Gate-crashing “European” and “Slavic” area studies: can Ukrainian studies transform the fields?

Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine has brought Ukraine to the centre of academic and public attention. The fact that Ukraine did not immediately collapse surprised the global community and forced many to ask an important question: what is Ukraine? Although Ukraine received media attention worldwide during the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity, for many in “the West,” Ukraine has remained an “unexpected nation” that seems to exist only during brief periods of international media coverage. The paper argues that thinking about Ukrainian studies not as a threat to the fields of “European” and “Slavic” studies, but as an analytical category, can open up a vantage point from which scholars can critically examine epistemological hierarchies of power and inequalities in the fields.