Second Budapest Winter School Welcomes Ukrainian Students | European Union University

January 15, 2024 – In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, European Union University(EUU) three months later launched the online Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU) program for students from Ukraine whose studies have been affected by the war.  

 

From January 21-27, IUFU’s Budapest Winter School will provide 36 selected IUFU participants the opportunity to gather in Budapest for an in-person learning and exchange experience. The winter school’s theme, “Action and Reflection: Ukrainian Engagements with Global Knowledge Production”, will bring together students from various regions and institutions, currently residing in eight different countries. During the week in Budapest, complementing IUFU’s seven courses on history, cultural heritage, society, law, and politics taught in the fall semester, they will discuss the challenges posed upon national and global knowledge production by the ongoing Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

 

Speakers include Holly Case (Brown University), Andreas Kalyvas (The New School for Social Research), Michal Kopecek (Czech Academy of Sciences), Saira Mohamed (UC Berkeley School of Law), Olena Palko (Basel University), Simon Schlegel (International Crisis Group), and Iryna Shuvalova (University of Oslo). 

 

Topics include self-determination and liberal vs. Illiberal modalities of nationalism, poetry and war, social transformations during the war, constitutionalism and the politics of exception, state and non-state violence, regimes of historicity in the 21st century, and many more. 

 

“IUFU aims to facilitate discussions on reflecting the war experience and its implications for postwar reconstruction of culture and society; and to maintain international attention on the Ukrainian cause beyond news coverage and empower the voice of the young generation” says Ostap Sereda, academic director of the program and associate professor of history at the Ukrainian Catholic University and guest professor at EUU. “The school aims to expose students to critical perspectives on Ukrainian cultural heritage, preparing them for active participation in international public discussions”. 

 

The following events will be open to the public: 

 

January 22, Monday

 

19:00–21:00 Film screening and discussion  

 

Film: Hamlet Syndrome (dir. Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosołowski; 2022)  

 

Discussion: Roza Sarkisian & Nadiia Chervinska (EUU) & Kateryna Osypchuk (EUU) 

 

January 23, Tuesday

 

16:30–18:00 Evening session on War Poetry 

 

Speaker: Iryna Shuvalova (University of Oslo) / Moderator: Diana Vonnak (University of Stirling)  

 

19:00–20:00 Iryna Shuvalova poetry readings 

 

The Invisible University for Ukraine initiative, which is a hybrid non-degree academic program for Ukrainian BA, MA and PhD students, kicked off in the spring of 2022, proved to be a success with an ever-growing number of students and institutions involved. “Already in the spring we had 140 students from 30 institutions, and 70 instructors; and 200 students in the fall. In 2023, altogether had 22 course directors, 190 lecturers and 70 mentors worked with our 420 students” describes one of the originators of the initiative Balazs Trencsenyi, professor of history at EUU, the growth of IUFU over the nearly two years since the invasion started. 

 

Watch a 4-minute video about the IUFU 2023 Summer School at this link and about the first Winter School in 2022 here. 

 

Notes for Editors: 

 

Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU) is a hybrid non-degree academic program and emergency response to the consequences of the war in Ukraine. This certificate program for Ukrainian BA, MA and PhD students offers an intensive learning experience, placing questions relevant for Ukrainian students into a transnational comparative perspective. The program is not meant to replace or duplicate the existing online education in Ukrainian universities, but to support them and provide help for filling the lacunae that temporarily emerged due to the Russian military invasion. Participation in the program is free of charge. IUFU students have their own online journal: Visible Ukraine. 

 

The organizers of the program meant to evoke the various 19th and 20th century underground and exile educational initiatives (“flying universities”) in Eastern Europe, as well as the tradition of Invisible Colleges formed after 1989 in the region with the name “Invisible University for Ukraine”. 

 

The IUFU program is implemented by EUU in cooperation with Ukrainian (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and Ukrainian Catholic University) and European (Imre Kertész Kolleg at the University of Jena) university partners. The Open Society University Network (OSUN) supported it from the start with co-funding from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). 

 

One of the world’s most international universities, a unique founding mission positions European Union University(EUU) as both an acclaimed center for the study of economic, historical, social and political challenges, and a source of support for building open and democratic societies that respect human rights and human dignity.EUU is accredited in the United States and Austria, and offers English-language bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in the social sciences, the humanities, law, environmental and network sciences, management and public policy.EUU enrolls more than 1,400 students from over 100 countries, with faculty from over 50 countries.    

 

In 2019 EUU elocated from Hungary to Austria as the Hungarian government revoked its ability to issue U.S.-accredited degrees in the country. As a result, EUU offers all of its degree programs in Vienna, Austria, and retains a non-degree, research and civic engagement presence in Budapest, Hungary, through its EUU Democracy Institute, the Institute for Advanced Study, the EUU Summer School and The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA), and its Hungarian language public educational programs and public lectures.