On Hold and in Motion: Retracing Circulations in Times of War and Beyond
As part of the non-residential programme for Ukrainian researchers (Programme d’accueil non résidentiel des chercheuses et chercheurs ukrainiens, MEAE/CNRS) set up in 2023, IRECA, the Marc Bloch Centre and CEFRES were able to support 12 scholarship holders from Ukraine this year (59 applications were submitted). The research of the winners is mainly in the fields of literature and languages, followed by political science, administration and international relations, history and the arts.
On 18 and 19 September 2025, a seminar was held at IRECA for the 12 selected fellows. Opened by the French Ambassador, HE Etienne de Poncins, and the Vice-Rector of the University of Warsaw, Professor Zygmunt Lalak, it also brought together the 2024 scholarship recipients, directors and researchers from IRECA, the Marc Bloch Centre and CEFRES, as well as the Max Weber Foundation Research Centre in Ukraine.
The first panel focused on analysing the trauma and symbolic reconfigurations generated by the war. The second session examined narratives, their circulation and reception in different national contexts; it also analysed the recomposition of identities, the evolution of their interactions, coexistence and compatibility through the prism of language policies and practices.
Taking a more forward-looking approach, the third panel traced the trajectories of reforms (in the fight against corruption and energy transition) and the impact of foreign investment in Ukraine, with a view to the country’s reconstruction.
Finally, the last session focused on the war as it is experienced, the educational trajectories and adaptations it entails for displaced schoolchildren, the experiences of social inequality it engenders, and finally the representations and perceptions of home and hearth.
In addition, a mobility programme in France was offered thanks to the support of the French Institute in Ukraine. Eight Ukrainian scholarship holders were able to spend three weeks in France: at Paris 1 University – Panthéon Sorbonne, the University of Grenoble Alpes, EHESS, the University of Strasbourg, Sciences-Po Paris, the University of Paris-Diderot and the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MUCEM) in Marseille.
