Project duration: April 2025 – December 2026

Project Overview:

Three Ukrainian educational and scientific institutions with financial support of the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe (GCE-HSG) University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) will have the opportunity to study for a year and a half the dynamics of linguistic consciousness and linguistic behavior of the population in the regions under study about their ethnic origin and primary language(s) of communication; transformation of language consciousness and language behavior of IDPs and their linguistic and cultural adaptation in the new region; the processes of changing the linguistic situation in the regions against the background of a full-scale war.

Relevance and Context:

The relevance of the project is due, first of all, to the unprecedented historical context: the full-scale war on the territory of Ukraine and the mass migration it caused have created a unique sociolinguistic situation not only in Ukraine but also in the world, particularly in Europe. Millions of Ukrainians have found themselves in new language environments, both within the country due to internal displacement and abroad. This provides a unique opportunity to study how extreme circumstances affect the population's language consciousness and behavior.

The project objectives:

1) development of methods for studying the language consciousness of citizens in the context of forced migration; creation of tools for monitoring language changes; adaptation of existing methods to the specifics of each region; 

2) conducting sociolinguistic research in the regions; 

3) dissemination of the research results in the public space.

Project contribution:

• Creating a database documenting the linguistic situation in the region(s) and visual aids – tables, graphs, charts, maps, to illustrate data and results.
• Preparation of a collection of scientific papers based on the conference materials and their publication on the websites of the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, UzhNU, and IDGU.
• Publication of research papers in respected Ukrainian and international journals. 
• Introduction of new courses in the curricula of educational institutions.
• Development of regional expertise in language policy.
• Archiving materials related to the linguistic situation during wartime.

Project manager – Prof. Dr. Halyna Shumytska

The amount of the grant: €12,000.00

Project team:

Three Ukrainian educational and scientific institutions are participating in the project. From the Institute of Ukrainian language, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Prof. Svitlana Sokolova, Dr. Oksana Danylevska, Assoc. Prof. Iryna Braha are participating in the project; from Ismail State University of Humanities – Prof. Andriі Kolesnikov, Prof. Maryna Delyusto. Uzhhorod National University is represented by Prof. Dr. Halyna Shumytska, who is also the main coordinator of the project, and Assoc. Prof. Nadiia Kichera.

Partners:

Institute of Ukrainian language, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine(https://nas.gov.ua/en/institutions/institut-ukrayinskoyi-movi-nan-ukrayini-152) 

Ismail State University of Humanities (http://en.idgu.edu.ua/)