A new series of analytical papers examining the current state and key challenges of Belarusian scholarship in exile has been published following the completion of the project Belarusian Historical Scholarship in Exile: Current State and Challenges.
Online version: https://www.icelds.org/portfolio/new-analytical-paper-series-examines-belarusian-scholarship-in-exile/
Implemented with the financial support of the EU4Belarus: Support to Advanced Learning and Training (SALT II) programme, funded by the European Union, the project sought to strengthen professional dialogue and expert exchange within the Belarusian academic and intellectual community outside the country.
The publication series responds to the profound changes that have affected Belarusian academia since 2020. For many scholars, exile was not a planned or gradual process but the result of political pressure, repression and the destruction of institutional conditions for independent academic work in Belarus. As a consequence, a substantial part of the academic community has continued its work abroad, becoming integrated into different universities, research institutions and academic systems.
These developments have led to increasing fragmentation. Belarusian researchers today work in different institutional, linguistic and disciplinary environments, often within local or international research agendas that leave limited space for sustained reflection on Belarusian issues. Opportunities for regular professional exchange among Belarusian scholars abroad remain limited and frequently depend on informal networks.
At the same time, interest in Belarusian history and historical memory has grown. However, this interest does not always correspond to the logic of academic research and is not always accompanied by the resources necessary to support it. As a result, many researchers find themselves balancing different audiences and expectations without sufficient opportunities to reconcile them.
Against this background, the project aimed to create a space for professional reflection on the conditions under which Belarusian historical scholarship exists in exile today. Rather than proposing institutional solutions or seeking to formulate common positions, it focused on facilitating informed discussion and the exchange of experience among invited experts in a confidential setting.
The analytical paper series is the principal outcome of this work. Drawing on a series of expert seminars, the publications examine the institutional, linguistic and professional conditions in which Belarusian historical scholarship is developing outside the country. They also address the interaction between Belarusian and foreign historical narratives, the structural challenges facing scholars in exile, the opportunities and limitations of different institutional models, and possible approaches to strengthening the long-term resilience of Belarusian scholarship.
Rather than presenting a single perspective or claiming to represent the entire academic community, the papers document the current state of the field at a particular moment. They bring together the principal observations and reflections emerging from the expert discussions and are intended to contribute to continued professional dialogue on the future of Belarusian scholarship in exile.
The analytical paper series was edited by Dr. Hanna Vasilevich, who coordinated the editorial process and worked closely with the authors in developing and preparing the manuscripts for publication.
Here you can access papers prepared during the project:
Interstate dialogue on historical issues between Belarus and Germany: obstacles and failure factors (by Victor Shadurski)
From emergency to institution-building: Belarusian historical scholarship in exile after 2020 (by Nina Skepyan)
Institutional barriers to academic reintegration: the Irish context and Belarusian historical scholarship in exile (by Vadzim Holubeu)
Reactive by condition: why the exile model of Belarusian academia cannot sustain itself (by Hanna Vasilevich)
Competing interpretations of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in contemporary national narratives (by Viktar Yakubau)
Digital authoritarianism and historians in exile: the disappearance of Belarus’s digital archives? (by Aliaksei Bratachkin)
Francysk Skaryna across national narratives: Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Czechia (by Aliaksandr Parshankou)
Studying resistance across Eastern Europe: toward a new analytical paradigm (by Tatsiana Astrouskaya)
Producing Belarusian history after 2020: how exile reshapes historical knowledge (by Kiryl Kascian)
Policy paper: Belarusian historical scholarship in exile, its current state and challenges (by Hanna Vasilevich and Maxim Karaliou)
