SemesterFall Semester, 2025
DepartmentGraduate Institute of Russian Studies MA Program, First Year Graduate Institute of Russian Studies MA Program, Second Year
Course NameSpecial Topics on the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Instructor
Credit3.0
Course TypeElective
Prerequisite
Course Objective
Course Description
Course Schedule

 



















































































































 



Week



Topic



Content and Reading Assighment



Teaching Activities and Homework



 



 



1



Introduction




  • Reading: Serhii Plokhy. 2024. The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History. W. W. Norton & Company



Share the motivation of conducting the course and explain the anticipated assignment and task for the participants to realise the potential benefits of taking this course



 



2



War narratives Part 1



Vladimir Putin. 2021. On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians. https://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181



Review the varieties of key war narratives



3



War narratives II



Julia Davis. 2024. In Their Own Words: How Russian Propagandists Reveal Putin’s Intentions. ibidem Press.



Discussion



4



Russian Nationalism I



Marlene Laruelle. 2019. Russian Nationalism: Imaginaries, Doctrines & Political Battlefields. Routledge.



Review the official line of Russian nationalism and the role of its propaganda



5



Russian Nationalism II



VICIOM



https://wciom.com/about



Study the foundation and impacts of Russian nationalism on the society and the public opinions



6



Ukrainian nationalism I



Hryb. 2020. Understanding Contemporary Ukrainian and Russian Nationalism. ibidem Press



Study the narratives, statements and practice of Ukrainian nationalism



7



Ukrainian nationalism II



Andreas Umland. 2017. The Ukrainian government’s Memory Institute against the West. New Eastern Europe. 2017/March/07.



Ukrainian extreme nationalist channels on social media



   Demonstrate Ukrainian nationalist channels on Telegram then to review the influence of Ukrainian nationalism on regional conflicts



8



Film on Donbass



Donbass (Anne-Laure Bonnel, 2016) /



Donbas (Sergei Loznitsa, 2018)



Demonstrate how to conduct a survey then student to give their ideas and practice



9



Midterm Presentation



Oral presentation



Students to give a 20-min oral presentation on selected topics



10



The challenging task to current studies



O’Loughlin, J., Sasse, G and Toal, G. 2024. What Political Status Did the Donbas Want? Survey Evidence on the Eve of Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Geopolitics, 1-26.



Nationalism, Patriotism, the origin and and state narratives then Russians attitude toward propaganda



11



The theories of Geopolitics



John Mearsheimer. 2022. The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine War.



Jade McGlynn. 2023. Russia’s War. Polity



Firstly to introduce some theoretical works which give another view of the current conflict; secondly require the students to provide their feedbacks



12



Guest Speech



TBD



Learn to define and understand the success and failure of and its latest impact



13



Leadership, regime and war



Mikhail Zygar. 2023. War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine. Scribner.



Understanding the roles of governance and the leadership on forging the war



14



The construction and consumption of war: images




  • Volodymyr Kulyk. 2019. Memory and Language: Different Dynamics in the Two Aspects of Identity Politics in Post-Euromaidan Ukraine. Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity. Cambridge University Press.

  • Volodymyr Kulyk. 2023. What Have We Learned about Ethnonational Identities in Ukraine. Nationalities Papers.

  • David Marples. 2015. Ethnic and Social Composition of Ukraine’s Regions and Voting Patterns in Ukraine. E-International Relations. https://www.e-ir.info/pdf/54608

  • Halyna Mokrushyna. 2014. The challenge of reconciling Donbas and the Euromaidan movement in Ukraine[Conference presentation]. ‘‘United Ukraine? The Euromaidan revolution and the Donbas rebellion in domestic and international perspectives’’. December 4, University of Ottawa, Canada. https://bit.ly/3yaa8QR



Explain why the readings selected then to assign group reading task. Continue the group reading presentation for the following week



15



The construction and consumption of war: languages



As described above



/



Submit the term paper before the indicated deadline



16



War and Media



              Group task



To discover and discuss the patterns of misinformation, disinformation and misrepresentation



 




 


Teaching Methods
Teaching Assistant

NA


Requirement/Grading

Participation activeness: 30%



Mid-term presentation (oral): 30%



Final presentation (oral briefing 5 min) and essay submission (4500~9000 words) 40%


Textbook & Reference

No assigned textbook. Course students receive a full list of suggested reading materials. 


Urls about Course
Attachment

Course plan 2.pdf