Day 2: Today a third featured panel is taking place: “How Do We Make Art in Times of Violence: Between Positionality and Solidarity”. The discussion turns around the question of how can art challenge imperial ways of seeing rather than reproduce them?

The first day of this year's conference welcomed participants with a powerful talk by Nobel Laureate Oleksandra Matviichiuk, followed by a meet and greet section where participants and organizers alike got the chance to finally gather in person and engage in meaningful conversation.

Day 1: Onto the second featured panel of the day! : "Beyond Troll Farms and Border Violence: Defying Disinformation and Dehumanization." Alongside its colonial aggression against Ukraine, Russia has been tightening its grip on Africa through a combination of military and hybrid tactics.

Day 1: We are very excited to be coming to you from our first featured panel! : “Rooted and Environmental Knowledges" The panel is bringing together scholars and practitioners working across the RUTA region(s).

Tomorrow, the Ruta conference "Rooted knowledges and dialogues for change" will begin with an opening talk by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk @avalaina.bsky.social on the seeking of justice for Russian crimes in Ukraine and beyond, moderated by RUTA founder @terezahendl.bsky.social.

Our RUTA panel on non-hierarchical, epistemically just, trans-regional approaches to knowledge-making in academia. The power of having this conversation in Ukraine with seriously inspiring thinkers—Botakoz Kassymbekova, Martin-Oleksandr Kisly, Gražina Bielousova, Maria Sonevytsky, and Sasha Dovzhyk

Help us build the RUTA playlist! We are putting together a playlist for a RUTA dance party that celebrates the music of our regions, and we'd love to hear your suggestions! Please share songs or artists through the Google form below! forms.gle/e22vnFvZSrbk...

Today, RUTA founders and members gathered at the First International Conference of Ukrainian Studies, «Ukraine in the world», hosted in Lviv. Bringing together over 250 scholars from 38 countries, this event marks a major step forward in reshaping global academic networks. Photo by Rory Finnin.

RUTA stands in solidarity with Albania's growing #FlamingoRevolution. We support those peacefully defending environmental justice, democratic accountability, and community rights. We encourage our members to sign the Open Letter: www.politico.eu/article/jare... ; docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Looking forward to moderating this featured RUTA panel, which brings together journalists and researchers who are also activists, all working and thinking toward a much better world. This panel has been long in the making and fosters discussions that many of us have been having—now more collectively

Just 3 days to go! Safe travels to everyone making their way to the 2026 RUTA Conference. We can't wait to reconnect, meet new members, and spend the coming days learning and building solidarities together. See you soon!

The Institute for Slavic and Eastern European Studies (ISOS), University of Zurich, is recruiting a two-year postdoctoral researcher in the humanities and cultural studies. Applications close 15 July 2026. Learn more and apply: www.isos.uzh.ch/de/institut/...

"Beyond Troll Farms and Border Violence: Defying Disinformation and Dehumanization": From atrocities in Africa to the instrumentalization of migrants at the EU’s eastern borders, Russian hybrid warfare and troll farms actively sow division, manipulate elections, and incite racial hatred globally.

As Europe faces a record-breaking heat, friend of RUTA Petra Gümplová argues that extreme heat is not a natural disaster but a form of climate violence driven by the fossil fuel system. A timely intervention on environmental justice and political responsibility. kapital-noviny.sk/extreme-heat...

In a new OCMediaorg article, RUTA member Tatev Hovhannisyan explores how anti-gender rhetoric, "foreign agent" laws, and Russian imperial influence are reshaping feminist activism in Sakartvelo. Amid growing repression, feminist networks continue to build solidarity. oc-media.org/a-soviet-sty...

A reminder that our next RUTA webinar is coming up on Friday We will discuss the struggles against gender rigid and authoritarian politics in Europe’s East, Central Asia and Latin America, and explore what these struggles share, where they diverge, and what solidarity across them might look like

Crucial reporting by Tatev Hovhannisyan on the repression of feminist activism by an illegitimate regime in Georgia “What keeps me going is knowing we still have each other”, she said. “Sometimes you don’t even need words. People understand each other’s pain.” oc-media.org/a-soviet-sty...

As authoritarian politics tighten their grip across continents, women's bodies and queer lives have become central battlegrounds — from anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Central Asia to reproductive rights rollbacks in Latin America to the entrenchment of rigid gender politics across Eastern Europe.

Please join our next webinar “Gender, Self-Determination and Authoritarianism: Conversations Across the RUTA Regions and Latin America”. July 3, 18:00 Kyiv time. Register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Join us for this timely conversation. The RUTA webinar on dialogues across Europe’s East, Central Asia, and Latin America is about to start

RUTA member Emine Ziyatdin reflects on 5-15-20, her multimedia installation exploring Crimean Tatar identity, memory, and cultural survival. disclaimer.org.au/contents/cri...

Join us tomorrow for our RUTA webinar “Rather than treating resistance as an export from the West's present crisis, we begin from the long memory of those who have been practicing it all along.”

New special issue: Second World Approaches to International Law (SWAIL) explores decoloniality, liminality, and legal knowledge production. brill.com/view/journal...

Erica Marat's latest article explores how Central Asians are challenging Russia-centered historical narratives. www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/05/26/c...

The recording of our first Europe's East and Latin America in Dialogue event is now available on YouTube. Watch the conversation and join the dialogue. www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6gC...

