Language and Cultural Heritage
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Guido Hausmann and Prof. Dr. Mirja Lecke
This research area explores Ukraine's cultural heritage in its regional context as well as Ukrainian language and culture, their political significance, and the challenges they are facing. It embeds Regensburg’s regional connections with Ukraine into broader international perspectives.
Focus areas:
- Ukrainian Statehood in Regional Contexts: Developments in 1918 and 1991
- Cities as Multicultural Spaces: Research on Jewish cultural heritage in Odesa and Kyiv, and on cultural life within the Ukrainian DP (Displaced Persons) camp in Regensburg after the Second World War
- Memory Culture: Examining the transformation of cultural heritage through institutions including the Literature Museum in Odesa; memorializing democratic revolutions, such as the Euromaidan in Kyiv (2013/14), from European and global perspectives; and commemoration of fallen soldiers
As part of this focus area, Ukrainian Language Courses have been established at the University of Regensburg. Learn more >
Cooperations with Research Projects
Sponsor:
EU in the framework of ERASMUS+-Action Jean Monnet Policy Debate
Management:
Prof. Dr. Mirja Lecke, Prof. Dr. Guido Hausmann
Runtime:
2023-2026
The project HER-UKR: Challenges and opportunities for EU heritage diplomacy in Ukraine addresses the role of cultural heritage in the EU’s external action. The Regensburg team, among others, endeavors to illuminate the complex dilemma faced by literary museums founded in Soviet times who grapple with a Russia-centric narrative amidst the quest for post-Soviet nation-building and sovereignty affirmation. Secondly, it examines the manifestations and changes in the political cult of the dead in Ukraine since 2022 using a number of examples and, thirdly, investigates the threat to and handling of the cultural heritage of minority groups in Ukraine in more detail, also in comparison with Georgia.
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Sponsor:
project EURIZON, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 87107
Management:
Prof. Dr. Taras Vintskovskii, Dr. Olena Syniavska
Scientific Supervisor:
Prof. Dr. Guido Hausmann
Runtime:
2024-2025
During the First World War, the south of Ukraine was in the zone of geopolitical interests of the world powers, which considered the northern Black Sea region as an area of potential armed confrontation and economic preferences. The study presents archival documents and materials in Ukrainian and German, mainly kept in the Odesa archives, reflecting the presence of the Central Powers' troops in southern Ukraine, especially in Odesa and the surrounding areas.
Sponsor:
Polish National Research Center (NCN) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Management:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Börries Kuzmany (Institute for Eastern European History (IOG)), Dr. habil. Gennadii Korolov (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History)
Scientific Supervisor:
Prof. Dr. Guido Hausmann (Member of the Advisory Board)
Runtime:
ongoing
The project examines one of the most formative periods of recent Ukrainian history - the revolutionary upheaval between 1917-1921 - by exploring the diverse experiences of those people who did not consider themselves or were not considered ethnic Ukrainians. While previous research has focused primarily on the state-building efforts of Ukrainian national elites, the lives and activities of non-Ukrainians have been largely ignored. Yet Ukraine was a multicultural space in which linguistically and denominationally heterogeneous population groups lived side by side. After all, they made up around a quarter of the total population. Without their inclusion, the history of the revolutionary upheavals in Ukraine can therefore only be told and understood incompletely, if at all.
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