Events
Displaced Perspectives Seminar: Open Sessions
May 4th, 2 pm - 4 pm Trauma: meeting with artist Lia Dostlieva (hybrid) We’re meeting in person in room 105, and Lia Dostlieva will join online. Lia Dostlieva (born in Donetsk, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian artist, cultural anthropologist, and essayist whose work explores themes of memory, trauma, and social vulnerability. She works across multiple media—including photography, installations, video, and textile sculpture—and focuses on issues such as collective trauma, postmemory, decolonial narratives, and the visibility of marginalised groups . Lia Dostlieva has exhibited internationally at major institutions and participated in the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale . Her practice often combines artistic production with research and writing, reflecting her academic background in cultural anthropology. May 11th, 2 pm - 4 pm Chornobyl: meeting with Dr Jonathon Turnbull (hybrid) We’re meeting in person in room 105, and Jonathon Turnbull will join online. Jonathon Turnbull is a more-than-human geographer from Newcastle upon Tyne with a broad interest in the geographies of nature. His research examines how environmental knowledges are produced and contested across diverse geographical contexts from the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine to the rumen of livestock cattle in Europe and India. We will focus on Jonathon’s upcoming book, in which he explores the ‘return of nature’ to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine, the site of the world's worst nuclear catastrophe of 1986. This work is currently being prepared for publication as a monograph, provisionally titled Radioactive Resurgence , which explores how the Zone has come to be understood simultaneously as a post-apocalyptic wasteland and a thriving nuclear nature reserve, and how more-than-human life endures after nuclear catastrophe. June 1st, 2 pm - 4 pm Post-industrial urban ecologies: meeting with artist Karolina Uskakovych and screening of her latest movie, White Cliffs of Vinnytsia (2026). We’re meeting in person in room 105, and Karolina Uskakovych will join online. The territory of the Vinnytsya Chemical Plant stretches along the railroad tracks, not far from the central city railway station. Founded in 1920, Khimprom was one of Ukraine's largest chemical enterprises and went bankrupt in the late nineties, leaving behind a toxic legacy – a phosphogypsum stack known locally as the "white mountains." In her project, Karolina Uskakovych returns to her hometown to explore the landfill ecosystem through archival work, visual research, collaboration with experts, and the conceptualisation of post-industrial urban ecologies. What is the ecosystem that forms on the phosphogypsum stack? What is its cultural and ecological significance? Do the "white cliffs" pose a threat of environmental pollution, or have they become a haven for wildlife within the industrial zone? Can these roles coexist? We will discuss the decolonial rethinking of the urban landscape and the creation of artistic visions for post-industrial ecosystems. June 8th, 2 pm - 4 pm The Post-Soviet: meeting with artist Lada Nakonechna . In person, room 105. Lada Nakonechna is a Ukrainian contemporary artist whose practice spans drawing, installation, performance, and video. Her work critically examines systems of power, visibility, and representation, often focusing on how political and social structures shape everyday life. A significant strand of her practice addresses migration, displacement, and the experience of refugees , particularly in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Nakonechna explores the instability of identity and belonging under forced movement, as well as the emotional and bureaucratic realities faced by displaced people. Her works frequently reflect on absence, erasure, and the fragility of personal and collective memory. She is a member of the groups R.E.P. and Hudrada. June 15th, 2 pm - 4 pm Home: meeting with Yuriy Biley from Open Group . In person, room 105. Open Group is a Ukrainian contemporary art collective founded in 2012 in Lviv by six artists: Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga, Stanislav Turina, Roman Khimei, and Andriy Rachynskyi (As of August 2023, Open Group consists of three people: Yuriy Biley, Anton Varga, and Pavlo Kovach Jr.). The group works collaboratively across installation, performance, video, and participatory practices. Their work often explores collective authorship, communication, and the construction of social space , frequently involving audiences directly in the creation or activation of artworks. Open Group is particularly known for its interest in everyday interactions, institutional critique, and the boundaries between artist and viewer . In recent years, their practice has increasingly addressed the impact of war, displacement, and shifting identities in Ukraine , reflecting on how communities are formed and reshaped under conditions of crisis. Their projects often engage with testimony, shared experience, and the role of language and storytelling. Open Group has represented Ukraine at major international platforms, including the Venice Biennale, where their work has drawn attention for its subtle yet powerful engagement with contemporary social and political realities. June 22nd, 2 pm - 4 pm Memory: meeting with Mykola Ridnyi. In person, room 105. Mykola Rydnyi (born in Kharkiv, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian artist, filmmaker, and curator whose work explores the intersections of memory, history, and political reality . Working across video, installation, sculpture, and photography, he examines how personal and collective memories are shaped by ideology, media, and urban space. A central focus of Rydnyi’s practice is the construction and erosion of memory in post-Soviet contexts , particularly in eastern Ukraine. He often engages with archives, testimonies, and fragmented narratives to reveal how histories are mediated, forgotten, or manipulated. His works address themes such as trauma, propaganda, and the legacy of Soviet and post-Soviet transformations , as well as the ongoing impact of war on collective consciousness. Rydnyi is a co-founder of the SOSka group and has been closely involved with independent art initiatives in Kharkiv, contributing to critical cultural discourse in Ukraine. His films and installations have been shown internationally, including at major exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, where his work has been recognised for its nuanced engagement with memory, image-making, and political subjectivity. The meetings are part of the seminar series Displaced Perspectives: Ukrainian Art and Cultural Resilience in Times of War .
