Course director: Viktoriya Sereda (WIKO Berlin / Kyiv School for Economics)
This course offers a multidisciplinary exploration of minority communities in Ukraine. It brings together historical, sociological, legal, and policy expertise. Course begins with a historical framework—unpacking Soviet-era policies, post-1991 political developments, theoretical and methodological approaches to studying minorities, and the evolution of legal protections and multicultural discourse in Ukraine.
Building on these foundations, the course transitions to examine how war and displacement have reshaped Ukraine’s religious landscape, analyzes the entangled transformation of the ethnonational identities since Euromaidan. It also examines the lived realities of specific minority groups, highlighting the resilience and cultural preservation of the Jewish communities during wartime and exploring how the Roma populations have been disproportionately impacted through the social exclusion and inclusion. The course also focuses on the unique stories of indigenous groups in Ukraine (Tatars, Karaites, Krymchaks), exploring how war has intensified struggles for recognition and cultural survival and shaped new resilience strategies. Finally, it investigates how long-established minority communities (Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Muslims or Greeks) are navigating challenges and identity-conflicts brought by war.
The course concludes with a roundtable designed to highlight how minority actors assert agency and maintain resilience—across local, national, and regional levels—during the war.