Motherhood in Exile: Ukrainian Female Refugees in Poland and Germany

Warsaw, 11.12.2024, 18:00, CEST, zoom

Motherhood in Exile: Ukrainian Female Refugees in Poland and Germany

„Testimonies from the War” Research Seminars Series

Of the nearly one million Ukrainian refugees currently residing in Poland, women represent 77% of the adult population, with half of them arriving with minor children. This demographic profile aligns with observations made in other European countries. This indicates that the current Ukrainian refugee experience is primarily that of a mother with her child. The objective of this seminar is to focus specifically on this group. The purpose of this seminar is to reflect on the main challenges Ukrainian women fleeing the war with children face, based on oral history interviews conducted since 2022 in Poland and Germany using the same methodology. We will also analyse how their situation has changed since 2022. What are their future plans and expectations? How do they envisage the future for themselves, their children and their country?

Angela Beliak is a guest researcher at the Department of Public History, Fernuniversität Hagen, and a student at the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), Department of Social Psychology. She is an experienced educational trainer and an expert in international understanding and intercultural dialogue. Since 2005, she has been involved in a number of projects on rethinking history and reconciliation between Germany and Ukraine. These projects focused on people’s personal experiences during the Second World War and their coping strategies. Following the full-scale invasion, she initially sought refuge in Romania and subsequently took up residence in Germany. Since October 2023, she has been a guest researcher at the Department of Public History at the Fernuniversity, conducting personal interviews with Ukrainian refugees in North Rhine-Westphalia and researching their coping strategies in Germany in close collaboration with the “Testimonies from the War” initiative.

Olha Krasko (PhD in History, 2018) is a historian and research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 2013 to 2023, she held the position of Research Fellow at the Kharkiv University History Museum at Karazin Kharkiv National University in Ukraine. During the 2022–2023 academic year, she was awarded a scholarship for researchers from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia by the German Historical Institute Warsaw. Since 2022, she has participated in several research projects focused on the Russian aggression in Ukraine, conducting over 150 in-depth interviews. Her research interests include oral history, public history, and memory studies. She currently holds a postdoctoral position in the Polish team of the U-CORE (“Testimonies from the War”) project.

Chair: Anna Wylegała, leader if the “Testimonies from the War” project in Poland.

The seminar will be conducted in English and Ukrainian.

Please register at: publicrelations@ifispan.edu.pl. You will receive the link to the zoom meeting upon registration.

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