A Subaltern That Sings:
From Sound Resistance to Musical Diplomacy in Wartime Ukraine
CEFRES Research Area 1: Displacements, “dépaysements” & discrepancies
Contact: valeriya.korablyova[@]fsv.cuni.cz
Dr Valeria Korablyova is a sociologist and political theorist working on post-Soviet transformations in Ukraine and the region, with the research focus on performative politics and entangled imperial/colonial legacies. She is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Russian and East European Studies and the Leader of the Research Centre “Ukraine in a Changing Europe” at the Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. Dr Korablyova received her habilitation (D. of Sc. degree) in 2015 from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, with the book Social Meanings of Ideology (Kyiv University, 2014) that covers transformations of the European modernity, where the ethos of solidarity underpinning the Maidan uprising stands as a specific case in point. She has held fellowships and visiting professorships at Stanford University, the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna, the University of Basel, Justus Liebig University Giessen, and other institutions. Most recently, she has presented on broader implications of the Russian war of aggression for European political imaginary and structures of knowledge production. Her latest publications on the matter include: “Fighting Russia’s ‘Dark Power’: The ‘Bright Power’ of Enacted Values” in Putin’s Europe. Russian Influence in European Democracy (European Liberal Forum, 2023); ‘Why Is Ukraine Important? Challenging the colonial and Cold War legacies in European social sciences’ in Soziologie (vol. 52, no. 3, 2023); ‘Russia vs. Ukraine: A Subaltern Empire Against The “Populism of Hope”’ in Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Studia Territorialia (# 2 2022); and editing the special Topos issue “Transformations of Society and Academia in the Wake of the Russian War in Ukraine: Urgent Notes” (#2 2022).
During two years (2024–2026), she is working with Louisa Martin-Chevalier (Sorbonne Université) within the TANDEM Program CU-CNRS on the project “A Subaltern That Sings: From Sound Resistance to Musical Diplomacy in Wartime Ukraine“.
CV
EDUCATION
2015 – Habilitation (Dr. of Sc.) in Social Philosophy and Philosophy of History, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine), Dissertation: “Social Meanings of Ideology in Contemporary Society”.
2006 – Ph.D. in Philosophical Anthropology, Philosophy of Culture, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine). Dissertation: “The Representation of the Idea of Generation in Socio-Cultural Contexts.”
2003 – MA in Sociology (with highest honors; Personal Stipend from the President of Ukraine), V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine).
2001 – BA in Sociology (with highest honors; Personal Stipend from the President of Ukraine), V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine).
RECENT EMPLOYMENT
Since February 2023 – Leader of the Research Centre “Ukraine in a Changing Europe”, Institute of International Studies, Charles University
Since September 2022 – Assistant Professor, Department of Russian and East European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
September 2020 – August 2022 – Senior Research Fellow, Department of East European Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
September 2018 – September 2019 – Senior Research Fellow, Department of Russian and East European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
September 2017 – June 2018 – Professor, Department of Philosophy of Humanities, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
SELECTED GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
January – November 2023 – International conference “600 Days of the All-Out War: Fighting for Freedom, Fighting for Democracy” (Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, PI, € 3500)
November 2022 – November 2023 – „Cultural transformations of society at war: practices, agencies, shifting identities“ (4EU+/UA/F2/08; PI, 100k CZK); “Integration of Ukrainian refugee children and underage IDPs in the comparative perspective (Czech republic – Ukraine)” (4EU+/UA/F2/05; PI, 100k CZK); “Public launch of the research centre “Ukraine in a Changing Europe” (4EU+/UA/F2/10; PI, 100k CZK).
October 2019 – March 2020 – Visiting Professor in Ukrainian Studies, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Giessen Centre for East European Studies (GiZO), Department of Sociology. Research project “Post-Soviet Ukraine between population, citizenry, and spectatorship”.
September 2018 – February 2019 – EU Operational Programme “Research, Development and Education”, Charles University, Department of Russian and East European Studies. Research project: “Metamorphosis of Eastern Europe: Back to the Future?”.
February – July 2018 – Ukrainian Research in Switzerland (URIS) Fellowship, University of Basel. Research project: “Re-Inventing Ukraine: nation-building in the post-national era.”
September 2015 – June 2016 – Ukraine in European Dialogue Programme Fellowship, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna. Research project: “EuroMaidan as the trace of ‘equaliberty’: recapitulation of modern European values”.
October 2014 – February 2015 – Carnegie Research Fellowship Program, Stanford University, USA. Research project: “Ideology in contemporary Ukraine: social topography”.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
“Fighting Russia’s ‘Dark Power’: The ‘Bright Power’ of Enacted Values” in Hodun, M. & Cappelletti, F. (eds) Putin’s Europe. Russian Influence in European Democracy, European Liberal Forum, 2023, pp. 104-125.
“The decolonization of education and research in Belarus and Ukraine: theoretical challenges and practical tasks” in Canadian Slavonic Papers, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1080/00085006.2023.2274194
October 2023 – keynote speech “Russia’s War as an Epistemological Challenge: “Banal Imperialism” in the (Inter-)Disciplinary Knowledge Production” at the International conference “War and Peace in Ukraine: reflecting, Studying and Engaging Across Disciplines” (University of Bielefeld, Germany)
September 2023 – keynote speech “(Re-)Politicization of Culture in Times of War: Culture as Weapon / Shield / Stigma / Civic Space” at the 4EU+ Interdisciplinary workshop “Role of Culture in Times of War and Post-War Reconstruction. The Case of Ukraine” (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University)
Why is Ukraine important? Challenging the colonial and Cold War legacies in European social sciences. In: Soziologie. Jenseits des Postsowjetismus: Zur Rolle der Soziologie in der (Ost-)Europaforschung, Vol. 3, 2023: 309-319.
Russia vs Ukraine: A Subaltern Empire Against the “Populism of Hope”. In: Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Studia Territorialia, # 2, 2022: 39-60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23363231.2023.3
Who Owns The Ukrainian State? Tensions between the People and the Elites After 1991. In: Gawrich, A.; Haslinger, P.; Wingender, M. (eds.). Analyzing conflict settings. Case studies from Eastern Europe with a focus on Ukraine, Harrassowitz: 25-44. DOI: 10.13173/9783447117715.025
Korablyova, V. (ed.). Topos. # 2, 2022: Transformation of society and academia in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine: urgent notes. DOI: 10.24412/1815-0047-2022-2-7-11
January 2022 – public lecture “Performing Citizenship in Post-1991 Ukraine: between ‘street politics’ and ‘audience democracy’” (Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET), University of Vienna, Austria)
Contemporary Ukraine: Borderland – Bloodland – Neverland? In: Susan S. Pierce, E. Sojka (eds.) Cultural Change in East-Central European and Eurasian Spaces: Post-1989 Revisions and Re-Imaginings, Springer, 2021, 17-32. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-63197-0_2
Еurope as an Object of Desire: Ukraine between “Psychological Europe” and the “Soviet Mentality”. In: Topos, 2020, # 2, 79-99.
Ukraine After 1991 Between Citizenry and Spectatorship: From Mass Protests to Ocular Democracy, presentation at the International conference “Ukrainian Studies Today: State of the Art in Switzerland”, University of Basel, 29-31 January 2020.
EuroMaidan and the 1989 legacy: solidarity in action? In: The Long 1989: Decades of Global Revolution / Piotr H. Kosicki, Kyrill Kunakhovich, (eds), CEU Press, 2019, Ch. 9, 231-252.