Course co-directors: Tatiana Shchyttsova (European Humanities University, Vilnius) and Andrei Kazakevich (Institute of Political Studies “Political Sphere”)
The mass anti-authoritarian protests of 2020 and the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine—with the support of Lukashenka’s regime—have led to radical changes in Belarusian society. The country is facing multiple crises that necessitate a fundamental interdisciplinary rethinking of key aspects of social and political life in Belarus as well as prospects for the nation’s existence and its (re)positioning in regional and global contexts.
This course is designed to provide a thought-provoking introduction to the current situation in Belarus, which is understood and interpreted differently by various actors. The reasons for the resilience of the authoritarian regime, international politics and relations with Ukraine, the issue of national identity in the context of war and mass emigration, the opposition’s agency, and the prospects for Belarus’s democratisation—these and other pressing issues require a comprehensive approach and the search for relevant analytical tools. Contemporary Belarus is a challenging subject both in terms of its internal and external sociopolitical prospects and in terms of its epistemic framing.
The objective of the course is to provide students with a foundational understanding of the intricate contemporary reality of the Belarusian nation and to equip them with the conceptual tools necessary to study Belarus in a manner that transcends the traditional imperial frameworks of knowledge production about the region.