The military offensive launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February 2022 and the ensuing war on Ukrainian territory have resulted in immense human suffering, a humanitarian tragedy and incalculable material damage. The violation of a country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty – an act in clear breach of the United Nations Charter – has shattered the shared framework of values and principles fostered by multilateralism after the Second World War in the hope of achieving world peace, while leading to an unprecedented outpouring of solidarity for Ukraine and the plight of its people from Western democracies and European and international organisations, including NATO, the UN, the European Union and the Council of Europe, and their Member States and private initiatives. As contemporary history is turned on its head, historians, driven by the duty of memory, are stepping up to explain the origins of the conflict, identify the various players, provide an objective analysis of the consequences, record the memories of eyewitnesses and victims – with oral history proving a precious tool –, preserve historical sources and, above all, reflect on the role that intellectual effort can play in paving the way for a return to peace in the new world order taking shape before our eyes.
In this context, the C²DH, in collaboration with Polska.lu, LUkraine and Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg, are pleased to invite you to a conference entitled “Voices from the War – Path to Peace? Ukrainian and international insights”, which will take place on
20 October 2022
18.00 - 20.00
Auditorium Cercle Cité
3, rue du Genistre
L- 1632 Luxembourg
Please register here.
Programme
18h-19h: Speaking up - Ukrainian testimonies on the war (presentations).
Why do historians collect new sources?
Nina Janz (C²DH): War Experiences in Luxembourg. The Second World War and Today
Machteld Venken (C²DH): Testimonies from the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
How do researchers collect new sources?
Kateryna Zakharchuk (C²DH): Recruiting Interviewees and Pre-interview Meeting
Svitlana Mizherni (C²DH): The Questionnaire
Inna Ganschow (C²DH): Transcription, Indexing and Analysis
Iryna Kaschtalian (University of Bremen): The Belarussian Oral History Archives and Digital Enclosure
19h-20h: Contextualising the war in Ukraine: insights from international research (roundtable).
Ambassador Hubert Wurth: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine: a Historical Introduction
Prof. Andrzej Szeptycki (University of Warsaw): Contemporary Relations between Poland and Ukraine
Prof. Mykola Riabchuk (Academy of Sciences of Ukraine): The ‘Ukraine Crisis’ Revisited: Values, Interests, and a Rebirth of the ‘Geopolitics’
Dr Suzana Anghel (European Parliament Research Service): East-West Relations at a New Crossroads and Euro-Atlantic policy Challenges for Europe
Biographies
Hubert Wurth holds a Master’s in Law from Paris II University and a diploma in international relations from Sciences Po Paris. In 1978, he joined the Luxembourg Foreign Ministry, where he held various positions, including Deputy Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to the Council of Europe and Head of the Private Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs and Justice. In 1986, he was appointed as Deputy Political Director with special responsibility for security. From 1989 onwards, Hubert Wurth served as Ambassador in several countries. In 1989, he became Ambassador of Luxembourg to the Soviet Union, Poland, Finland and Mongolia. In 1992, he became Luxembourg Ambassador to the Netherlands and was also appointed as Ambassador on Special Mission to the former Yugoslavia (1996-1997). Hubert Wurth also served as Ambassador of Luxembourg to France, to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Iceland, and to Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia. Alongside his role as Ambassador, Hubert Wurth was appointed as Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to the OPCW and Head of Mission and Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to the UN in New York. He also chaired the High-Level Task Force for donor countries and was a board member for UNDP and UNICEF. In 2003, he became Permanent Representative to the OECD and UNESCO, and in 2007, he became Permanent Representative to the IMO. In 2011, he was appointed as Permanent Representative to the International Organisations in Vienna and to the OSCE. During the Luxembourg Presidencies of the European Communities/European Union in 1980, 1985, 1991, 1997 and 2005, Hubert Wurth chaired various European bodies.
Andrzej Szeptycki is a full professor of Political Science, as of 2021 at the Faculty of History and International Relations of the Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University in Vinnytsia (Ukraine) and with the Department of Strategic Studies and International Security, University of Warsaw. He is also co-director of the Centre for Polish and European Studies at the Institute of International Relations of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, as of 2016 and member of the editorial board of “Visnyk Lvivs’koho Universytetu. Seriia mizhnarodni vidnosyny” (Bulletin of Lviv University. Series International Relations), as of 2014 and “The Bulletin of Odesa National University. Sociology and Political Science” as of 2018. Previously, he was visiting professor at the Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University (2016–2017), Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (2015–2017) and Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (2017–2018).
His research interests entail Ukrainian internal and foreign policy; international relations in the post-Soviet area; French foreign policy; selected aspects of European integration; Polish foreign policy; postcolonial studies.
Mykola Riabchuk is a Ukrainian poet, translator, prose writer and essayist, the president of Ukrainian PEN-center and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Political and Nationalities’ Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 1970-1973, he studied in the Lviv Polytechnic Institute but was expelled for the unauthorized literary activity, and had to take various odd jobs. In the 1980s, as perestroika advanced, he made his M.A. in the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow, and took position of an editor in the Kyiv-based journal of international literature "Vsesvit" where he was promoted eventually to the rank of a section editor and the deputy editor-in-chief. His numerous articles in the best Ukrainian and Russian journals brought him a fame of the leading Ukrainian literary critic and publicist. At that time, he received a number of awards for the best articles of a year. In 1997, he co-founded (with the Harvard professor George Grabowicz) the Krytyka monthly and managed it as the executive editor till 2000. Since then, he was increasingly engaged in the academic work as both a lecturer and researcher, defended his Ph.D. in political sciences, and published a number of scholarly works – primarily in Ukrainian but also in Polish, English, Russian.
His many books include a collection of poetry, literary criticism, short stories, scholarly monographs and many collections of essays. He taught at Pen State University in 1994-95, University of Texas at Austin in 1996, and carried out research at George Washington University in 2016. He was a visiting professor at Columbia University in 2006 and University of Alberta in 2007-2008, and recurrently, since 2002 at the University of Warsaw, 2021-2022 at L’Institut d’études avancées de Paris and now in Princeton University.
Suzana Anghel is a Policy Analyst in the European Council Oversight Unit (ECOS) in the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), where her research focuses on the European Council and foreign and security policy. Prior to joining EPRS, she was a project coordinator at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and a Marie Curie fellow at the University of East Anglia, where her research focused on parliamentary oversight of common security and defence policy. She has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Geneva.