Location: Osteuropa Institut FU Berlin Garystr. 55 Raum 105
Rustam Samadov | Transformations of Gender Relations in Central Asia
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
EVENT CANCELLED | Jannis Panagiotidis | Remaking Eastern Europe through Migration: A Global Historical Perspective
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Woosik Moon | When the East Meets the West: A Critique of the Uniqueness of the Asian Development Model
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Volodymyr Ishchenko | Post-Soviet Vicious Circle: The Crisis of Hegemony & The Crisis of Revolution
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Aleksey Oshchepkov | Changes in Migration Patterns in the Post-Soviet Space after 02.2022
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Tatiana Golova | Von russischsprachiger Migration zu Diasporas: Dynamiken in Deutschland seit 2022
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Maja Savevska | Authoritarianism Without Isolation: Kazakhstan’s Foreign Policy Vectorism Revisited
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Susanne Strätling | Kulturelle Kartographie der frühen Sowjetunion
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Vladimir Kozlov | The Influence of Deprivation on Birth Intentions among the Recent Waves of Russian Migrants
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Workshop mit der Regisseurin Eva Neymann
Location: Habelschwerdter Allee 45 14195 Berlin Seminarzentrum Silberlaube Raum L 113
EVENT CANCELLED! Robert Kindler | Mobilität und Ordnung. Anmerkungen zur sowjetischen Geschichte
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Aglaya Glebova | Oilscapes of Socialist Realism
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Alexander Libman | Transformations of Authoritarianism in the Post-Soviet Eurasia
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Alexander Papaioannou | Refugees & Migrants at the Borders of Europe: A Perspective from Athens
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Theocharis Grigoriadis | The Political Economy of Brain Drain
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Conference | Beyond Empires – Fokus Osteuropa
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Garystr. 55 14195 Berlin
Welcome Event | MA East European Studies
Location: Hörsaal A Osteuropa-Institut Garystraße 55
Short Film Festival | Central Asia: At the Crossroads
Location: SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA Lindower Str. 20/22, Haus C 13347 Berlin
Workshop | Russia’s Right-Wing and the War
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Edwin-Redslob-Straße 29 14195 Berlin
Summer School | Resources and Infrastructure: New Perspectives on Kazakhstan and Central Asia | Deutsch-Kasachische Universität, Almaty
Location: Deutsch-Kasachische Universität, Almaty
Absolvent*innenfeier
Location: Hörsaal A, Garystr. 55
Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften | Logistics of Protest Camps
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Rostlaube Raum K31/102
Löwenthal Lecture 2025 | Return and Return Intentions of Ukrainian Refugees
Location: Hörsaal A Osteuropa-Institut Garystr. 55 14195 Berlin
Transcribing Violence: Art, Nature, Politics
Location: taz Kantine Friedrichstraße 21 10969 Berlin
Book Presentation | "The Assault on the State" by Jeffrey Kopstein (UC Irvine)
Location: Room L 115 Seminarzentrum Otto-von-Simson-Straße 26
Manuela Boatca | Siebenbürgen zwischen Kolonialität und Interimperialität
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Galyna Sukhomud | De(Colonial) Urbanism: Russian Occupation and Ukrainian Resistance through City Planning and Spatial Practice
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Rano Turaeva | Double Colonial Heritage and the Question of Decolonising Central Asian Studies
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Was bedeutet Dekolonisierung in Osteuropa? | Studentisches Panel mit Frieder Kerkloh, Jule Klinger und Jannick Piskorski
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Postkolonialismus im postsowjetischen Film | Screening “Qas” (KZ 2022, Regie: Aisultan Seit) | Anschließend Q&A mit Barbara Wurm und Amina Akhrorkulova
Location: ACUDkino Veteranenstrasse 21 10119 Berlin
Viktor Vakhstein | Morphology of Post-Colonial Antizionism: from Narratives to Collective Representations (Lessons for East European Studies)
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Pawel Bukowski | Discontinuities and Continuities in Eastern European Inequalities over the 20th Century
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Workshop "Politics in and after the Russian Empire: Violence, Public Sphere, Political Economy"
Location: Hörsaal B, Garystraße 55
Robert Kindler | Dekolonisierung als neue Meistererzählung? Anmerkungen zur Geschichte Osteuropas
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Alexander Etkind | Russian Colonialism, Russian Racism: What Is Special about It, and What Is Not?
