The publishing house “Dukh i Litera” has prepared for publication a collection of scholarly articles on European Studies, a field that has remained at the center of academic attention for several decades, as it is of considerable interest to Ukrainian society, which, following the country’s attainment of independence, found itself in a situation of choosing political, economic, and above all value-based orientations. This directly influenced the formation of the state’s foreign policy vector, the definition of which in certain historical periods was somewhat ambiguous, and around which debates persisted until recently, intensified by a corresponding societal cleavage along pro-European lines. The European and Euro-Atlantic integration course enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine is not the result of accidental circumstances; it is a return to the family of European states, a path of restoration and rediscovery of our culture and its deep connections with the cultures of other European countries, a restoration of historical justice and, in the most literal sense, a guarantee of the existence of the Ukrainian state as such. The war in which Ukraine has been resisting the imperial ambitions of a neighboring state for more than a decade has also become an intellectual, value-based challenge, a challenge to our identity and worldview.
The idea for the volume emerged in the course of establishing cooperation between the Center for European Humanities Research and the Department of Political Science at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) and KU Leuven, which resulted in the creation of a certificate program in European Studies for master’s students. The collection contains several thematic blocks of articles in Ukrainian or English.
“The choice of the topic that unites the publications presented to readers was determined by the orientation toward our pilot teaching track, ‘Ukrainian Resistance to Kremlin Aggression and European Solidarity.’ Inspired by the speech of Herman Van Rompuy, who has recently become an honorary professor at NaUKMA, we concluded that the title of his speech best reflects the relevance of this year’s research. At the same time, we considered that offering our authors freedom of genre choice — from scholarly articles and lecture abstracts to essays — would be a fresh approach for the academic community and a motivating factor for students.”
Kostyantyn Sigov, Marharyta Chabanna
The book can be accessed via the link.