The Institute of East-European Studies hosts a network meeting with experts from academia, media and NGOs on "The Impact of Russia's War on Ukraine on Food Systems and the Environment" (WEFE). A limited number of places are available for external guests working on the agro-ecological impact of the war.

The organizing team consists of: Mariia Fatulaeva (U. Bern), Mihai Varga (FU Berlin), Alexander Vorbrugg (U. Bern), Jiayi Zhou (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). Confirmed network participants: Angelina Davydova (journalist, Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Group), Robert Kindler (FU Berlin), Kateryna Polianska (ICO Environment-People-Law, Ukraine), Maria Tysiachniouk (U. of Eastern Finland)  

PROGRAM

Network Meeting

The Impact of Russia's War on Ukraine on Food Systems and the Environment (WEFE Network)

27./28. September 2023, Freie Universität Berlin

Room/Hörsaal A, Garystr. 55, 14195 Berlin

All sessions are hybrid, all times are CET.

Please email Mihai Varga for the zoom link, mihai.varga@fu-berlin.de

Wednesday, 27.09. (13:30-18:30)

13:30 - 13:45

Introduction

Welcome, meeting outline, and organisational/technical details 

13:45-14:30

Network mapping and getting to know each other 

Very brief self introduction (without pptx). Main questions: Who are you, what are you currently working on, what are WEFE-relevant issues that deserve our attention, what do you expect from the WEFE network? Are you part of other networks, initiatives, projects with relevant overlaps of potential synergies with WEFE?  

14:30-15:00 

Coffee break 

15:00- 16:20

Environmental harm, ecopolitics, activism

Brief inputs on ongoing research

Group discussion: How can this research inform the work of WEFE as a network. How can the network support this research? How can this research contribute to policy, activism, or public discourse via public outreach? How could it be developed further (potentially also with regard to a more ambitious grant)? 

16:30-18:00

Land use, food production and agricultural systems

Brief inputs on ongoing research

Group discussion: How can this research inform the work of WEFE as a network. How can the network support this research? How can this research contribute to policy, activism, or public discourse via public outreach? How could it be developed further (potentially also concerning a more ambitious grant)? 

Thursday, 28.09. (09:00 - 12:30)

09:00-10:30

Networks and collaborations II

Brief introductions of the Ukrainian Environmental Humanities Network, EPL, WEFE/UWEC

Group discussion: How to work and collaborate within and across domains of policy, outreach, and research. 

Presentation of Network Map from Day 1. Reflection on where we see WEFE in these networks

10:30-11:15

Toward sustainable solutions? 

Which concrete contributions could WEFE make to addressing problems discussed? What kinds of contributions? Do we see our role more in producing transferable knowledge that should directly inform policy and public discourses? Or is there a need for a critique of current “mainstream” discourses and policies, their omissions, and formulating alternatives?    

11:30-12:30

Steps ahead with WEFE

Recap: Where do we stand after the meeting? Future: How do we want to collaborate in future? What are WEFE’s main aims and goals, in the shorter and mid run? How do we want to collaborate with other initiatives, do we aspire to expand? Do we need/want our own “publicity” e.g. a website, and who’d be responsible?