A Decade of Ukrainian Resistance: Language, Culture, Identity, and Memory

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable examines the many facets of Ukrainian linguistic and cultural resistance to Russia’s genocidal war of aggression and, more broadly, to Russia’s century-old colonialism. Focusing on language, identity, and memory, the participants will discuss the tectonic sociolinguistic shift from Russian to Ukrainian among Ukraine’s general population; the complex bilingual and code-switching dynamic in the Ukrainian military; the deliberate transition of many Ukrainian Russophone writers to Ukrainian; the linguistics transformations instigated by the war; and the drastic change in the perception of Ukrainian cultural heritage following the debunking of the “common cradle” and “fraternal ties” myths. Bringing together interdisciplinary insights from cultural studies, linguistics, language pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, literature, and translation, the discussion will exemplify the political role of language in identity formation and underscore the inherent connection between language, memory, knowledge, and power.

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Roman Ivashkiv, U of Alabama

Roundtable Speakers

• Roman Ivashkiv, U of Alabama

• Daniel Medford

• Svitlana Melnyk, Indiana U Bloomington

• Nataliia Naumovska, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign