News

SCHOOL IDEA
The protest movement on the Maidan, being triggered by the unexpected renunciation of the Association-Agreement between Ukraine and the EU in November 2013, growing to a revolutionary mass-movement due to the massive use of state violence and radicalizing itself after the deadly shootings in February that caused the dead of nearly 100 people, seemed to have reached their main aim after the escape of Victor Yanukovych: The removal of an unwanted President, who many saw as the archetype symbol for the abuse of the state-apparatus for his personal enrichment as nobody else.

The presidential elections in May 2014 passed off in a free and fair manner. Nonetheless, the country has to deal with big challenges, not to mention the threat of losing its own statehood: The annexation of Crimea, the hybrid warfare in the east and the question of the possibilities and limitations of a fundamental transformation of the political system even nowadays lead to a hesitative reaction of some of the political observers due to the question of the success of the Revolution of Dignity. This situation is aggravated by the fact that not everybody shares the ideas and aims of the Revolution. The first two revolutions of the Ukraine (1991 and 2004) also did not ground on widely shared belief-systems and ideas about the future of the country. So nearly two years after the beginning of the revolution the following question needs to be posed: What happened with the ideas of the Revolution of Dignity? The Revolution will be the point of departure, since it paved the way to very diverse developments all over the country, ranging from readjustments in the balance-of-power of the oligarch system of quasi-governance to a massive warfare in the Donbass-region in the east.

This is the 4th this type of the Summer School NaUKMA is organizing. A lot has changed in the country for the last year, and we also decided to change our approach to the school - we realized that it is necessary to start talking with Ukraine, not only about Ukraine. Therefore, this Summer School will be the first one to invite Ukrainian students as full participants.

The second our conclusion is that the Summer School needs to take our participants to different regions of Ukraine. Therefore, both the Ukrainian and the international participants are going to multiple-day research trips apart from Kyiv, to the towns of Mykolaiv, south of Ukraine and Rivne, west of Ukraine as a search for first signs of a historization of the Revolution of Dignity. They will take a look at the reception and evaluation of the Revolution in different parts of the country, as well as the question if the expectations linked to the Revolution came true up to now.

GENERAL LOGISTICS

Arrival in Kyiv
Students are expected to arrive in Kyiv on Sunday, July 19. Pick-up service from Boryspil International Airport, Kyiv International Airport or Kyiv Railway Station can be arranged by the school organizers upon request for additional payment.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Ukrainian applicants
Those Ukrainian applicants interested in participation