Ambicoloniality and War: The Ukrainian-Russian Case

A book talk by Svitlana Biedarieva, art historian, artist, and curator

Moderated by Emily Channell-Justice, Director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at HURI and Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed, Preceptor in Ukrainian and head of the Ukrainian Language Program in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard

This is the first event in a new online series featuring publications that engage with decolonial frameworks in Ukrainian studies. The series is organized by the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at HURI and hosted by Emily Channell-Justice and Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed.

About the Book

This book proposes a new notion of “ambicoloniality” to speak about the current situation when Ukraine has become Russia's territory of obsession, and Russia, in its desire to occupy Ukraine, has in effect subjected itself to Ukraine’s symbolic dominance. 

Ambicoloniality presents a key point of divergence from already existing models. The mutual impact of the two countries over centuries has gone both ways, over a shared border—in contrast to many other empires that established their colonial power relations at a distance. The Ukrainian-Russian case is different from the examples covered by both postcolonial and decolonial theorists. To explore the reasons and consequences of such a differing process of colonial expansion, anti-colonial struggle, and decolonial release, the book inquires into the historical and cultural reasons for the emerging gap between the two states. It examines the role that cultural hybridity plays in political self-identification in both Ukraine and Russia, and how this hybridity has manifested in society and culture (including examples of art and literature) following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, until 2023.

About the Speaker

Dr Svitlana Biedarieva is an award-winning art historian, artist, and curator. She specializes in Ukrainian, Eastern European, and Latin American art, with a focus on decoloniality and resistance in contemporary art practices. She is the author of the book Ambicoloniality and War: The Ukrainian-Russian Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), the editor of the books Art in Ukraine between Identity Construction and Anti-Colonial Resistance (Routledge, 2024) and Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives, 1991-2021 (ibidem Press, 2021) and the co-editor of At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019 (Editorial 17, 2020). Svitlana is the General Editor of the forthcoming book series The Harvard History of Ukrainian Art. In 2022/23, Svitlana was selected as the George F. Kennan Fellow at the Kennan Institute, Wilson Center, and the Non-Resident Visiting Fellow at the George Washington University for her research, the CEC ArtsLink International Fellow for her curatorial work, and the Prince Claus Seed Award Laureate for her artistic work. She holds a PhD in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. Svitlana has published her texts in such academic journals and media outlets as October, Daedalus, ArtMargins Online, Space and Culture, post at MoMA, Revue Critique d’Art, Financial Times, Burlington Contemporary, Hyperallergic, and The Art Newspaper, among others. In 2025, she serves as President-Elect of the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA).

This event is organized by the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program (TCUP) at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute as part of the Decolonizing Ukrainian Studies online event series.

Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access should contact HURI Programs Manager, Megan K. Duncan Smith, at least two weeks in advance of the session.

Watch videos of past HURI events on our YouTube Channel and subscribe to our email list to receive announcements about events and other activities.