DANYLIW RESEARCH SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY UKRAINE

After three successful post-pandemic seminars in 2022-24, the Danyliw Research Seminar on Contemporary Ukraine will be back on 25-27 September 2025. The Seminar is hosted by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa with the support of the Danyliw Foundation in Toronto.

 

Since 2005, the Danyliw Seminar has provided an annual platform for the presentation of some of the most influential academic research on Ukraine — from scholars, including doctoral students, based in Ukraine, the rest of Europe, the United States, Canada, or anywhere in the world. The 2025 Seminar will be in-person only. The Seminar, as always, is committed to including and bringing over a significant number of scholars from Ukraine, including those still in Ukraine and those displaced abroad.

 

The 19th Annual Danyliw Seminar invites proposals from scholars, including doctoral students, in political science, anthropology, sociology, history, law, economics and related disciplines in the social sciences and humanities— on a broad variety of topics falling under thematic clusters. Policy analysts, practitioners from non-governmental and international organizations, journalists, and artists are also invited to submit proposals. We welcome both topics related to the current war and to Ukrainian studies in general. Among suggested topics:

 

• warfare (military tactics/strategy, territorial defense, combatants, military aid)

• geopolitics (ceasefire negotiations, postwar scenarios, NATO, EU, China, Global South)

• international crimes (war of aggression, war crimes, crimes vs. humanity, genocide)

• media (social media, TV, state propaganda, international reporting)

• civilians (civil associations, volunteer groups, resistance, collaboration)

• reconstruction (scope, sources of revenues, structural change, heritage)

• culture (religion, language, literature, arts, cinema)

• history/memory (imperial, interwar, Holodomor, WWII, Soviet, Maidan, Donbas, Crimea, full-scale invasion)

• migration (IDPs, refugees, migrant workers, diasporas)

• society (protests, welfare, gender, corruption, education)

 

Authors of new books (published in 2024-2025) and filmmakers with new documentaries (2024-2025) are also most welcome to send proposals.

 

Presentations at the Seminar will be based on research papers (4,000-6,000 words), to be sent two weeks before the event. The Seminar favors intensive discussion, with relatively short presentations (15 minutes), followed with an extensive Q&A with the moderators and Seminar participants.

 

People interested in presenting at the 2025 Danyliw Seminar are invited to submit a 500 word paper proposal and a 150 word biographical statement, by email attachment in a single Word document, to Dominique Arel, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, at darel@uottawa.ca AND chairukr@gmail.com.

 

Note that a biographical statement is not a CV, but a written paragraph. The same requirements apply to submissions regarding a new book (500 word abstract in this case) or new film (which must include a secured screening link).

 

Please also include your full coordinates (institutional affiliation, preferred postal address, email, phone, and Twitter/X or Bluesky handle [if you have one]). Indicate also your coordinates on WhatsApp. If applicable, indicate your latest publication or, in the case of doctoral or post-doctoral applicants, the year when you entered a doctoral program, the title of your dissertation and year of (expected) completion. IMPORTANT: if you require a visa to enter Canada pleased indicate whether you already have a valid one, or will require a valid one.

 

The proposal deadline is 26 June 2025. The Chair will cover the visa, travel and accommodation expenses of applicants whose proposal is accepted by the Seminar. The proposals will be reviewed by an international program committee.

 

The Danyliw Seminar website (danyliwseminar.com) contains the programs, papers, videos of presentations and photographs of the past Danyliw seminars. Materials from 2024 and earlier appear in the top menu. Scroll down the main page to access the printed programs (PDF) of the four previous seminars.

 

The Danyliw Seminar is made possible by the generous commitment of the Wolodymyr George Danyliw Foundation, and of its director Andrew Danyliw, to the pursuit of excellence in the study of contemporary Ukraine and the support Ukrainian scholars in times of war.

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Cordially, 

DOMINIQUE AREL, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Ottawa (Canada) 

MAYHILL FOWLER, Stetson University (US) 

ANNA COLIN LEBEDEV, Université Paris Nanterre (France) 

DARIA MATTINGLY, University of Chichester (UK) 

OXANA SHEVEL, Tufts University (US) 

IOULIA SHUKAN, École des hautes études en sciences sociales [EHESS] (France) 

YULIYA YURCHUK, Södertörn U (Sweden)

Danyliw 2025 International Program Committee 

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