Ukrainian victory will be a start of a new era of democratic Europe – Starovoyt

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After many decades of absence on European maps and in the European consciousness, through the destruction, Ukraine appeared there again, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University, Iryna Starovoyt, writes for zbruc.eu.

Paradoxically, how the current existential threat has shown our country to the world as full of presence and existence. Ukrainian resilience in this tense, multi-level war was the key to something else being unleashed across Europe, from north to south. The key to greater interest, urgency, and need to know who Ukrainians are and what they want.

However, from this “eureka” moment, European nations probably began to learn more than they really wanted to after the blessed end of the Cold War. Therefore, in these circumstances, studies of Ukraine should not be a sporadic compensation for their previous lack. Ukrainian studies should turn into stable and permanent research in many subject areas: in the departments of war crimes, the theory of systemic violence, transitional justice, ethics of care, social transformation and sustainability, the environment, and the consequences of disasters.

Now we must be ready to look at history differently or imagine an alternative version of our future. Since 2014, participation in culture has intensified and deepened in Ukraine, and the same can be said about participation in history. Ukrainians remind the rest of the world that institutions and societies are not only preserved but also in a continuous process of change. And the duty of a worthy scientist is not to be blinded by ready-made narratives.

The military victory will not only be Ukrainian. It will also be a moral, intellectual, and political victory for the entire European continent. We need a world in which global institutions facilitate this new sensibility, think and act at the right scale and at high speed. Where we strain our imagination against parochial thinking. This is how a new era of democratic Europe will begin.

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