MSU Associate Professor Receives Research Scholarship to Study Decolonization of Historical Memory

Ukraine is at the European focus. This applies to many areas, including academia: support for Ukrainian scholars, development of Ukrainian studies, and the introduction of Ukrainian topics in research at higher education institutions.

Representatives of Mariupol State University also feel this attention. This year, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and International Relations Serhiy Pakhomenko received a research scholarship to conduct academic work at the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki (Finland).

This is already the second round of financial support for the MSU scholar from Finnish colleagues. The first was in 2024. During his three-month fellowship, Serhiy Pakhomenko worked on the topic “Historical Narratives in Propaganda,” which resulted in the preparation of an electronic textbook. As he noted, “the institute provides all the necessary conditions for productive work.”

This year’s scholarship allows the researcher of the invincible university to delve into another relevant topic “Decolonization of Historical Memory in Ukraine: Between Anticolonialism and Ambivalence.” As part of the fellowship, Serhii Pakhomenko has already made his first visit to the University of Helsinki, where he worked within the Ukrainian History Studies research group, assuming a leading role.
 

Receiving the research scholarship in Helsinki for the second time, given the strong competition, is both a pleasant and responsible event. It enabled me to broaden my research and explore the complex and ambiguous policy of decolonization in Ukraine as part of memory politics. I also consider my involvement in expanding the presence of Ukrainian topics within the research agenda of the Aleksanteri Institute to be particularly important,

— says MSU Associate Professor Serhiy Pakhomenko.

While in Finland, the representative of Mariupol State University also took part in the conference “Extremism: Ambiguities, Ideologies, Influence.” He was able to present a report on the dilemmas of decolonization in Ukraine and establish academic networking with other researchers to further strengthen integration into the international scholarly community.