We were delighted to welcome Charlotte Surun, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy Kyivin Ukraine, to this year's #RUTA2026 Conference in a personal capacity.

We successfully concluded our third annual RUTA Conference. Over four days, we shared ideas about the power of knowledges embedded in our communities, experienced radically decolonial art installations, and strengthened a community committed to reclaiming knowledge-making on the RUTA region(s).

What a week it has been! Over four days, #RUTA2026 brought together more than 200 participants, including in-person and online attendees, artists, partners, volunteers, and members of the organzing team. Photo by Tetiana Kizenko.

Thought-provoking conversations have been developing around the meaning and importance of rooted knowledges and non-extractive methodologies, around questions of inter- and intra-regional systems of oppression, and around the possibilities offered by situating our regions in global solidarities.

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?

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.

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.

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!

"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.

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...

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...

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

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.

We are excited to share one of the panels that will be featured at our upcoming RUTA conference. Bringing together scholars and practitioners working across the RUTA region(s), the session explores tensions between global knowledge production, imperial epistemologies, and local practices of care.

RUTA is looking for members to join our Fundraising Committee. We are especially seeking people with experience in donor engagement to help support the sustainability of our conference and initiatives. Interested? Contact Mark Edele: mark.edele@ruta-association.org

Registration for non-presenting participants is now open for the RUTA Annual Conference 2026 — Rooted Knowledges and Dialogues for Change, taking place 12–15 July 2026 in the Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine. The registration deadline is 27 May 2026. Register here: ruta-association.org/rooted-knowl...

We invite you to join our next webinar “Europe's East and Latin America in dialogue: what we (mis)understand about each other?” with Ieva Giedraityté, @oonuch.bsky.social & @ferezmanuel14.bsky.social, in the RUTA-LatAm dialogue series May 8, 18.00 Kyiv Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

We invite you to our webinar “The Pitfalls of Campism: Global Perspectives” April 21 · 15:00 EEST (Kyiv). Voices from Iran, Syria, Venezuela & Ukraine unpack how global left “campism” misreads struggles, excuses authoritarianism, erases local agency. Join us: tinyurl.com/3kh57f4h

Powerful webinar by the Indigenous-Ukrainian Relationship Initiative with talk by Niigaan Sinclair (Peguis First Nation) titled "Ukrainian people are my people too: An Indigenous perspective on relationality, war, and reconciliation." Watch: tinyurl.com/354sj5bk Learn more: tinyurl.com/35mzn3x4

Upcoming seminar (Mar 26, 18:00 CET | 10:00 MT, online): “Multiethnic Encounters With Indigenous Knowledge on the Environment in Ukraine.” Featuring Martin-Oleksandr Kisly, Nara Narimanova, Svitlana Arabadzhy. Register: tinyurl.com/5cfe6dvm More info: tinyurl.com/4kjew44z

On March 18, @epp-annus.bsky.social, former RUTA Board Member and current lead of the RUTA environmental initiative, will deliver a lecture at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy titled “Russian Colonialism as Ecosocial Violence: Ideology, Environment and Embodied Lives” Registration: forms.gle/z5Up3EPCNih7...

We’re inviting journalists to attend and report on RUTA Conference 2026 (12–15 July, Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine). Theme: “Rooted knowledges and dialogues for change.” Applications open until 31 March: alexis.scott@ruta-association.org

RUTA at Cafe Kyiv: with the Ukrainian Institute, we will be holding a panel exploring the role and responsibility of researchers amid the escalation of Russian imperialism. Join us to discuss why engaging with the knowledges of Europe’s East, Central & North Asia is crucial for academia and research

Join us Feb 27 at 18:00 (Kyiv time) for a webinar on Romani histories and racial justice. With Madeline Potter (The Roma: A Traveling History) and Margareta Matache (The Permanence of Anti-Roma Racism), exploring new ways of understanding and challenging anti-Roma racism.

Wishing our communities strength in solidarity. While the times are challenging, our collective refusal of being silenced and sidelined in debates on our own region(s) and societies has been an immense source of empowerment and inspiration. We look forward to continuing our much-needed conversations

Our next webinar will be a conversation among remarkable thinkers Adrian Ivakhiv, Kateryna Botanova, Kateryna Filyuk, Lesia Kulchynska, Taras Polataiko, Maria Sonevytsky, Oleksiy Vasyliuk and Olya Zikrata about reviving multispecies relations with the land Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"We want transnational panels.. Another aim is to center voices, which were marginalized in academia. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, how many conferences featured experiences of Chechens, Crimean Tatars? Without their voices and perspectives, it is impossible to understand the region"

@kassymbekova.bsky.social talked to Norito Kunisue about founding RUTA: "Many panels were organized nationally.. Polish scholars rarely spoke with Kazakh scholars and Kazakh scholars with Georgians. Academia mirrored the broader imperial divisions. That’s when I realized - we need a new association"