Ukrainian studies in ‘crisis’ despite rising demand in Europe

Yuliya Yurchuk has been an academic in Sweden for 17 years. Her research has focused on Ukraine, and she has written two books on the country. Yet despite her expertise, the history professor at Södertörn University has never taught a course solely dedicated to Ukraine.

“Courses in East European studies are often very Russia-focused,” she said. “In Sweden, there are more researchers looking into Russia compared with someone like me, who studies Ukraine.”

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several Swedish universities have introduced Ukrainian language courses. But Yurchuk said such initiatives do not address the deeper issue that too often Ukraine is still studied through the lens of Russia. “It doesn’t really change the broader environment for Ukrainian studies because you also need courses in Ukrainian literature, history and so on,” she added.

Yurchuk sees this as part of a wider crisis in the humanities, where even Russian studies is feeling the pinch of funding cuts. “There is a crisis in East European studies in general and in this crisis, Ukraine is in an even deeper crisis.”

That predicament was laid out recently in two reports from the Erasmus+ EUkraine Forum project, a collaboration between Inalco University, the University of Warsaw, Charles University and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The reports examine the state of Ukrainian studies across Europe.

The project’s latest report found that Ukrainian studies in many European countries remain “under-institutionalised, fragmented and often dependent” on temporary project funding. Most universities still treat Ukraine as a marginal topic within broader Slavic, Russian or East European studies programmes. 

As Ukraine moves towards European Union membership and the war nears its fifth year, demand for Ukraine specialists is growing in areas such as diplomacy, journalism and the civil service, according to the report. Universities are being asked to produce graduates with deep knowledge of Ukraine specifically, not general expertise in Eastern Europe.

North America has spent decades building dedicated Ukrainian studies programmes, often supported by large Ukrainian diaspora communities and philanthropic endowments. Organisations such as the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies have extensive research networks. But Europe lags behind in comparison. 

In Norway, Ingunn Lunde is professor of Russian in the University of Bergen’s department of foreign languages. When the full-scale invasion began, she decided to learn Ukrainian and read up on the country’s history and literature. It is a journey that has taken her to universities across Europe to study alongside Ukrainian scholars, and to Ukraine itself four times since the war began.

She said her university offered courses in nine different languages but not Ukrainian.

Establishing a genuinely new field is hard in a sector where foreign languages already have low enrolments, Lunde explained. “I’ve done everything I can do decentralise and decolonise and rethink a Russian programme over the last four years, and even before that,” she said. 

Last year she secured a grant to develop eight courses on Ukraine. The first course, on Ukranian history and literature, is set to begin in August. It has 120 students enrolled, ranging from farmers and bureaucrats to musicians and politicians. These courses are open to everyone since they do not have any degree requirements. 

“There is a great need for informed knowledge on Ukraine within Norwegian society,” Lunde said.

At the University of Cambridge, Rory Finnin launched a Ukrainian studies programme in 2008, well before the start of the war, as a joint initiative between the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and the Department of Slavonic Studies.

Initially a pilot project, it became permanent two years later. Cambridge went on to endow two posts dedicated to Ukrainian studies: a professorship, which Finnin himself holds, and a permanent teaching post in the Ukrainian language.

“Even if you put the question of Russian aggression aside, Ukrainian studies is among the many fields that has been understudied,” Finnin said, adding that universities had overwhelmingly invested in the study of Russia over many decades because of its size and geopolitical significance.

Finnin said the war had made certain structural issues worse. Attention now goes to military strategy and political science, while the slower work of building institutes focused on Ukraine gets left behind.

“What we’ve seen happen at European universities in general is fixed-term lectures, postdocs, positions for five or six years, were solicited and put in place, but the broader, deeper institutional issues haven't been addressed. I don’t think it helps particularly British students understand Europe as it should be understood,” he said.

He added that there was a growing skill gap in Europe when it came to knowledge about Ukraine.

“I’ve been shocked over many years with the assumption that if one has studied Russian, they can easily understand Ukraine, when Ukraine is culturally and historically very different,” he said.

“In places where that idea has held on for too long, the skills gap is massive. When our students go into positions of intelligence analysis or diplomacy, they know Ukraine’s history without having to refer to Russia constantly.”

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com