Please join us at our next webinar "We've Been Here: Resistance to Authoritarianism Beyond the West's Crisis". June 23, 18:00 Kyiv time. 🔗Register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

RUTA is devastated by the scale of latest Russian attacks, furthering the transgenerational destruction and appropriation of Ukrainian culture, heritage, identity, and self-determination. We support Ukrainians in their striving for de-occupation, safety, accountability and justice for Russian crimes

Amsterdam-based members: Join the launch of From the Margins: Migrant Academics’ Narratives of Precarity on 24 June. Edited by RUTA members Ladan Rahbari and Olga Burlyuk. aces.uva.nl/content/even...

Nineteen russian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and Shahed drones are raining down on Kyiv right now. This is horrific. The UNESCO-listed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra has been targeted. A thousand years of Ukrainian history, faith, and culture are once again under attempted destruction.

Very much looking forward to this RUTA featured panel that we’ve dreamt up with art curator Lia Dostlieva. For those who won’t have the chance to join us in the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine for discussions and community, the featured panels will be shared on our RUTA Association YouTube channel

The panel will look at current cultural production and art curation and explore pressing questions, such as: how do we avoid performative solidarities and geopolitical abstractions while remaining accountable to those living through war, displacement, authoritarianism, and ongoing colonial violence?

We're pleased to announce the second featured panel of our RUTA 2026 Conference, How Do We Make Art in Times of Violence: Between Positionality and Solidarity. Bringing together Nastya Kosodii, Michał Murawski, Maithu Bùi, and Furqat Palvan-Zade for a timely conversation, moderated by Lia Dostlieva

The patterns… “During the 2024 Southport riots, Robinson was among the most prominent figures circulating false claims about the attacker’s identity – claims pro-Kremlin Telegram channels amplified. This year, Robinson has amplified the Kremlin’s messaging directly.”

Opportunity for early-career international law scholars! ESIL's Early Career Network is seeking new Co-ordinating Committee members. Apply by 22 June. esil-sedi.eu/ecr-2026-cal...

CFP: The History of Romani Women’s Activisms in Eastern Europe, 1945–1990s. Workshop in Prague, 29–30 Oct 2026. Abstracts due 21 June. www.romanihistories.org/events/the-h...

Support RUTA member Halyna Herasym's fundraiser for ambulances in Ukraine. The campaign closes on 17 June and will help emergency responders save lives in frontline communities. www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/h...

The flamingo has become an unlikely mascot of intensifying protests in Albania against a proposed resort backed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, which would encroach on the birds’ breeding ground.

Lengthy, detailed reporting from The Insider re: Bosnian Serb secessionist Dodik’s sharp uptick in contacts with Russia - twice visiting Moscow in May - and the increasingly incomprehensible US decision to lift sanctions vs. him and his regime. theins.press/en/politics/...

If in Budapest and keen on critical debates on European and global knowledge hierarchies, join us at OSA for my talk on the persistent patterns of epistemic injustice, and the urgent need to recenter and reconnect dissent knowledges and scholarship from Europe’s East in debates about Europe’s East

An invitation to co-sign a statement by researchers of Eastern Europe @aseees.bsky.social @basees.bsky.social @associationruta.bsky.social @dgoberlin.bsky.social @isanet.bsky.social @apsa.bsky.social @kiu-network.bsky.social @ukrainianstudies.bsky.social @thebasuorg.bsky.social @udsn.bsky.social

RUTA founder @terezahendl.bsky.social will be based in Budapest until the end of June 2026 as a Visegrad Scholar at the Blinken OSA Archivum. Her OSA seminar presentation on Nothing About Us Without Us takes place on 10 June.

“The perception of RU in Kyrgyzstan has changed significantly since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Intellectuals in Bishkek no longer debate whether Russia’s occupation of the region was colonialism. Today’s decolonial discourse in CA focuses on exposing the atrocities committed under RU rule”

Why on earth are russian scholars reviewing Kyrgyz textbooks to begin with?! At a meeting in Moscow, no less. The decolonization road is long. Read @ericamarat.bsky.social ‘s timely oped.

This will be an insightful hybrid event with many incredible speakers, including Angéla Kóczé. The conference is organised as part of Khamoro, the world’s largest Romani cultural festival, that has been held annually in Prague since 1999

Friend of RUTA Čarna Brković reflects on gender, tradition & trans identity in the Balkans through the history of the ostajnica (“sworn virgin”). Read here: tinyurl.com/2hccme2d

Now on view at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw: a contemporary Ukrainian art exhibition on Crimea, memory & displacement. Featuring Emine Ziyatdin. Open through 28 June 2026. tinyurl.com/5ypsu77n

Devastating news from Ukraine as the full-scale Russian invasion continues

In London this May? Visit Kazakhstani artist Almagul Menlibayeva’s exhibition at Frieze No.9 Cork Street, curated by RUTA member Diana Kudaibergen. Exploring mythology, ecology & postcoloniality in Central Asia. Open through 30 May. tinyurl.com/3dh5ynub

We encourage RUTA members to join us in Prague, or online, for the international conference Culture, Identity, and Social Justice: Anti-Racist Perspectives in Romani Studies and Beyond (29–30 May 2026). tinyurl.com/2kpta3np

Very excited about our 1st featured panel at the 2026 RUTA conference in the Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine, especially as someone currently writing a book that puts Seye Abimbola’s critique of the foreign gaze in dialogue with resonant critiques written by Czechoslovak feminist theorists in the 90s