The Russian-Ukrainian war of the 21st century aimed not only to physically destroy Ukraine but also to expand the linguistic borders of the “Russian world,” denationalize Ukraine, and reestablish the cultural dominance of Russia over the Ukrainian people. The war that began in 2014 and intensified in the last year's invasion has led to a cultural and linguistic shift from Russian to Ukrainian among much of the Ukrainian population. On April 19, 21, and 26, 2023, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host a virtual symposium titled "Away from the Empire: The Linguistic and Cultural Shift in Ukraine in the Wake of the Russian Invasion" that will explore this topic. The symposium will feature seven Ukrainian scholars (linguists, sociologists, literary scholars, ethnologists, and political scientists) and practitioners (front-line interpreters embedded with the Ukrainian Armed Forces). We kindly invite you to this exciting event. The symposium is supported by the Center for Global Studies and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois. For a full lineup of the symposium, please see the attached flyer.
April 21:
11:00 AM CT: Yaryna Zakalska: "The Ukrainian Language as an Effective Weapon of Bloggers, Volunteers, and Actors in the Right Against the Enemy." (Assistant Professor in the Department of Folklore Studies at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv)
12:00 PM CT: Serhii Yanchuk: "Russia's War on Ukraine: Developments on the Language Front" (Associate Professor, Institute of Philology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Currently Serving on the Front Lines of Ukraine)
For the program, registration link, and other information, please see the symposium webpage:
https://cgs.illinois.edu/spotlight/global-intersections-project/symposium-ukrainian-cultural-and-linguistic-shift.