Identity, Memory, and Civic Transformation in Post-1989 Georgia and Ukraine
Course Co-Directors: Nino Gozalishvili (The University of Georgia, Tbilisi / The George Washington University, Washington) and Rusudan Margiani (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) Georgia and Ukraine, both positioned on the edges of Europe while at the same time neighboring Russia, have…
The Informal Leviathan: Networks, Institutions, and the Dynamics of Control and Resistance
Course Co-Directors: Giga Zedania (Ilia State University) and Ghia Nodia (Ilia State University) The course examines how political order is produced not only through laws, bureaucracies and official organizations, but also through personal ties, unwritten rules, tacit knowledge and informal…
Introducing the Balkans
Course Co-Directors: Aleksandar Pavlović (IFDT Belgrade) and Marija Mandić (University of Belgrade) The southeastern peninsula of the European continent, more commonly known by the loaded term “the Balkans,” is a region of astonishing ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity, where some…
Wars for the Yugoslav Succession and Their Contemporary Legacy in the Balkans and Beyond
Course co-directors: Vladimir Petrović (NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam) and Sven Milekić (University of Rijeka) The end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany marked a period of relative peace and stability for much…
Belarus in Question: Rethinking Belarusian Politics, Society, and Culture in Regional and Global Contexts
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…
Comparative Methods in the Social Sciences
Course Co-Directors: Levente Littvay (CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest) and Inna Melnykovska (European University Institute) Can we compare apples and pears? Social scientists do it all the time – but meaningful comparison requires careful choices about what, why, and how we…
Justice Across Europe: Trust, Judicial Independence and Courts in Times of Transition
Course Co-Directors: Marta Mochulska (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv) and Marta Spodaryk (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv / Right to Protection Charitable Foundation) This course explores justice as both a fundamental value of democratic societies and a guiding principle…
Transnational Relations of Care: Ukraine and Beyond
Course Co-Directors: Oksana Ovsiiuk (University of Fribourg) and Madlen Kobi (University of Fribourg) Contemporary social relations increasingly transcend national borders as people migrate in response to war, repression, climate change, economic opportunities, or intimate partnerships. This seminar examines how people…
Ukrainian Literature: Literary Canons, War and Social Change
Course Co-Directors: Diána Vonnák (Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vienna/Prague) and Iryna Shuvalova (poet, independent scholar, Changsu) This course examines how and by whom Ukrainian literary recognition is being reshaped amidst repeated revolutions and the current war. Scrutinising…
Borders and Spatial Imaginaries in Ukraine and Beyond
Course Co-Directors: Elżbieta Kwiecińska (Polish Academy of Sciences) and Hanna Perekhoda (University of Lausanne) Academic research has long shown that nations and borders are not timeless facts but historical and social constructions. But in a context where violent border revision is…
Decentering Soviet Histories: Regional Perspectives on Everyday Life and Politics in the USSR
Course Co-Directors: Iaroslav Kovalchuk (Columbia University) and Arslan Akanov (Nazarbayev University) The course explores central debates in Soviet historiography through the experiences of diverse non-Russian regions and social groups across the USSR. Drawing on political, social, and cultural histories developed…