BASS Philosophy and Data Analytics / Course details

Ukraine Rises: Democracy, Protest, Identity and War in Comparative Perspective,” is a new course covering contemporary Ukrainian Politics taught by Dr. Onuch, an internationally leading authority on the subject. “Ukraine Rises” is the first UK-based Ukraine focused course based in a Political Science department, it is only the second main curriculum course dedicated to contemporary Ukraine taught in the UK, and the first taught by a Ukrainian scholar. Students will come to know the trajectory of contemporary politics in Ukraine from in-dependence in 1991 to the contemporary period. By taking this course students will learn about history as it unfolds and will come to understand one of the most significant political, social, and economic contexts in global politics today. In a highly innovative manner “Ukraine Rises” will introduce students to the study of Ukraine from a comparative perspective by offering an overview of a range of themes democratization. “Ukraine Rises” will specifically provide students with the opportunity to assess critically how Ukraine democratized and developed its civic national identity. The course will enable students’ future research ambitions with lessons from the Ukrainian case for comparative studies of transition, democratization, political engagement, identity, and war. Uniquely, the course will include guest lectures from Ukrainian and UK-based policy practitioners/ scholars, it will be seminar and discussion lead, and will include highly interactive assignments employing fresh data (qualitative and quantitative) collected with the help of Ukrainian partners and the DataForUkraine.com Project. Thus, “Ukraine Rises” allows students to hone in on transferable data analysis and policy writing skills that will increase their future employability.

• To introduce students to the case study of Ukraine in comparative perspective.
• To offer a critical overview of a range of themes in comparative politics of democratization to understand the politics of Ukraine.
• To offer students the opportunity to assess critically how Ukraine democratized, and developed its civic national identity after independence in 1991.
• To enable students with lessons from the Ukrainian case for comparative studies of transition, democratization, political engagement, identity, and war.

The course will be taught on the basis of ten two-hour lectures and ten one-hour seminars which will be highly interactive. Students will be expected to read key texts in advance of seminars to enable direct engagement with the texts and broader informed discussion. The seminars will comprise a mix of question-and-answer sessions and small group work. The second half of the seminars will include a debate/discussion lead by the students in a flipped class format.

1. Students will come to know the trajectory of contemporary politics in Ukraine from independence in 1991 to the contemporary period.
2. Students will have developed a data driven understanding of different empirical themes related to: Post-independence and contemporary Ukrainian politics, as well as Russia’s War on Ukraine.
3. Students will be able to compare Ukraine’s contemporary politics to other third wave democracies in Eastern Europe and Latin America.
4. Students will develop an understanding of theories of democratization, political engagement, ethnic and civic identity, and euro-integration.

• Synthesis of information, evaluation of competing explanations, applying theory to policy, formulation of one’s own reasoned argument
• Research on primary and secondary literature
• Research employing primary survey and social media data
• Conceptual basis of content and discourse analysis

• Research skills
• Capacity to carry out independent and group work
• Capacity to produce written work and to give effective oral presentations
• Basic quantitative analysis of survey data using stata or R
• Basic qualitative content and discourse analysis using Nvivo
• Policy brief writing skills

• Read primary and secondary sources on a regular basis
• Capacity to analyze critically in writing
• Capacity to respect deadlines
• Capacity to present work
• Capacity to write for policy audiences
• Basic use of Stata/R
• Basic use of Nvivo

Policy Brief (70%): 2500 words

Presentation (25%) 1000 words

Seminar Engagement (5%) 500 words (based on an actual paper trail and does not rely on only verbal engagement - each student receives an envelope at the start of term and places the relevant activity sheets, sticky notes with key terms from readings, and other class participation parafernalia each week into the envelope)

Arel, Dominique. 1993. “Language and the Politics of Ethnicity: The Case of Ukraine.” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/23297 (January 11, 2015).

———. 1995. “Language Politics in Independent Ukraine: Towards One or Two State Languages?” Nationalities papers 23(3): 597–622.

———. 2002. “Interpreting" Nationality" and" Language" in the 2001 Ukrainian Census.” Post-Soviet Affairs 18(3): 213–49.

Arel, Dominique, and Valeri Khmelko. 1996. “The Russian Factor and Territorial Polarization in Ukraine.” The Harriman Review 9(1–2): 81–91.

Baker, William D., and John R. Oneal. 2001. “Patriotism or Opinion Leadership? The Nature and Origins of the ‘Rally’round the Flag’ Effect.” Journal of conflict resolution 45(5): 661–87.

Barrington, Lowell. 2001. “Russian-Speakers in Ukraine and Kazakhstan:‘Nationality,’‘Population,’ or Neither?” Post-Soviet Affairs 17(2): 129–58.

———. 2021. “Citizenship as a Cornerstone of Civic National Identity in Ukraine.” Post-Soviet Affairs 37(2): 155–73.

Baum, Matthew A. 2002. “The Constituent Foundations of the Rally-Round-the-Flag Phenomenon.” International Studies Quarterly 46(2): 263–98.

Beissinger, Mark. 2002. Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State: A Tidal Approach to the Study of Nationalism. Cambridge University Press.

Bernhard, Michael. 1993. “Civil Society and Democratic Transition in East Central Europe.” Political Science Quarterly 108(2): 307–26.

Berti, Benedetta, and Olga Onuch. 2015. “From the Colour Revolutions to the Arab Awakening: EU Approaches to Democracy Promotion and the Rising Influence of CEE States.” Berti, Mikulova, and Popescu.(2015). Democratization in EU Foreign Policy. Routledge/UACES Contemporary European Studies. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2585721 (April 1, 2015).