LECTURES BY AN INSTITUTE ASSOCIATE IN JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES

During November – December 2023, Mykola Ryabchuk, a leading researcher at the Department of Political Culture and Ideology, gave several lectures at leading Japanese universities with the support of the Hokkaido University visiting researcher program. On November 26, he gave a lecture at Gakuin University in Kobe, “The Poisonous Magic of “Imperial Knowledge”” and the Challenges of Decolonization, outlining the mechanisms of the spread of Russian imperial narratives in the world and emphasizing the ultimate need for their deconstruction.

The lecture on November 30 at Keio University (Tokyo campus) was a kind of summary of the scientist’s previous research, highlighted in particular in the article “”Rallying around the flag”: civic identity as a factor of socio-political consolidation in the conditions of war”, supplemented with new data and observations.

Mykola Ryabchuk during a lecture at Tokyo University

The speech on December 2 at Tokyo University was devoted to the situation of Ukrainian literature and culture during the war, their losses, gains and institutional changes.

Mykola Ryabchuk with teachers and graduate students of Gakuin University in Kobe

Each lecture-report was accompanied by a public discussion – questions and answers, which collectively revealed, on the one hand, the still weak awareness of Japanese students with Ukraine, on the other hand, the significant interest and deep empathy of young Japanese for Ukraine, which defends its independence.