Publications of Invisible University for Ukraine Students on the "REESOURCES" Educational Platform
17.02.2025
In 2024, the Invisible University of Ukraine (IUFU) launched a pilot project called Open Learning Materials, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). During the autumn semester, students took three courses from IUFU: (Re)thinking "Soviet": Modern Ukrainian Identity and the Legacy of Communism, Sexuality and Decoloniality, and War, Peace, and the Politics of Uncertainty. During the course of their studies, students had the opportunity to write short reflections based on two primary or secondary sources from the course syllabi.
The commentaries on the sources and reflections contain a brief analysis, but also suggestions on how these materials can be used in other educational programmes. The course leaders, Elena Palko (University of Basel), Nadia Chushak (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy) and Tetiana Zemliakova (European University Institute), together with Denys Tereshchenko, project coordinator from IUFU, helped the students with the selection of sources and analysis of texts.
The students' texts, as well as the syllabi of the above-mentioned courses, can be found on the educational platform of the Centre for Urban History "REESOURCES. Rethinking Eastern Europe":
(Re)thinking "Soviet": Modern Ukrainian Identity and the Legacy of Communism:
- Hrytsko Chubai's "Prison" Poetry (Hanna Ovsianytska);
- Yevhen Ivanychuk's "Cold Northern Sky": The Example of Gulag Prose (Hanna Ovsianytska);
- Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, 16 July 1990 (Nataliia Mikhulia);
- "V Sozvezdii Respublik-Sester" Article by Soviet Ukrainian Top-official Oleksandr Lyashko, 1972 (Nataliia Mikhulia);
- Portrait of Kyivan Prince Yaroslav the Wise by Soviet Historiography (Mariia Motuz);
- "Bohdan Khmelnytskyi," Soviet historical propaganda film, 1941 (Mariia Motuz).
- Verka Serdiuchka and Ukrainian National Identity at Eurovision 2007 (Mariia Dubykivska);
- Sashko Drugli's "Colonial History of Homophobia in Ukraine" (Mariia Dubykivska).
War, Peace, and the Politics of Uncertainty:
- Nestor Makhno on Ukraine in late 1910-1920s (Maksym Soklakov);
- Russian Military Thought Throughout the 2010s (Maksym Soklakov);
- "Negotiations in Brest-Litovsk" by Leon Trotsky, 1930 (Polina Sidletska);
- The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 1955 (Veronika Sheptukhovska);
- Mutual Deterrence Speech by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Veronika Sheptukhovska);
- Reflection on Henry Kissinger's "The Challenge of the Nuclear Age", 1957 (Anton Khimiak);
- American Admiral Charles Turner Joy on Cold War Peace Negotiation (Anton Khimiak);
- General Napoleon Bonapart's Proclamations to the Army of Italy, 1796 (Oksana Volovodiuk);
- The Brunswick Manifesto, 1792 (Oksana Volovodiuk).
Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU)
Certificate program for Ukrainian undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students living in Ukraine or abroad whose studies have been affected by the war. The courses offered by the program focus on Ukraine’s role in the changing European and global contexts and aim to prepare students for deeper integration into the international academic environment. The name of this solidarity program is reminiscent of underground and exile initiatives (such as “Flying Universities”), as well as the tradition of the Invisible Colleges that emerged after 1989 in Eastern Europe.
Credits
Cover Image: a still-frame from the "Bohdan Khmelnytskyi", 1941.