International Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) 2026, Birmingham, United Kingdom

On 10–12 April 2026, the international conference BASEES 2026 was held at the University of Birmingham. The event was organized by the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) and conducted in a hybrid format at the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES) of the University of Birmingham.

I participated in the conference remotely and, during the panel “Decolonizing Ukrainian Identity during the Russia-Ukraine War” (Chair: Mariya Donska, Universität Graz; Gerda Henkel Stiftung; ifk Vienna), delivered a paper in English entitled: “Decolonization, Conflictogenicity, and Deconstruction: The Media-Cultural Text as a Manifestation of the Catharsis of Ukrainian Art in the Instagram Content of Cultural Media (2022–2025).”

The paper presents an analysis of the cathartic process of renewal in contemporary Ukrainian art under the conditions of full-scale war, as reflected in digital cultural texts published by Ukrainian cultural media on Instagram. The presentation focuses on three key interpretative categories – Ukrainian media decolonization, conflictogenicity, and deconstruction – which together make it possible to grasp the essence of the artistic transformations occurring between 2022 and 2025.

The analysis of visual materials, editorial commentaries, and networked narrative forms demonstrates how cultural media document the processes of purging art of Russian influences, dismantling imperial narratives, and transforming wartime experience into a catalyst for creative renewal. The paper argues that networked culture provides the most precise record of the dynamics of contemporary Ukrainian artistic catharsis.

During the discussion, participants highlighted the need to further clarify the nature of Ukrainian artistic catharsis and its distinctions from the classical Aristotelian concept. It was emphasized that contemporary Ukrainian catharsis – shaped by war, decolonization, and mediatization – redefines the traditional understanding of purification, endowing it with the dimensions of cultural regeneration and the reclamation of subjectivity.

Information about the event on the IS PAN website