After the successful 2022-23 academic year, Central European University is continuing the INVISIBLE UNIVERSITY FOR UKRAINE (IUFU) certificate program (offering ECTS credits) for junior and senior undergraduate (BA) and graduate (MA and PhD) students from Ukraine, whether residing in Ukraine or in refuge, whose studies have been affected by the war. The name of this transnational solidarity program evokes the various nineteenth and twentieth-century underground and exile educational initiatives (such as the “flying universities”) in Eastern Europe, as well as the tradition of Invisible Colleges formed after 1989 in the region. From September 2023, 360 students signed up to attend the seven thematic courses and the mentoring sessions.
The program offers an intensive learning experience on the role of Ukraine in changing European and global contexts, placing questions relevant for Ukrainian students into a transnational comparative perspective. The program is not meant to replace or duplicate the existing education opportunities in Ukrainian universities, but to support them by filling the lacunae that temporarily emerged due to the Russian invasion. By strengthening the ties of Ukrainian educational institutions, as well as scholars and students, to transnational networks, we hope to counter the destructive effects of brain drain through creating access to educational infrastructure and academic knowledge for students irrespective of their current location. The program is designed in a hybrid format (online teaching with a possibility of shorter on-site visit to Budapest in the form of a winter and summer schools).
The program is implemented by Central European University (Budapest site), in cooperation with Imre Kertész Kolleg, University of Jena, as well as other Ukrainian (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and Ukrainian Catholic University) and global university partners. CEU joined the Ukrainian Global University initiative; we also seek to expand partnerships with universities in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa and other Ukrainian university centers.
IUFU is supported by the Open Society University Network, with co-funding from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), as well as the Porticus Foundation, the Institute of International Education (US), and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
IUFU students also edit their own web journal: 
https://visibleukraine.org
The educational program is comprised of three components:
- online thematic lecture courses (in the humanities and social sciences),
- mentoring (in English and Ukrainian)
- skill-building (academic English, academic writing) and career support for future education.
The program is taught by prominent scholars linked to the Central European University (including members of its faculty, as well as researchers of CEU Democracy Institute and the Open Society Archives), Ukrainian and German partner institutions, and internationally renowned specialists of the topics from East Central Europe, Western Europe, and North America. The mentoring is offered by advanced doctoral candidates from these institutions.
The program categorically excludes any cooperation with scholars having current affiliation with any Russian state institutions or anyone supporting the Russian aggression. Some prominent Russian colleagues who protested against the Russian invasion in Ukraine, gave up their position, and emigrated, after being targeted by the authorities for their critical stance, will also contribute to co-teaching some of the classes. In addition, some current CEU PhD students of Russian background who publicly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine will take part in the small group seminars.
Eligibility: Any student who has been pursuing a BA, MA, or doctoral degree program in a Ukrainian university in the academic year 2021-22, or who starts her/his university studies in 2022. Participation in the program is free of charge.
See also:
Previous courses and initiatives
Personnel and Organizers
Director
Ostap Sereda, Associate Professor in History at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and recurrent guest professor at CEU.
Welcoming word from the director (Panopto video): https://bit.ly/3EWN4nL
Main Organizers
- László Kontler, CEU Professor, History, Acting Rector of Közép-európai Egyetem
- Vladimir Petrovic, Research Professor, Institute of Contemporary History, Belgrade, and CEU Democracy Institute
- Joachim von Puttkamer, Professor in History at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and Director of the Imre Kertész Kolleg
- Nazar Stetsyk, Associate Professor, Department of Theory and Philosophy of Law, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.
- Balazs Trencsényi, CEU, Professor, History Department, lead researcher of History WG, CEU Democracy Institute
- Renáta Uitz, Senior Research Fellow, CEU Democracy Institute
Coordinators
- Ágnes Kinga Páll, CEU DI, Project Manager
- Yevhen Yashchuk, main Student Coordinator
FALL SEMESTER, 2023
IUFU offers in the Fall Semester of 2023 7 online interdisciplinary courses in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences that can be taken by students with different backgrounds. Each course consists of 12 sessions (100 minutes); equal to 4 ECTS credits. Students are expected to take at least one course and not more than three. Besides thematic courses, several trans-disciplinary intensive online seminars lasting for one-two days will be offered to all students of the program. Courses will be taught online in late afternoons once a week per class. Classes will be recorded and available to watch online for registered students if their circumstances prevent them from attending the online sessions.
Research scholarships (up to 800 Euro per semester) are available on a competitive basis for those students who wish to implement a special empirical or theoretical project in addition to their course work in IUFU, drawing on their academic background, previous work, and relevant to the current situation and/or related to the themes of the courses. Students receiving research funding will be required to submit a research paper at the end of the semester. The best papers will be published on the site Visible Ukraine (visibleukraine.org).
Mentoring and Academic English classes are open for those who take at least one thematic course.
Timeline: The duration of the Fall semester classes is 25 September – 22 December 2023.
