War as a mnemonic rupture: Towards the Emergence of a Ukrainocentric Master Narrative in Diaspora
2025-10-28
– 2025-10-28
09:30
- ONLINE
- English
It is our pleasure to invite you to the first Center for Research on Social Memory seminar this academic year. Seminar with Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek, chaired by Tomasz Rawski on the subject of "War as a mnemonic rupture: Towards the Emergence of a Ukrainocentric Master Narrative in Diaspora".
The seminar will take place online, 28 October at 9:30am CET.
Please register using this link in order to participate:https://uw-edu-pl.zoom.us/.../regi.../x2w0DsMSSO-zao3W8OR2zQ
Abstract
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine represents a turning point in how Ukrainians in the diaspora remember and relate to their homeland. We argue that the previously diverging memoryscapes of Ukraine are converging around a more unified understanding of the country’s past, present, and future, contributing to the emergence of a more Ukrainocentric master narrative across diaspora communities. This master narrative entails a concerted effort to rethink Ukraine’s history and a deliberate move to distance from Russian cultural influence, accompanied by a renewed confidence in expressing perspectives from a distinctly Ukrainian standpoint and in upholding Ukrainian language, culture, and traditions. For some in the diaspora, this represents a radical transformation in how they view Russia, Ukraine, and their own identity; for others, it reinforces pre-existing memory frameworks shaped by personal or inherited experiences. The presentation draws on participant observation and in-depth interviews conducted over two years of fieldwork in Poland, Israel, and the United States between 2023 and 2025 as part of the NCN-funded research project Engagement from Afar: A Multi-sited Ethnography of the Ukrainian Diaspora’s Responses to War.
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine represents a turning point in how Ukrainians in the diaspora remember and relate to their homeland. We argue that the previously diverging memoryscapes of Ukraine are converging around a more unified understanding of the country’s past, present, and future, contributing to the emergence of a more Ukrainocentric master narrative across diaspora communities. This master narrative entails a concerted effort to rethink Ukraine’s history and a deliberate move to distance from Russian cultural influence, accompanied by a renewed confidence in expressing perspectives from a distinctly Ukrainian standpoint and in upholding Ukrainian language, culture, and traditions. For some in the diaspora, this represents a radical transformation in how they view Russia, Ukraine, and their own identity; for others, it reinforces pre-existing memory frameworks shaped by personal or inherited experiences. The presentation draws on participant observation and in-depth interviews conducted over two years of fieldwork in Poland, Israel, and the United States between 2023 and 2025 as part of the NCN-funded research project Engagement from Afar: A Multi-sited Ethnography of the Ukrainian Diaspora’s Responses to War.
Bio
Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek works at the Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw. Her research and visual practice explore the role of memory, violence, and racialisation in fostering local and transnational activism and (un)belonging among diaspora, refugee, and migrant communities. She is the Principal Investigator of a three-year research grant entitled Engagement from Afar: A Multi-Sited Ethnography of the Ukrainian Diaspora’s Responses to War, funded by the National Science Centre (2023–2026). In 2024–2025, she was a visiting scholar at Rutgers University as part of the Kościuszko Foundation Fellowship, where she conducted comparative research on the responses and opportunities for action among the Ukrainian and Palestinian American diasporas in relation to the wars in their homelands In 2024, she received the Award for Outstanding Young Scholars from the Minister of Higher Education. Her written work has appeared in The Sociological Review, Identities, Geoforum, JEMS, and Emotion, Space and Society. She holds a PhD in Visual Sociology from Goldsmiths, University of London (2016), and a Certificate in Ethnographic Filmmaking from UCL’s Department of Anthropology (2011).
Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek works at the Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw. Her research and visual practice explore the role of memory, violence, and racialisation in fostering local and transnational activism and (un)belonging among diaspora, refugee, and migrant communities. She is the Principal Investigator of a three-year research grant entitled Engagement from Afar: A Multi-Sited Ethnography of the Ukrainian Diaspora’s Responses to War, funded by the National Science Centre (2023–2026). In 2024–2025, she was a visiting scholar at Rutgers University as part of the Kościuszko Foundation Fellowship, where she conducted comparative research on the responses and opportunities for action among the Ukrainian and Palestinian American diasporas in relation to the wars in their homelands In 2024, she received the Award for Outstanding Young Scholars from the Minister of Higher Education. Her written work has appeared in The Sociological Review, Identities, Geoforum, JEMS, and Emotion, Space and Society. She holds a PhD in Visual Sociology from Goldsmiths, University of London (2016), and a Certificate in Ethnographic Filmmaking from UCL’s Department of Anthropology (2011).
