Ukraine: Thinking Together

The Maidan and reactions to it, in Ukraine and abroad, raise classical and contemporary questions of politics and ethics. How can human rights be grounded and how are we motivated by the idea of human rights? How and when does language provide access to the universal, and how and when does it define political difference? Are some experiences so intense that they alter the character of intellectual exchange as such? How is decency in politics possible amidst international anarchy, domestic corruption, and the general fallibility of individuals? Does revolution renew Europe and revive political thought or can revolution, like everything else, be consumed by the clichés and abstractions of globalization? What does the revival of geopolitics mean for the world order? Is the Maidan an eruption of youth or an expression of history? Does its memory bring Ukrainians closer to European preoccupations, or introduce constellations that confound myths?

These were the topics of panel discussions and speeches. The discussions took place in Ukrainian, Russian, German, Polish, French and English.

The conference “Ukraine: Thinking together” was initiated by Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic and Timothy Snyder of Yale University / IWM.

The public programme as well as a list of organizers and partners are available below. More information, in Ukrainian, can be found on the website of the local organizer Krytyka.