Description:

Please join the Comparative Politics Workshop as they host Dr. Volodymyr Kulyk, head research fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Science of Ukraine. Prof. Kulyk’s virtual visit is supported by the Buffet Institute. 

The lecture will critically examine the widespread perception of Ukraine as a multiethnic country with clear boundaries between ethnic groups. It will demonstrate that despite the Soviet legacy of rather strong institutionalization and discursive presentation of nationality, the post-Soviet state discontinued or downplayed most of the institutional mechanisms of the reproduction of ethnic distinctiveness and virtually abandoned the use of ethnic categories in official discourse. While several smaller minorities retained some institutional backing and discursive presence, the once very large group of ethnic Russians ceased to be publicly presented and popularly perceived as clearly distinct from the bulk of Ukrainians.

Volodymyr Kulyk is a Head Research Fellow, Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Since 2013, he serves as Ukraine’s representative in the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. His research fields include the politics of language, memory and identity in contemporary Ukraine, media and discourse studies, on which he has widely published in Ukrainian and Western journals and collected volumes.