New Books in Ukrainian Studies: Ukraine not ‘the’ Ukraine by Marta Dyczok

Ukraine not ‘the’ Ukraine is a historical tour of Ukraine from the medieval Kyivan prince Volodymyr the Great through to Ukraine's twenty-first-century rock star president Volodymyr Zelensky. It presents Ukraine as an actor, not a pawn, in international history. And it focuses on people. In the past, historians wrote about Ukraine from a colonial perspective that portrayed it as a region, not its own entity. This shaped the way people thought about Ukraine and created mental maps where it was just part of something else. Put in contemporary terms, Ukraine was subjected to a historical disinformation war. This Element joins voices that are decolonizing that way of thinking by drawing a different mental map, one where Ukraine exists as itself. It explains how the people living on its lands have their own distinct history, how they shaped it, were shaped by it, and had an impact on both European and global history.

 

 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Marta Dyczok is Associate Professor in the Departments of History and Political Science at Western University, fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, adjunct professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and past president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada. She is the author of seven books, the latest being Ukraine not ‘the’ Ukraine (Cambridge University Press 2024), numerous book chapters and articles, including in Europe-Asia Studies, Demokratyzatsiia, and Canadian Slavonic Papers. Previously she was a Wilson Fellow (2005/06) and a Harvard Shklar Fellow (2011). Her doctorate is from Oxford University, she researches social and mass media, memory, migration, and history, and regularly provides media commentary.