CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT
IRELAND UKRAINE AND EMPIRE
Colonialism Dependence Conflict 1800-2017
(KYIV 14-17 NOVEMBER 2019 )
DESCRIPTION
Vladimir Putin’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine started a war at Europe’s eastern extreme, 15 years after a war at its western extreme, in Ireland, had ended. The Irish and Ukrainians were ruled by two of the world’s biggest empires. By 1922 both had only qualified success in their bids for independence. Neither the Ukrainian nor Irish Republics were recognized by the Treaty of Versailles..
After independence both peoples had to deal with the demographic, economic, social, cultural and psychological legacies of imperial rule. The Ukrainians, unlike the Irish, not only must deal with decolonization but also with de-communization. Although each country had a foreign minority that originated as settler-colonists rather than immigrants, and thus formed a dominant urban minority, both countries figure only marginally in scholarship on imperialism and colonialism, which assumes these phenomenon must involve race and long oceanic distances. Both countries have large diasporas that had significant impact on their respective countries of origin.
The Conference examines five issues:
The first is a tradition of anti-colonialism and interpretation of their pasts as a colonized country that existed alongside romantic-nationalist interpretations.
The second, the applicability of colonial/imperial paradigms to modern Ireland and Ukraine, countries whose peoples had a self-image as exceptionally oppressed .
The third, violence liberation and domination.
The fourth are mass famines for which there exists considerable evidence pointing to the culpability of the ruling imperial elites.
The fifth is the presence of extremist empire loyalists, the product of imperial settlement and industrialization, and their role in maintaining imperial rule.
PANEL PROPOSALS
The organizers will accept full panels devoted to the examined issues if they do not conflict with already accepted panels. Possible topics yet not covered might include:
-- Ukraine and Ireland 1919-1923
--Ukraine and Ireland at Versailles
--Imperial images of Irish and Ukrainians
--Language Identity and Politics
--Nationalism and Revisionism in historiography
- Michael Collins and Evhen Konovalets
-- role of émigrés/diasporas in Irish and Ukrainian history.
We expect first drafts of papers by OCT. 1. 2018. Presentations and final versions can be in Ukrainian or English. Address all enquiries about and panel submissions to, Stephen Velychenko and Volodymyr Kravchenko. The proceedings will be published as a book by CIUS Press (University of Alberta).
ORGANIZERS:
Stephen Velychenko (University of Toronto)
Ludmilla Hrynevych (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences)