Not like a fish in water: how we listened to the experiences of Ukrainian refugees and learned about ourselves
"The amazing paradox of the ethnographic moment… is that coming closer to the Other creates a clearer sense of self, and thus opens up ways to know the Other better," emphasizes anthropologist D. Soyini Madison. In August 2022, a study called ‘The Art of Arriving’ started to explore the experiences of Ukrainian refugees in Austria. […]
Sub-Imperialist positioning, not “anti-colonial consciousness,” behind the neutrality of reactionary elites in the Global South
Time and time again, we have been told that ‘the Global South’ – ie, the developing world consisting largely of former colonies – does not support Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s barbaric colonial invasion, or is even supportive of Russia. According to this rendition of reality, support for Ukraine is entirely a project of the imperial […]
What’s wrong with Ukraine’s wartime diplomacy in the Global South
In the month of the 1st anniversary of Russia’s illegal and brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelensky held a speech at the European Parliament, where he declared Russia to be “the biggest anti-European force of the modern world”[1]. By “European”, he meant its ostensibly “way of life steeped in rules, values, equality, and […]
Evacuation, transition and mutual aid. Trans*people telling their wartime stories
For more than a year, Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine has been ruining the lives of Ukrainian people. Everyone has been affected by the war in one way or another. Transgender people, however, who had been struggling with issues unusual and unapparent for most even before the invasion, had found themselves in an even […]
Against false solidarity. A call for true solidarity among people with experiences of displacement
Ideas discussed in this contribution were first presented at the Solidarity, Displacement & the University workshop that took place on October 13-14, 2022, in Berlin and focused on access programs for displaced learners, spaces of solidarity those programs create, and possibilities for opening up the university[1] (Cantat et al., eds. 2022) for people who have experienced displacement. I consider […]
To get a ramp, you have to tear with your teeth. Reintegration of Ukrainian soldiers after injury
“Perfect society is when there is respect for one another, no matter whether I have an injury or not, whether I served or not. You should help if you see that someone has it hard, or just come and help anyone, no matter if the person has a prosthesis or not,” – Andriy. In […]
Experiences that should have never happened again: how Ukrainians survive the war
Russia’s invasion has made murder, rape and torture a part of our everyday life. It never ceases to terrify, anger and remind us that we cannot stop fighting. Indeed, those defending us from the invader, those who have lost their loved ones or survived rape and torture, struggle the most. The existence of this suffering, […]
Weapons of war: sexual violence of Russian military during the full-scale invasion in Ukraine
War-time sexual violence exists for as long as wars themselves. Memory about mass sexual crimes during World War 2 still lives, for example, those committed by Wehrmacht and its allies on the occupied territories, by the Imperial Japanese Army (the phenomena of the so-called “comfort women”), by the Red Army in Hungary and Germany, etc. […]
The Far Right in Ukraine
Taras Bilous is a Ukrainian historian, an editor of Commons: Journal of Social Criticism, and an activist in Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement). He is currently serving in the Ukrainian army. He was interviewed by Stephen R. Shalom, a member of the New Politics editorial board. Denys Pilash helped with the translation. New Politics (NP): How would you assess […]
The crisis of hegemony, imperialism and global security challenges
The end of the 20th century, marked by the fall of the Berlin wall, the end of the Cold War, and the defeat of “real socialism”, encouraged intellectuals to proclaim “the end of history”. It seemed to many people that overcoming the campist logic of military, political and economic blocs was a point of no […]
