two familiar faces in the programme: Olena Palko from the University of Basel, who will open the series, and Katia Denysova, our former URIS Fellow, who will contribute her expertise on Ukrainian art and modernism.

📅 28 October – 16 December 2026
🕢 Wednesdays, 19:30–21:00 Swiss time
💻 Online via Zoom, in English
🎟️ Individual sessions or full course available

👉 Programme and registration: https://uil.org.uk/events/kultura-2026-kultura-moderna-full-course/

05/10/2026

How have Ukrainian Studies changed over the past decade – and what challenges does the field face today? 🇺🇦

On 30 October 2026, URIS brings together former and current URIS Fellows and members of our Academic Advisory Board from across Europe and beyond for an international workshop “Ukrainian Studies in Times of War and International Crisis: Challenges, Achievements, and Perspectives 2017–2026.”

And there is good reason to celebrate: this year marks 10 years of the URIS Fellowship Programme – a milestone we are very proud of and delighted to celebrate together with so many former and current Fellows in Basel. 🎉

In three roundtables, we will discuss how Ukrainian Studies have developed in different countries and academic disciplines, how research conditions, academic careers and networks have changed, and what the future of the field might look like.

And in the evening, we open the conversation to the wider public. At “Beyond the Headlines. Rethinking Ukraine since 2014: Academic Knowledge and Public Engagement”, Gwendolyn Sasse, Tetiana Kyselova, Maryna Shevtsova and Claude Wild will discuss how public debates about Ukraine have changed since 2014, which misconceptions persist, and what academic research can contribute beyond the daily news cycle.

📅 30 October 2026
📍 University of Basel
🕘 Workshop: 09.00–17.00 | Europa-Institut, Orangerie
🎙 Public panel: 18.00–19.30 | Alte Universität, Rheinsprung 9

Everyone is welcome to both events – no registration needed.
We look forward to seeing you in Basel! 💙💛

02/10/2026

🇺🇦 What role could the OSCE play in or after the war against Ukraine?

Russia’s war against Ukraine has fundamentally shaken Europe’s security order – and presented the OSCE with major challenges. At the same time, it raises an important question: What role could the organisation play in a possible end to the war and in the period that follows?

On 14 October, former OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger will discuss these questions at the University of Basel.

The lecture will explore possible roles for the OSCE in conflict management, military risk reduction, confidence- and security-building measures and arms control – as well as the political conditions under which the organisation could once again play a more significant role in European security.

📅 14 October 2026, 18:15
📍 Orangerie, Europainstitut, University of Basel

The lecture is organised as part of the General Assembly of the Friends and Alumni Association of the Europainstitut der Universität Basel.

Am 14. Oktober 2026 spricht der ehemalige OSZE-Generalsekretär Thomas Greminger in Basel über die Rolle der OSZE im und nach dem Krieg gegen die Ukraine.

24/09/2026

Congratulations, Serhiy! 🎉📚

We’re very happy to share some wonderful news from former URIS Fellow Serhiy Kudelia: his book "Seize the City, Undo the State: The Inception of Russia’s War on Ukraine" has received the 2026 Davis Center Book Prize in Political and Social Studies from ASEEES.

The book examines the beginnings of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2013–14, comparing developments across towns in Donbas, Kharkiv and Odesa. It asks why separatist control succeeded in some places but failed in others, looking closely at the interplay between local actors, Russian intervention and resistance within local communities.
We’re especially happy for Serhiy, who joined us in Basel as a URIS Fellow in spring 2022. It’s wonderful to see his work receive this recognition – congratulations, Serhiy! 👏

👉 More about the award: https://aseees.org/news/2026-aseees-prize-winners-announced/

17/09/2026

When a novel becomes music 🎶

Something a little different from us today.

We usually share research, conferences and academic events – but Ukrainian Studies doesn’t end at the seminar room door. And Yuri Andrukhovych hardly needs an introduction to many of us.

At the end of September, the Ukrainian author and the Polish Karbido Trio bring Radio Nacht to St. Gallen and Chur: a live radio play somewhere between performative reading, literature and electroacoustic improvisation.

