UR Participates in EU Jean Monnet Network
The network explores heritage diplomacy as part of EU’s external relations with a special focus on Ukraine.
6 December 2023
Professor Dr. Mirja Lecke (Slavic Literatures and Cultures) and Professor Dr. Guido Hausmann (History of East and Southeast Europe) participate in a new Jean Monnet Network on ‘Challenges and opportunities for EU heritage diplomacy in Ukraine’ funded by the European Union from December 2023 until December 2026.
The consortium is coordinated by the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium, and brings together scholars from Regensburg and Leiden as well as from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National University of Cherkasy (Ukraine), National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine), University of Toronto (Canada), Södertörn University (Stockholm, Sweden), University of Kent (United Kingdom), University of Tartu (Estonia), Charles University Prague (Czech Republic), Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia), Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland), University of Lille (France), University of Hong Kong, and Tufts University (USA).
Photo: Julia Dragan/UR
The network explores heritage diplomacy as part of EU’s external relations with a special focus on Ukraine. In 2021 the EU has adopted a “concept on cultural heritage in conflicts and crisis” to further promote and enhance heritage as part of democracy and peaceful development. “The deliberate destruction of Ukrainian museums, libraries, and art collections and cleansing of Ukrainian culture has been a strategic part of Russia’s military aggression since February 2022, and it clashes with EU policies on cultural heritage”, Hausmann explains: “Restoration of damaged heritage and respect for cultural rights will rank high on EU’s agenda in post war Ukraine.”
The research agenda of the network encompasses, firstly, Ukraine’s cultural heritage field and, secondly, EU strategies (1) in heritage diplomacy and international cultural relations, (2) conflict prevention and (3) protection and reconstruction of heritage.
Mirja Lecke and Guido Hausmann will study (1) minority cultural heritage in Ukraine, in particular that of Hungarians, Jews and Germans, and (2) funeral rites in Ukraine in European perspectives (cults of fallen soldiers and military/political leaders). Among their activities will be a winter school on EU policies of cultural heritage in a comparative perspective in 2025.
Information/Contact
Jean Monnet Networks in Higher Education
Prof. Dr. Mirja Lecke
Prof. Dr. Guido Hausmann
