Übung: Gender, Wars, and Violence in 20th and 21st Century Ukraine

The course focuses on the intersections between gender and wars, genocides, violence, militarism, and its aftermath on the territory of contemporary Ukraine in the XX-XXI century in a broad comparative historical perspective. The emphasis is placed on understanding gender(ed) norms and expectations in relation to diverse experiences and roles, differential patterns of agency and victimhood, wartime sexual/ized violence, and consequences for men and women of conflict resolution. The course also builds familiarity with representations of gender, war, and violence in the media, history, literature, and the arts. The ultimate goal of this course is to demonstrate how the discourses and enactment of war, genocide, and violence are influenced by societal constructions of gender throughout history to the present. For that purpose, the course is organized both chronologically and thematically. It will concentrate on the gendered dimensions of the First World War; the Holodomor, the Second World War, the Holocaust, Stalin's terror, the anti-Soviet armed resistance, and ongoing Russia's war on Ukraine. It will explore the role of gender in militarization processes, recruitment into armed groups, military culture, experiences of service, and popular cultural representations of militaries. These questions will be analyzed using select case studies: regular armies (Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, Red Army, Ukrainian Armed Forces) and guerilla armies (Soviet partisans, Ukrainian Insurgent Army).