26th OLOMOUC DAYS OF RUSSIAN STUDIES
Russian Studies in the Time of War
7–8 September, 2023
The war in Ukraine has led to irreversible changes in Europe. Our society has already had to react to these changes, and we will have to face them in the future. This also affects the future of European Russian studies, a humanities discipline directly dependent on the Eastern European area. At present, we are dealing with limited communication with scholars and a complete lack of contact with scholarly organizations, as well as with the spoken language, or with the entire Russian-speaking world. We are also forced to respond to the rejection of Russian culture as such among some parts of European society.
However, when we think about possible options for the further existence of Russian studies, we have to deal with much more difficult questions regarding the development of Russian studies in the post-Communist period and their position within the contemporary humanities and social sciences. The question is not only about the concept of curricula and the prospects for Russian studies, it also involves the question of how to prepare future graduates for the challenges of today’s world, which are not related only to political changes.
The keynote speakers at the conference will be Prof. Dr. Tomáš Glanc (Universität Zürich) and Univ. Prof. Dr. phil. Mag. phil. Peter Deutschmann (Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg).