The CBA was set up in 2022 by the Universities of Bonn and Cologne to offer refugee researchers from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus an academic network and currently counts 15 fellows among its numbers. The spring school will give them a platform to debate models of future society with other experts and embark on a comparative analysis of how academia can help shape post-war societies in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The program will be enhanced by two public lectures on these topics given by experts: Professor Gwendolyn Sasse, Director of the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) and Einstein Professor for the Comparative Study of Democracy and Authoritarianism at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Dr. Alexander Chertenko, Research Fellow in the Department of Slavic Studies at Justus Liebig University Giessen, will share their views on the issues.
“The Cologne/Bonn Academy in Exile is a vital forum for academic exchange in a time of global crises, especially the war in Europe,” says Professor Birgit Ulrike Münch, Vice Rector for International Affairs at the University of Bonn. “It allows refugee researchers to continue their work while also developing new perspectives on and solutions for current and future challenges. As a University of Excellence, we feel we have a responsibility to provide opportunities for research to be done in exile.”
The event is being supported financially by the Marga and Kurt Möllgaard Foundation, Universitätsgesellschaft Bonn and the Cologne University Foundation.
Public lectures:
Professor Gwendolyn Sasse, “Society during and after War: Between Unity and Diversity,” Monday, March 24, 2025, 4:30 pm to 6 pm, Library of the Academy for European Human Rights Protection, Kerpener Str. 30, 50937 Cologne
Dr. Alexander Chertenko, “Writing War, (Re)Inventing Identity: Ukrainian Literature and Culture after 2014,” Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 1:15 pm to 2:45 pm, Grand Hall of the University of Bonn, Regina-Pacis-Weg 3, 53113 Bonn
You are warmly invited to sign up by March 20, 2025 for the public lectures, which will be held in English. Please email cb-academy@uni-bonn.de or cb-academy@uni-koeln.de.