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Susanne Strätling | Derussifizierung. Kulturelle Praktiken einer politischen Agenda
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Launch of the research network War Effects on Food Systems and Environment (WEFE)
Location: OEI, room 55/101, Garystraße 55, 14195 Berlin
Menschen im Schatten der Umweltzerstörung – Ein Jahr nach der Kachowka-Katastrophe
Location: Libereco-Geschäftsstelle Berlin Brunnenstraße 9, Hinterhof/Souterrain 10119 Berlin
3rd Annual Conference of DFG-Network "Russian Ecospheres": Scales of Ecology
Location: GWZO Leipzig Conference Room 4th floor, Entrance A, Specks Hof Reichsstraße 4-6, 04109 Leipzig
Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften am OEI | Neue Perspektiven auf Osteuropa
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Silberlaube Raum K 25/11 Fabeckstraße 25, 14195 Berlin
Löwenthal Lecture 2024: Prof. Judith Pallot "Is There a Post-Communist Prison System?"
Location: Hörsaal A, Institute for East European Studies, Garystraße 55, 14195 Berlin
Georgien zwischen Widerstand und Isolation | Anmeldung bis 14. Juni!
Location: Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung Eberhard-Lämmert-Saal Meierottostr. 8 10719 Berlin
Apply Now to MA East European Studies!
Application deadline: August 15, 2024
LS "Energy Empires" - Sophie Lambroschini (Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
Presentation of Ekaterina Shulman
Location: Henry Ford Bau, Hörsaal C
LS "Energy Empires" - Alexander Libman (Freie Universität Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Samuel Rogers (Freie Universität Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Matthias Schwartz (Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Ilya Kalinin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Susanne Strätling (Freie Universität Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Jens Bastian (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Ukrainian Film Screening “Chornobyl 22” und “Everything Will Not be Fine”
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
Location: Ort: Sputnik. Kino am Südstern, Hasenheide 54, Eintritt für OEI-Studierende frei
LS "Energy Empires" - Benjamin Beuerle (Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin):
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Katharina Bluhm (Freie Universität Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Martin Lutz (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Theocharis Grigoriadis (Freie Universität Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Ekaterina Shulman (Robert Bosch Academy, Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Sebastian Schiek (SPCE Hub, Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Robert Kindler (Freie Universität Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
LS "Energy Empires" - Theocharis Grigoriadis/Robert Kindler (Freie Universität Berlin)
Wintersemester 2023/24 18.10.2023-14.02.2024 Mi 14:00-16:00 Garystr. 55 / Hörsaal A
Project seminar: Online presentation of the project "Intersectional discrimination of refugee Rom*nja from Ukraine in Hungary"
Location: Webex
Book presentation "The Oswalds: An Untold Account of Marina and Lee"
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Kaminzimmer Boltzmanstraße 20
"Life-Building. On Metabolic Structures, Energetic Art, and Dynamic Architecture in the Early Soviet Period": Workshop
Location: Garystr. 55 302a
LNDW 2023: The South Caucasus and the European Union: From Conflict to Cooperation
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Silberlaube, L23 0.3099 Fabeckstraße 25, 14195
LNDW 2023: Jenseits der Stalinallee. Der 17. Juni 1953 – Ereignisse, Deutungen, Erinnerungen
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Rostlaube Hörsaal 1a, 20 Uhr Habelschwerdter Allee 45 14195 Berlin
Talk with Yuliya Tsimafeyeva
Location: online via Webex
Book Presentation: Nicolai N. Petro "The tradegy of Ukraine"
Location: Osteuropa-Instut, Freie Universität Berlin Garystr. 55, Room 55 C
Apply now: Discover East European Studies with us!
Bewerbungsfrist: 15. August 2023
VL "War & Peace" - Oleksiy Kandyuk (Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University)
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A (Erdgeschoss) Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin
Lecture and discussion with Anna Dziapshipa (Tbilisi)
Location: online via Webex
Seminar exhibition: "Testimonies of war"
Project exhibition by students of the Institute for East European Studies and the Peter Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature at the FU Berlin
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Habelschwerdter Allee 45, Raum JK 28/228
LS "War & Peace" - Tamara Martsenyuk (University Of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy")
Location: Osteuropa-Institut Hörsaal A (Erdgeschoss) Garystraße 55 14195 Berlin