Join Zoom Meeting (recurrent link)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83923102332?pwd=xcDHyEvFDG4PywlOjAQcgOW9wRasbC.1

Meeting ID: 839 2310 2332
Passcode: 279506

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Short abstract:

The international workshop War and Artistic Responses: Theories, Practices, Meanings engages critically with the multifaceted roles of artistic production in contexts of war, foregrounding its capacity to mediate, contest and reconfigure experiences of violence, displacement and historical rupture. Particularly pertinent in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the workshop convenes scholars and practitioners across disciplines to explore music, performance, dance, photography and literature as epistemic and affective frameworks through which war is documented, interpreted and resisted.

The program articulates a dialogue between historically grounded inquiry and contemporary case studies, addressing themes such as cultural resilience, performance ethnography and the archival function of artistic practices. Alongside theoretical contributions, a series of artistic events, including sound-based performances, a jazz chronicle of siege, theatre developed under occupation and readings of contemporary war poetry which extend the discussion into the experiential domain, highlighting the interplay between artistic form, lived experience and the ongoing negotiation of meaning in times of conflict.

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PROGRAM

Wednesday, 20 May 2026

09.45–10.00
Opening:
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Valentina SANDU-DEDIU (Rector of New Europe College)
Dr. Constantin ARDELEANU (Member of the ERC project TransCorr; Senior Researcher, Institute for South-East European Studies / New Europe College, Bucharest)
Dr. Katharina BIEGGER (Strategic Advisor, Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, University of St. Gallen)
Dr. Veronika ZINCHENKO (SUS Fellow; Senior Lecturer, R. Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music)

10.00–11.30
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult.  Valentina SANDU-DEDIU (Professor of Musicology, National University of Music Bucharest; Corresponding member of the Romanian Academy; Rector of New Europe College)
The Harsh Implementation of Socialist Realism in Romanian Music Institutions after World War II

Dr. habil. Yurii CHEKAN (Professor of Cultural Studies Department, Ukrainian Catholic University)
Music as Resistance. Activities of the Lviv Organ Hall after the Full-Scale Invasion

11.30–11.50
Coffee break

11.50–13.40
Dr. habil. Iryna TUKOVA (Associate Professor of Music Theory at the National Music Academy of Ukraine; NGO Liatoshynsky Foundation)
Music of the War: Ukrainian Resistance Case

Katrya HONCHARUK (Radio Kultura)
Radio Documentary Series ‘What Music Means to Me’: About Ukraine’s Contemporary Audio Landscape, Music Therapy for Soldiers, Music in Rituals of Remembrance, and New Works Born under the Sound of Sirens

Dr. Olha KOLOMYYETS (Associate Professor, Department of Musicology, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv; VUIAS Senior Fellow 2025-2026; Fulbright Scholar 2015-2016; Liaison Officer for Ukraine at the ICTMD) – ONLINE
“The Mighty Dnipro Roars and Bellows”. A Journey Throughout the Centuries of Ukrainians’ Resistance: On the Song Performance from the Recordings of Ukrainians by the Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission

13.40–14.30
Lunch break

14.30–16.00
Special event
Galyna DUB (Director; Musicologist; Arts Project Producer)
Volodymyr BALABA (Composer; Jazz Trumpeter; Lecturer at Chernihiv L. M. Revutskii Applied College of Music)
Album ‘Music Under Siege’ – а Jazz Diary of the Invasion of Chernihiv: Concept, Creation and Artistic Methods

16.00–16.30
Coffee break

16.30–18.30
Special event
Tetiana KHOROSHUN (Composer and sound artist)
Wartime Transmit/Receive: Performative Lecture – Showcase of Wartime Sound Works from Ukraine

Thursday, 21 May 2026

9.45–12.00
Dr. Daria VYSTAVKINA (University of Bonn, Department of East-European History, Philip Schwartz Fellowship)
Between Ethnographic Rigor and Theatrical Evocation: Performance Ethnography as Art-Based Research in Wartime

Dr. Viktor RUBAN (co-founder and representative of NGO Impulse Transformation Platform based in Kyiv; Lecturer at National University of Ukraine on Physical Education and Sport (Dance Department); Guest-professor at the Valeska Gert Program in Critical Dance Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and AdK Berlin in 2024–2025 (DAAD); Initiator of Tanzplan Ukraine)
Tanzplan Ukraine – Dance Development and Art Resilience Despite the War

Dr. Viktoria BAVYKINA (Research fellow at the Virtual Ukraine Institute for Advanced Studies (2026); Associate curator at Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool); Co-founder and researcher of Ukrainian. Photographies – an online platform supporting the Ukrainian photography sector) – ONLINE
War Photography in Ukraine: Evidence, Document, Archive

12.00–12.15
Coffee break

12.15–13.45
Special event
Dr. Mykola HOMANYUK (Professor at Kherson State University; Kherson Theatre Lab; Research Fellow, Center for Advanced Study, Sofia 2025-2026)
Theater under Occupation and about Occupation. Kherson Case & Kherson Theatre Lab. Performance Look to the Right, Look to the Left, Look to the Sky. Kherson Walking Tour

13.45–14.45
Lunch break

14.45–16.45
Special event
Dr. Oksana MAKSYMCHUK (Writer-In-Residence, Künstlerhaus Villa Waldberta)
Dr. Max ROSOCHINSKY (Research Fellow, Center for Advanced Study, Sofia 2025–2026)
Words for War: A Reading and Discussion of Contemporary Ukrainian War Poetry

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The event is organized as part of the Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship Fellowship Program run jointly by the New Europe College (Bucharest) and the Centre for Advanced Study (Sofia), and supported by the VolkswagenStiftung (Germany).