• Date: October 9-11, 2025
• Location: H. 25 & H. 26, Vielberth-Gebäude, University of Regensburg
• Organized by: “Denkraum Ukraine” / “Think Space Ukraine” at the University of Regensburg, financed by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) through the funds from the Federal Foreign Office (AA)
• Language: English 

How do organizations and institutions change in times of war? What roles do state, societal, and economic actors play during and after violent conflict?

These questions will be at the heart of our Annual Conference 2025 at the University of Regensburg. Scholars from twelve countries - including Germany, Ukraine, Estonia, Poland, Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, the UK, France, Italy, USA, and Kosovo - will share their perspectives and research findings.

Program

Over the course of three days, the conference will feature more than 45 speakers addressing such topics as the transformation of democracy and governance during war, the role of religion, education, and academia in times of crisis, the adaptation of legal and economic institutions, and the ways in which media, knowledge production, and leadership shape societies under extreme conditions.

You can find the whole program of the conference here. The lectures and presentations during the conference are open for everyone interested in the topics. Please note that changes in the program are possible. 

Keynote lectures

1. Klaus Meyer (Ivey Business School, Canada): The Exit (or not) of Multinational Enterprises in Russia: Economics and Ethics

October 9, 2025, 10:30-12:00, H. 25, Vielberth-Gebäude, University of Regensburg

Businesses spend a lot of time strategizing how to enter and grow in emerging economies. Yet, what happens when the wind changes, and stakeholders at home no longer support international growth, but create obstacles – from NGOs campaigning against alleged human rights abuses to governments imposing sanctions on countries deemed hostile to national interests? The Russian military invasion of Ukraine has put “exit strategies” on the agenda of many global companies. Yet, it is not just Russia; also, the military coup in Myanmar, the civil war in Syria, and allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang province of China challenge global companies to consider how to execute an exit strategy. Conventional analysis considers a full write-off of the invested capital as the worst-case scenario. Yet, it could be worse. The company’s global operations and reputation may be at risk. How should companies navigate the tripwires around exit strategies? Using examples from Russia, this talk will discuss the challenges executives face when considering and implementing an exit strategy.

2. Wilfried Jilge (German Council on Foreign Relations, Germany): The Black Sea between Russia and Ukraine: Political and Historical Perspectives

October 10, 2025, 9:00-10:30, H. 25, Vielberth-Gebäude, University of Regensburg

3. Amelia Glaser (University of San Diego, USA): A Metaphor that Folds: Translating Ukrainian Poetry in a Time of War (online)

October 10, 2025, 16:30-18:00, H. 25, Vielberth-Gebäude, University of Regensburg

“In a metaphor that folds, like a Swiss army knife, /the corkscrew broke, the file got dull.” In this metaphor of a metaphor, the Ukrainian poet Halyna Kruk asks her reader to notice the fragility of language. In February 2022, the poet Ostap Slyvynsky began collecting a lexicon of war terms, which illustrates the ways that war changes Ukraine’s language. Other poets soon began contributing their own overheard anecdotes to the hashtag Slyvynsky created for this project, #slovnikviinii, and the result has been a collective glossary of war terms. In this talk, Professor Amelia Glaser, who is also a translator of Ukrainian poetry, will speak about how the ongoing war in Ukraine has changed the language of poetry, and what role translators have played in this process. 

The Annual Conference 2025 “Organizations and Institutions in Times of War: Ukraine, Eastern Europe and Beyond” is organized by Prof. Dr. Thomas Steger (University of Regensburg, Think Space Ukraine) and Dr. Oleksandr Zabirko (University of Regensburg, Think Space Ukraine), principal investigators of the research area Regional Diversity: Comparing Industrial and Border Regions at the Center for Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies “Denkraum Ukraine” (“Think Space Ukraine”) at the University of Regensburg, financed by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) through the funds of the Federal Foreign Office (AA).