The IOS has been conducting intensive research on Ukraine for many years, in all three of its main disciplines: history, economics, and political science. Its journals regularly publish research papers dealing with Ukraine's history, economic development, and political situation. With Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine, this research has become even more important—and new challenges have arisen.
The IOS has responded to this by taking in refugee scientists from Ukraine. This is not merely a form of humanitarian support; it is about enabling excellent researchers from Ukraine to continue their work and thus produce sound knowledge about their country. This is something the entire international academic community benefits from and is a way of countering the Russian attempt to destroy Ukrainian culture and identity. Our Ukrainian colleagues have been working closely with the Institute for years and are now able to continue their work in Regensburg.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Volkswagen Foundation, as part of the assistance program it set up for scholars who have fled Ukraine, the IOS has funds for up to seven one-year research fellowships. This enables the IOS to set up two working groups, closely linked to the Institute's research: one group consisting of two legal scholars and one political scientist, which focuses on observation, documentation, and analysis of war and human rights violations on the territory of Ukraine (Head: Cindy Wittke); and a second group of three historians, which will focus on the history of Ukrainian statehood in the context of the tensions between Germany and Russia (Head: Guido Hausmann).
The Interdisciplinary Study Group Ukraine at the IOS, coordinated by Katrin Boeckh and Guido Hausmann, has already been in existence since 2016. It thus plays a critical role by continuing with the traditions of Ukraine research at the Institute for East European Studies (OEI), one of the predecessor institutes of the IOS, and at the same time takes up the current interest in the political, historical-cultural, and economic developments in Ukraine since 2014.
