Black Sea Region in War and under Occupation: Diversifying Sources for Teaching and Research

On April 23, 2026, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Holocaust Studies in Romania hosted an educational workshop titled Black Sea Region in War and under Occupation: Diversifying Sources for Teaching and Research. The workshop focused on individual experiences of World War II and its immediate consequences on the northern coast of the Black Sea, with a primary emphasis on visual materials and personal documents, as well as their potential for teaching the history of World War II, the Holocaust, and the Roma genocide in the region.

The event is part of the project Digital Resources for Teaching the Black Sea Region, implemented with the support of the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen. The project aims to develop a digital collection of teaching materials for teaching the modern history of the region in the form of primary sources and research modules. The developed materials will be published on the educational platform REESOURCES by the end of 2026.

Participants of the workshop: 

• Ana Bărbulescu Elie Wiesel, National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust
• Marius Cazan Elie Wiesel, National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust
• Ivanna Cherchovych, Center for Urban History
• Petre Matei, Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust
• Dana Mihăilescu, University of Bucharest
• Artem Kharchenko, I. P. Kotlyarevsky Kharkiv National University of Arts
• Roman Shliakhtych, State University of Economics and Technology in Kryvyi Rih
• Nadia Skokova, Center for Urban History
• Iryna Sklokina, Center for Urban History
• Yuri Radchenko, Center for Interethnic Relations Research in Eastern Europe 

The workshop is a part of the ongoing programs of the two institutions: 

• REESOURCES: Rethinking Eastern Europe educational platform of the Center for Urban History, in particular, the project Digital Resources for Teaching the Black Sea Region supported by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen. 
• Rethinking Areas: Black Sea Region research area at the Research Centre Ukraine / Max Weber Foundation funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). 

REESOURCES offers resources designed to decentralize curricula on the history of Eastern Europe by diversifying the sources used in teaching, to spark discussions about established metanarratives, and to foster new approaches to teaching and studying the region. 

Co-orginizers: 

• Center for Urban History (Lviv, Ukraine)
• Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust (Bucharest, Romania)
• Research Centre Ukraine / Max Weber Foundation (Lviv, Ukraine)
• Center for Crimean Studies of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine)
• Center for Governance and Culture in Europe of St Gallen University

Credits

Gaellry: photos by Ivanna Cherchovych