The Vice-rector of KSU presented research on life in the Kherson region during the war at an international seminar in Canada

Daria Malchykova, Vice-Rektor of Kherson State University, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, and Professor, represented KSU at the 20th Annual Danyliw Research Seminar on Contemporary Ukraine.

The event took place on September 24–26 at the University of Ottawa (Canada).

This prestigious international research platform has been bringing together scholars from Ukraine, Canada, the United States, and European countries for two decades to focus on the study of contemporary Ukraine. Out of all the applications, only 24 papers were selected, and merely 3 of them were authored by representatives of Ukrainian universities. Although the majority of the speakers were Ukrainian, most held affiliations with universities in other countries.

A key feature of the seminar is that it goes beyond mere presentations, offering in-depth professional discussions on each work. The Danyliw Research Seminar itself is an annual international research seminar held since 2005 by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa with the support of the Danyliw Foundation. This year marks its 20th anniversary.

Kherson State University was represented during the very first panel on the first day of the seminar, titled "Occupied Territories." Daria Malchykova presented her paper, "Living the Frontlines: How Prolonged War Shifts Everyday Life in Kherson Oblast."

"For us, this topic is the reality of the region where our people live and to which our university belongs. Therefore, it is especially important that our researchers continue to speak in these discussions about the role of the university in the life and future development of the Kherson region.

The program across the three days of the seminar is very broad. Researchers are discussing occupied territories and civilian life during the war, language and identity, Russian war crimes and assimilation policies, strategic aspects of the war, decentralization and resistance, technology and drones, historical memory and the Holodomor, European integration, and the political shifts caused by the war.

And amid this broad international dialogue are Kherson, the Kherson region, and Kherson State University.

I consider this to be extremely important. Today, Ukraine must be present in the global academic arena not merely as an object of study. Our researchers are actively shaping the knowledge about what is happening to the country, its regions, and its people, while systematically presenting their own research to the international academic community.

It is vital when the world talks about Ukraine. And it is especially important when the voice of the Kherson region is heard directly.

I am proud that KSU researchers are working at a level where the experience of the Kherson region is studied, conceptualized, and presented to the world. I am equally proud that in conversations about the future of our region, the voice of the university—which ties its future to Kherson—resonates clearly," noted KSU Rector Oleksandr Spivakovsky.

KSU Press Center