Ukraine’s Grassroots Amidst Russia’s War

Public lecture by Dr Marnie Howlett, Russian and East European Politics lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA).

This talk demonstrates the complex ways that the legacies of Ukraine’s historical geopolitical struggles have been reproduced across generations and embedded across the country at the grassroots. By highlighting the enduring significance of locality, territoriality, and extra-territoriality for ordinary Ukrainians, the talk underscores the importance of the ‘scars’ that have remained following major cartographical disruptions and the historical ‘suture’ of sovereign authorities in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet space. In elevating the voices of individuals in three different and understudied Ukrainian oblast through six months of ethnographic fieldwork, the talk illustrates how historical legacies have variably shaped (and continue to shape) ordinary citizens’ experiences of, and attachments to, different territorial arrangements of their state, as well as encourages new thinking around Ukraine’s domestic situation and place within global politics.

The lecture is part of the PhD School in the Humanities’ course Fields in Conflict: Qualitative Research Across Borders and organized by Dr Rasmus Elling in collaboration with East European Studies (ToRS).

The event is open to all, no registration is required.