Dates: 29.09 - 01.10.2025 

Place: Free University, Berlin

Organizers: UNDIPUS Network (University of Greifswald, Justus Liebig University Giessen, University of Regensburg), Free University of Berlin, Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL)/Berlin, with funding from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).

The international interdisciplinary conference „(Un)Safe Plurality: Ukraine and Beyond” is the concluding event of the joint project “(Un)Disciplined: Pluralizing Ukrainian Studies—Understanding the War in Ukraine” (UNDIPUS), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space. Focusing on the multi-faceted repercussions of the full-scale war in Ukraine on politics, history writing, and culture in Ukraine and beyond, the conference assesses the changes in academic fields and societies involved and examines the results of the pluralization efforts that have dominated East European Studies, literary and cultural theory since 2022. To this end, the conference situates the war in Ukraine within a broader comparative and historical context to avoid essentializing it and to identify common patterns. Furthermore, it revisits established and emerging critical theories, such as post-/decolonial, transnational, gender, queer, spatial, and diversity studies, language management, cultural transfers and entangled history, to determine the extent to which these frameworks retain their subversive power and pluralizing potential during wartime. Ultimately, it asks what kind of knowledge can provide ethical guidance in turbulent times, promote peace, and help build a better future.

PROGRAM