Since 2014, and especially since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has moved to the centre of public and political attention. During the last twelve years, experts on Ukraine and Eastern Europe have been increasingly called upon by the media, schools and the wider public to explain complex developments and respond to current events. This has also raised questions about the boundaries between academic expertise, public engagement, and advocacy.

The panel asks how public debates about Ukraine have changed over the past decade, what misconceptions persist, and what happens when academic knowledge enters media and public discourse. What can academic research contribute beyond the daily news cycle – and what should we be talking about when we talk about Ukraine beyond the war?

Chair: F. Benjamin Schenk (Head of Ukrainian Research in Switzerland (URIS))

Discussants: Tetiana Kyselova (Legal scholar), Gwendolyn Sasse (Director of the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS)), Maryna Shevtsova (Political scientist), and Claude Wild (Swiss amabassador to Ukraine 2019-2023)

More information can be found on the flyer below.

This public panel discussion is part of the 10th anniversary conference of URIS (Ukrainian Research in Switzerland).