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Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies – what’s new

Founded in July 2023, the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies (VCPU) merges the Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies (Dagmara Jajesniak-Quast) and the Chair for Entangled History of Ukraine (Andrii Portnov) into a new research institution at the European University Viadrina. The VCPU focuses on interdisciplinary research on Polish and Ukrainian history and the present day, as well as on the transfer of academic-based and up-to-date knowledge about Poland and Ukraine to the public. 

Interdisciplinary conferences, workshops, open lectures (also in Polish and Ukrainian languages), summer academies, research trips as well as university lectures and seminars by the VCPU’s academic staff and international guest researchers, several publication series, an academic blog and a YouTube channel stimulate research on Poland and Ukraine and underscore Viadrina`s special role as a place of European intellectual exchange.

But what is intellectually new about a center like the VCPU? What insights could the strategic attention to Polish-Ukrainian entanglements bring to existing scholarship on Eastern and Central Europe?

Thanks to an intertwined approach, “Polish-Ukrainian Studies” is a truly unique program at Viadrina – and it is also planned internationally and globally. Because in Europe and even in the USA or Canada (where the leading research centers for Ukrainian Studies are located, such as our partner institutions, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute or the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Edmonton), Ukraine is often perceived in national terms and as just another national history. The same is true for Polish studies. In contrast, we would like to propose a new approach and search for a new analytical language that would capture the fascinating complexity of the entire historical “Commonwealth in East Central Europe” and also promote diverse cooperation in the region. Jewish studies with a focus on the Yiddish language, as well as Belarusian studies, would also be ideally situated here.

The combined research approach of Polish-Ukrainian Studies brings new insights to Central and Eastern European Studies by offering a deeper understanding of shared histories, cultural interconnections, and contemporary socio-political dynamics.

One example of these interconnections and contemporary socio-political dynamics is the labor market. It is not only about fair labor standards for the Ukrainian (post-)war economy, but even more importantly about fair labor standards in the European or even global labor market and economy at the moment. Due to the flight from the war, Ukrainian citizens are currently working in many European and North American companies.

Another example is employment in digital platforms. One of the most recent phenomena in the global labor market over the last two decades – including in the European Union – is the dynamic development of digital platforms that provide services in almost all sectors: from passenger transportation (Bolt Driver, Free Now, iTaxi, Uber) and food delivery (Bolt Courier, Takeaway, Glovo, Wolt) to programming services, translation or data entry, and advice on legal or other issues. Using the example of Ukrainian workers in these platforms, we can learn more about the basic challenges of this not entirely new phenomenon. In order to do so, this area can only be studied in an interdisciplinary manner, as the issues of fair labor touch on legal, economic, but also cultural and historical disciplines.  

Critical transnational rethinking of “classical” historical or literary themes can also open up important theoretical perspectives. In particular, the intertwined Polish-Ukrainian history is a potentially very productive field for critical rethinking of postcolonial theory. Going beyond a purely national perspective may also allow us to conceptualize the issue of multilingualism or religious pluralism in a new way. This is also an opportunity to expand the conceptual framework of German and Austrian history, as well as the history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, the Crimean Khanate, and the Ottoman Empire. Following the logic of this approach, Poland and Ukraine become a place where  European local history meets global history. That is why our Center is also involved in the implementation of an ambitious research plan – the Ukrainian History Global Initiative Project – and plans to host one of its seminars in 2026. It will hopefully become one of many research and teaching initiatives aimed at a new positioning of the European University Viadrina as a leading center of Polish and Ukrainian studies.

Text by Prof. Dr. Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast & Prof. Dr. Andrii Portnov, directors of the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies (VCPU).