How the Resource is Structured

The Two Modules and Their Units

The educational resource is organized into two main modules: the first of these takes a contemporary perspective; the second a historical approach.

Within each of the two modules, there are four units, as follows:

Module 1: Contemporary perspectives

Unit 1: The Ethical and Methodological Challenges of Research in Times of War and Displacement, by Viktoriya Sereda and Oksana Mikheieva; Student Assistant: Varvara Konstantynova

Unit 2: The Visual Politics of Migration: Constructing the Representation of Refugeehood and Displacement, Alina Mozolevska; Student Assistant: Olya Vaskovets

Unit 3: Possibilities, Limitations and Politicization of Migration Data, by Lidia Kuzemska; Student Assistant: Eduard Lopushniak

Unit 4: Volunteering in Time of War: A Hybrid Response to the Situation of War and Forced Displacement, Oksana Mikheieva; Student Assistant: Diana Makedon

Module 2: Historical approaches

Unit 5: Between Exile and Migration: Defining Refugees in Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century East Central Europe, by Oleksii Chebotarov

Unit 6: Belonging and Excluding: Tourist Practices in the Nationalizing State, by Vladyslava Moskalets

Unit 7: Non-State Migration Governance: NGOs in the Migration Processes in Late Imperial Eastern Europe, by Oleksii Chebotarov

Unit 8: The Return Migration of the Crimean Tatars from Soviet Exile to Their Homeland, Martin-Oleksandr Kisly

The Three Thematic Clusters

The two modules of the resource explore the migratory experiences of diverse ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups. This comprises population movements that take place in multiple directions and take a wide range of forms, from voluntary migration, such as tourism, to forced deportations of entire communities, displacement due to war (both internal and cross-border), and even situations where movement is restricted or entirely prevented.

Within the two modules of the resource there are three thematic clusters, each reflecting distinct but interconnected perspectives on migration, displacement, and mobility in Ukrainian and East Central European contexts.

Together, the clusters provide a conceptual map of how migration is experienced, and remembered, represented and governed across time and regimes. And what are the main ethical and methodological challenges embedded in the knowledge production on migration and its estimated numbers.

Knowledge Production, Categorization and Counting in Migration Research

This cluster fosters a strong dialogue between units from both the historical and contemporary modules, offering critical reflections on how migration-related categories are produced, counted, and politicized. It historicizes the concept of the refugee and examines how categories of displacement are shaped through social, legal, and institutional processes. The cluster is organized around key thematic areas:

• ‘labeling’ – including language sensitivity and difficulties of categorisation;
• ‘counting’ – sources and lacunas of migration data and politicisation of numbers;
• ‘knowledge-production’ – the ethical and methodological challenges researchers encounter when studying war-affected societies.

Unit 1: The Ethical and Methodological Challenges of Research in Times of War and Displacement, by Viktoriya Sereda and Oksana Mikheieva, examines the dilemmas of conducting research with displaced populations under conditions of war, highlighting challenges in methodology, categorization, and the researcher’s positionality.

Unit 3: Possibilities, Limitations and Politicization of Migration Data, by Lidia Kuzemska, investigates how migration statistics are created and utilized, revealing that the data is often incomplete, politicized, and embedded in power relations.

Unit 5: Between Exile and Migration: Defining Refugees in Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century East Central Europe, by Oleksii Chebotarov, focuses on the Jewish refugee crisis in Galicia (1881–1882), illustrating how refugeehood was negotiated in imperial contexts prior to the development of an international legal framework. The author also highlights the entanglement and intersectionality between refugeehood and migration processes.

Contested Belonging: Mobility, Nationhood, and Representation

This cluster examines the interplay between movement and return, as well as visual representations of the migration, as well as their impact on national identity, territoriality, and symbolic geographies. It highlights how state and community actors construct belonging through spatial and visual practices.

In Unit 2, The Visual Politics of Migration: Constructing the Representation of Refugeehood and Displacement, Alina Mozolevska analyzes how forced migration is represented through visual media and how images shape public understandings of refugeehood, introducing concepts such as grievability and self-representation.

Unit 6: Belonging and Excluding: Tourist Practices in the Nationalizing State, by Vladyslava Moskalets, examines how interwar tourism in Poland played a significant role in nationalizing contested territories and how minority actors developed alternative travel narratives.

In Unit 8: The Return Migration of the Crimean Tatars from Soviet Exile to Their Homeland, Martin-Oleksandr Kisly analyzes the long-term return of the Crimean Tatars, focusing on exile ideology, memory, and the remaking of home after forced displacement.

Civic Responses and Humanitarianism

Focusing on bottom-up responses to migration and displacement, this cluster highlights civil society initiatives and informal volunteering networks—both contemporary and historical—that step in when state structures are weakened or excluded.

In Unit 4: Volunteering in Time of War: A Hybrid Response to the Situation of War and Forced Displacement, Oksana Mikheieva examines how wartime volunteering has become a hybrid civic practice, blurring boundaries between state, civil society, and business while fostering resilience and solidarity.

Unit 7: Non-State Migration Governance: NGOs in the Migration Processes in Late Imperial Eastern Europe, by Oleksii Chebotarov, analyzes the historical development of NGOs’ involvement in migration governance. It showcases the Kyiv Jewish Emigration Society’s role in organizing migration from the Russian Empire, providing a historical perspective on non-state migration infrastructures.