Ukrainian Literature and Culture: Virtual Residencies

Primary Investigator

Almut Suerbaum | Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages | Somerville College

Partner Organisations:

Lady Margaret Hall, New College, Somerville College, University College, Wadham College

The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages has hosted two Ukrainian writers for online residencies on Ukrainian literature and Culture in 2022 and 2023: Oleksandr Mykhed and Olena Stiazhkina. 

Their residencies have generated a number of events and publications, including online lectures and roundtables, and blogposts and articles. The events are coordinated and hosted by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, using the faculty's international network to reach online audiences across the globe, giving a voice to a Ukrainian writer and colleague and establishing dialogue.

Oleksandr Mykhed, the first holder of a virtual residency, is a writer and scholar with an international reputation. Andrey Kurkov, the president of PEN Ukraine, says "Oleksandr is one of the prominent Ukrainian writers of the younger generation." He is a member of PEN Ukraine, has contributed to the Financial Times and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He now serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Olena Stiazhkina is the second holder of a virtual residency. Olena has published eleven works of fiction in Ukrainian and Russian, and numerous articles a:nd books on modern Ukrainian history, as well as being a prolific commentator in Ukrainian and international media. She is currently leading research fellow at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, having previously been Professor of Slavic History in the University of Donetsk until the 2014 occupation of the city. English-language translations of her novel Cecil the Lion had to Die and her Ukraine, War, love: A Donetsk Diary are both forthcoming with Harvard this year; her collection of historical essays Zero Point Ukraine was published by Columbia University Press in 2021. Olena is also part of an ongoing research project on Ukrainian spatial history with Professor Polly Jones, which she recently wrote about in a blog for History Workshop, and the first article from the project is forthcoming in Europe Asia Studies.

The events will be coordinated and hosted by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, using the faculty's international network to reach online audiences across the globe, giving a voice to a Ukrainian writer and colleague and establishing dialogue.