How to Write a Transnational History of Ukraine?
Andrii Portnov (Berlin/Sofia), 12.00 CET, 20 November 2025
Join via Zoom (link)
What makes a certain historical narrative transnational? How does the aspiration of transnational approach correlate with the postcolonial perspective? Are we about to experience a revival of national history writing? What aspects, what themes of the Ukrainian past could be particularly productive for integrating the Ukrainian studies into the newly defined global history?
***
Andrii Portnov is a Ukrainian and German historian. He graduated from Dnipro and Warsaw Universities, and after research work in Lviv and Kyiv moved in 2012 to Germany. In 2018-2025 he was a Professor of Entangled History of Ukraine at the European University Viadrina. At the moment he is a Fellow at the Centre of Advanced Study Sofia, Associate Member of the Viadrina Centre of Polish and Ukrainian Studies, and Director of PRISMA UKRAINA Research Network Eastern Europe in Berlin. Prof. Portnov is the author of 10 books, among them the award-winning Dnipro: Entangled History of a European City (2022) and a German-Language Introduction into Ukrainian Studies (2025).
This lecture is part of the “Reclaiming Transnationalism” lecture series, co-organised by Oleksandr Zabirko (Regensburg) within the framwork of the “Young Network TransEurope” at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. For further information about the lecture and the series please contact: Oleksandr Zabirko.