📍 29 September, 19:30 · Palace St. Gallen
📍 30 September, 19:30 · Postremise Chur

Thanks to our colleague Ulrich Schmid at the University of St. Gallen for bringing this to our attention.

🎧 Here’s a short excerpt from the programme: https://vimeo.com/1200048821?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

11/09/2026

Mykhailo Drahomanov’s Europe

From 1876 to 1889, Ukrainian political thinker Mykhailo Drahomanov lived in exile in Geneva. It was from Switzerland that he built a wide European network and developed ideas about federalism, democracy and national self-determination – including his vision for Ukraine.

An international conference at the University of Lausanne on 1–2 October will explore Drahomanov’s Swiss years and their place in the wider intellectual history of Ukraine and Europe.

The programme brings together researchers from Ukraine, Switzerland and across Europe – including our Basel colleagues Fabian Baumann, Sarah Evison and Benjamin Schenk.

The conference is organised by Béla Kapossy, Anastasiia Shevchenko and Oleksii Yas and part of the Swiss-Ukrainian research project Mykhailo Drahomanov: Switzerland on Ukraine’s Intellectual Map of Europe, jointly led by the University of Lausanne and the Institute of History of Ukraine, NASU.

📅 1–2 October 2026
📍 University of Lausanne
👉 Full programme and further information: https://uris.ch/events/mykhailo-drahomanovs-europe-2

08/09/2026

Labor Migration in and from Eastern Europe

A new online lecture series at the Universität Zürich explores labor migration across Eastern Europe from the nineteenth century to today.

The programme brings together fourteen sessions on mobility, borders, precarity and migration – including several with a particular connection to Ukraine.

Among them: Oleksandra Tarkhanova on internal displacement, housing and employment in Ukraine; Marta Kindler on Ukrainian migration to Poland; and Mariana Peixoto Irby on the effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine on Tajik labor migration to Russia.

📅 15 September–15 December 2026
🕕 Tuesdays, 18:15–19:45
💻 Online via Zoom · Admission free
🎧 Also available as a podcast

The series is organised by Sandra King-Savić and Jonathan Raspe at the University of Zurich.

👉 Full programme: https://www.uzh.ch/en/events/rv/labor-migration.html

07/09/2026

Computers, cameras and visions of the future: technology in Soviet Ukraine

What can tape recorders, road rallies or family photographs tell us about everyday life in Soviet Ukraine? And how did promises of technological progress relate to people’s experiences?

On 24–25 September 2026, our colleagues in Kyiv and Basel are bringing these questions together in the online conference Living the Soviet Utopia: Cultural History of Technologies in Ukraine, 1922–1991.

The programme explores everything from cybernetics and atomic cities to music, mobility, health, film and photography.
Organised by Gennadii Kazakevych, Benjamin Schenk and Olha Martynyuk, the conference is part of a joint Ukrainian–Swiss research project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

📅 24 September: 13:00–17:00 Basel time
📅 25 September: 09:00–14:00 Basel time
💻 Online via Zoom · No registration required

👉 Explore the programme and find the Zoom access details:

Online conference on 24–25 September 2026 exploring technology, culture and everyday life in Soviet Ukraine, organised by the Universities of Kyiv and Basel.

04/09/2026

Call for Papers: How do changing borders shape people’s lives?

Our colleagues at the University of Bern invite proposals for the conference Multiple Border Changes and Biographical Trajectories: The East Central European Borderlands in the Age of Territorial Revisionism, 1918–1941.

The conference explores how repeated border changes shaped everyday life, identities and belonging – and how people themselves contributed to shaping borders. Its geographical focus is on the post-Habsburg borderlands along the Carpathian arc, including Ukraine, while comparative perspectives from other parts of Eastern Europe are also welcome.

The conference is part of the SNSF project Epicentre of Territorial Revisionism: The Carpatho-Ukraine under Multiple Border and State Control Changes, 1914–1946.

📅 30 June–2 July 2027
📍 University of Bern
⏰ Submission deadline: 8 November 2026

👉 Find the full Call for Papers here:https://www.hist.unibe.ch/unibe/portal/fak_historisch/dga/hist/content/e11168/e51695/e1836397/e1836433/CallforPapers_TerritorialRevisionism2026_ger.pdf