Category: News and Events

Have a bunch of inspiring quotes about space: 

• The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space (Carl Sagan)
• Not just beautiful, though – the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me (Haruki Murakami)
• Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities (Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki)
• Of course there are worlds. Millions of them! Every star you see has worlds, and most of those you don’t see (Isaac Asimov) 
• Discover the force of the skies O Men: once recognised it can be put to use (Johannes Kepler) 

EUVOLIA pilot group has successfully accomplished yet another stage of academic process – Module 3 devoted to axiological constructs of the Enlightenment and Romantic Age.  

Led by Oleksandra Nikolova, the students spent several weeks investigating the values systems of European society of the XVII – early XIX centuries reflected in the works by Pierre Corneille, Johann Goethe and Victor Hugo. They focused specifically on such important notions as civic consciousness, social activity, rationalism, nomocracy, gender equality and tolerance. The means of securing gender equality and social protection of people with special needs had caused a heated discussion. Lots of interactive activities were on the way: an open court hearing upon Corneille’s Horatio case, a visualization of Victor Hugo’s Gwynplaine’s alternative destiny in the modern Ukraine and the Devil’s Advocate debates upon Goethe’s Faust: what would he become in the XXI century? Were his quests for the Truth and Social Good worth lives lost?   

The direct connections established between the Enlightenment and the modern thinking paradigms helped young philologist and historians rediscover the well-known texts from the strikingly new perspective. The students tried to assess the Ukrainian values system from the European point of view, proposed various ways toward our integration into European community, shared their own experience of facing lack of tolerance and gender equality. Everyone felt involved!  

April 8, EUVOLIA team member Olena Tupakhina  presented Zaporizhzhya National University’s EU project implementation experience on a regional conference “Eurointegration: Power of Opportunities”. Dr. Tupakhina specifically highlighted the importance of EUVOLIA project for  the young Ukrainian citizens’ European identity construction, which is the key to successful pro-European development of our country.  We’re also pleased to inform that EUVOLIA achievements have been marked by the Vice-Prime minister in European and Euroatlantic integration issues, Ms. Ivanna Klimpush-Tsintsadze , during her visit to ZNU.  

The conference held by the Office of Vice Prime Minister in European and Euroatlantic Integration Issues alongside with the Reform Support Foundation and  Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) within the frames of EU Association4U initative has provided the academic community with an opportunity to establish a fruitful dialogue with the regional business and civic society entities upon the joint pro-European activities strategy. As for the EUVOLIA team, we established partner contacts with Civic Synergy project financed by the EU and implemented by IRF. We’re looking forward to seeing our new partners at EUVOLIA activities and events!  

Detailed info available at the Government Portal and Vice-Prime Minister’s Facebook. 

Olena Tupakhina’s presentation stream is available here.

Jean Monnet Project ENACTED invited all the students to take part in an essay contest on EU perspectives “Visualizing future: common values, common dreams”. 

Essay submission deadline is April 25, 2019. 

Info leaflet is available here.

Essay template is available here.

Good luck to EUVOLIA students and the rest of the participants!

Indeed, to school – or, to be precise, to annual Philology School held by Zaporizhzhya National University. 

Wednesday, March 27, Dr. Oleksandra Nikolova presented new teaching methods developed for and implemented through the EUVOLIA project to the secondary school teachers from Zaporizhzhya and Zaporizhzhya region. The audience got really fascinated by the EUVOLIA course’s innovative concept. The experts initiated a thorough discussion of the text selection procedures, interactive elements applied, feedback collection tools, student-teacher dialogue etc.  Later on, the focus of interest switched to raising the New Ukrainian School students’ awareness of European values by strengthening interdisciplinary ties.     

Our colleagues also got interested in the group projects as a final assessment method and eagerly enrolled for the further EUVOLIA events and activities scheduled for the next academic year – round tables, teaching workshops etc.  Dr. Nikolova heartily invited all the attendants to take part in the student projects’ evaluation process as soon as the projects would be published at EUVOLIA website. We’re also looking forward to welcoming our colleagues at EUVOLIA Round Table devoted to axiological transformation in Ukrainian society to be held in October 2019.  

Done with the second stage of EUVOLIA study course! For a number of weeks, our students led by Kateryna Vasylyna were discovering the Renaissance values system. The magic of fiction had let them look at the world just the way the Renaissance people did, mixing  science with ignorance. 

Two teams of time-travellers journeyed through several utopian states (Utopia, Civitas Solis, New Atlantic) to study the local concepts of general good and personal happiness and to assess the utopian social constructs’ adaptability to our own age. It turned out to be really hard to imagine happy life in a world without private property designed by Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella or Francis Bacon. Looks like Renaissance Utopia, along with other presumably ideal societies, is a bad choice for those seeking happiness in a modern sense of the word!  

Another unit of the module was devoted to the ideal ruler’s image in William Shakespeare’s drama. Based on Niccolo Machiavelli’s renowned concept, students considered several candidates – Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth – for the best sovereign award (spoiler: they all failed). No reasonable excuse for Macbeth’s tyranny had been accepted, while Hamlet’s initial consistency and morality goes well with Ling Lear’s charisma and political experience. 

Along the way, the students marked their reflections, discoveries and the brightest moments of their time-space journey on a self-designed map.    

Tuesday, March 19, EUVOLIA team member Olena Tupakhina presented the results of the first stage of EUVOLIA research project at APREI conference hosted by Lviv National Ivan Franko University. 

The research is aimed at mapping Ukrainian youth’ values set with the help of social surveys and feedback gained from the students. The results of the first stage can be downloaded here.

The Jean Monnet project managers round table moderated by APREI leader Iryna Sikorska provided plenty of opportunities for discussing project management challenges and productive networking. We’re looking forward to fruitful cooperation with the newly found partners! 

Thursday, March 14, a group of EUVOLIA students from the Faculty of Foreign Philology enjoyed a 4-hours workshop in translation given by one of the most prominent intellectuals of modern Ukraine, Dr. Vakhtang Kebuladze (Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University, Ukraine). In his introductory speech, Dr. Kebuladze pondered upon the political aspects of translation policies and practices, highlighting that  through the ages, like the infamous Valuevsky circular of 1863, translation has been considered a weapon of ideological war against Ukrainian identity. In times of modern hybrid wars, the matter of translator’s moral responsibility has gained even more importance. 

Click here for details.

Top 5 facts you might not know about women:

1. In almost every country, women work longer hours than men and get paid less;
2. The 2 highest EQs ever recorded on a standard test both belong to women;
3. Women produce HALF the world’s food but own only one percent of its farmland;
4. The world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, was written by a Japanese woman, Murasaki Shikibu, around AD 1000;
5. There are currently 17 countries with women as head of government, head of state, or both, which, according to the UN, has more than doubled since 2005.

Hey, look what we’ve got – a brand new exclusive authentic Jean Monnet Module plate right from Brussels! So proud to place it at the entrance to our EUVOLIA classroom! Thank you EACEA, now we’re feeling more inspired than ever 🙂  

Come to see our new JM plate to room 326, building 2. And make sure to sign up for EUVOLIA course next semester, we have cookies!