Course offering in Fall 2023:
i. Imagined Geography of Ukraine from the Late Eighteenth till the Late Twentieth Centuries: Regions, Cities, Landscapes, Population (Kateryna Dysa)
ii. 
The politics of warfare: key concepts of modern military history
iii. Identities-Borders-Orders: Migration and Belonging (Viktoriya Sereda and Oksana Mikheieva)
iv. Ukraine’s EU Integration: Compliance and Resilience in Times of War & Geopolitical Rivalries (Inna Melnykovska and Nazarii Stetsyk)
v. Sexuality and Decoloniality (Nadiya Chushak, Mariya Mayerchyk, and Olga Plakhotnik)
vi. Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Counter-Cultures in Ukraine and East Central Europe (Bohdan Shumylovych and Balazs Trencsenyi)
vii. Western Balkans: Imperial Legacies, Nation-Building, State Disintegration,
call_balkans-ukraine_course.docx
With questions about the program please turn to the IUFU student coordinators:
Nataliia Shuliakova, BA student, Yale University, ShuliakovaN@ceu.edu
Olha Stasiuk, PhD student, CEU, stasiuk_olha@phd.ceu.edu
Svitlana Dovhan, CEU alumna, dovhan_svitlana@alumni.ceu.edu
Yevhen Yashchuk, CEU alumnus, PhD student, Oxford University, Yashchuk_Yevhen@student.ceu.edu
GENERAL CONTACT: iufu@ceu.edu
The full text of the call: iufu_call_for_applications_2023_fall_fin.pdf
iufu_call_for_applications_2023_fall_fin.docx
Summer School in Budapest and Lviv
Cultural Representation, Decolonization, and Canon-Building: Ukraine Before and After 2022
(30 June -10 July 2023)
The summer school involved 45 selected participants from the cohort of IUFU-students. It complements the seven courses offered in the Spring semester of 2022/23. The summer was held in CEU's Budapest site, with a parallel session in Lviv, at the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe. It sought to reflect together on the war experience and to contribute to a successful postwar reconstruction of culture and society. We also sought to help maintaining the international attention to the Ukrainian cause.
The main focus was on how the unprecedented Ukrainian experiences of war are documented and reflected in the cultural sphere, and how they reshape our understanding of Ukraine’s place on the cultural map of Europe. We discussed such issues as the validity and heuristics of the post-imperial and (de)colonial interpretative framework for understanding cultural and political phenomena, the way to deal with multiethnic heritages, the ambiguities of national canon-building and the questions of inclusion/exclusion, modalities of cultural diplomacy, art and war, the economic structures of cultural production, and many others. The school sought to expose students to academic and critical perspectives on the ongoing discussion around the Ukrainian cultural heritage and art, and thus prepare young Ukrainian intellectuals for participation in international public discussions.
Along these lines, rather than just debating on these issues, students and faculty were invited to develop active and innovative strategies on how Ukrainian culture, identity, and institutional practices can be studied and valorized in view of these challenges, and how resilient civic and academic organizations can be created and maintained in the context of the war and the postwar reconstruction.
Students traveling from Ukraine met in Lviv and spent a day together, after which those who could cross the border traveled on to Budapest, while those who could not, continued the program in Lviv. Some of the activities were synchronic and both groups could participate, but there were also self-standing programs and visits on both sites.
Organizers: Ostap Sereda, Associate Professor in History at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and recurrent guest professor at CEU, director of IUFU; Bohdan Shumylovych, Center for Urban History, Lviv, director of the Lviv program; Anastasia Felcher, Archivist, OSA Archives, CEU, program coordinator; Balázs Trencsényi, CEU Professor, History Department, lead researcher of History WG, CEU Democracy Institute; Renáta Uitz, CEU Professor, Legal Studies, Co-Director of CEU Democracy Institute.
iufu_summer_school_program_budapest_lviv_final.pdf
Recent News
- Reportage on the 2023 Summer School (in English): https://youtu.be/fxmMfg4w_jc
- Unissued Diplomas Exhibition in Budapest, co-curated by IUFU students unissued_diplomas_exhibition_poster.pdf
- Reportage of the Hungarian TV channel ATV on the exhibition, interviewing Nataliia Shuliakova https://www.atv.hu/videok/20230716/heti-naplo-svaby-andrassal-2-resz-202... (July 2023)
- Balazs Trencsenyi on IUFU in conversation with Andrew Keen on "Keen On" https://lithub.com/the-return-of-the-dissident-academic-model-balazs-tre... (February 2023)
- Dóra Mérai and Loes Veldpaus, View of Heritage-Based Post-War Urban Reconstruction in Ukraine: Preparing Future Experts in Higher Education (karazin.ua)
- On IUFU: https://www.ceu.edu/article/2023-02-01/almost-year-war-invisible-univers... (January 2023)
- Euronews reportage on IUFU (in Hungarian): https://hu.euronews.com/2023/01/27/szolidaritasbol-lathatatlan-egyetemet... (January 2023)
- Invisible' university revives dissident academic model -- article in University World News: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221109144829140 (November, 2022)
Contact
You can reach Invisible University by email at: iufu@ceu.edu