The Third Session of the XVIII USPS Programme

This year’s session began with a visit to the Lviv City Council, a traditional stop for the USPS group. The participants had the opportunity to talk to Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi about city governance in the military context and how Lviv is living now. 

The focus of the conversation was on how the city was rebuilding itself and people’s lives. Today, Lviv is one of the largest humanitarian hubs in the world. The city engages international foundations, partner countries, and socially responsible organisations to restore buildings that were destroyed by Russian aggression. The restoration of all buildings is a matter of principle for the city.

An informal conversation in Lviv Town Hall is a good tradition of the School. And more discussions, insights and search for answers are ahead.

The current generation of politicians has stopped thinking on a historical scale. Their planning horizon has shrunk to 5–10 years, i.e., from election to election. But can we afford this approach? 

Ukraine is a field of constant instability. Our country’s territory is strategically and climatically attractive to invaders, so this space has always been the centre of conflicts. The Mongol-Tatars played a special role in this because after their arrival, the borders in Eastern Europe became blurred, and the entire region did not have a stable state that had existed for more than 300 years, while Western Europe remained relatively stable.

When did Kyiv lose its status as a geopolitical centre, and how did it try to regain its status as a centre of stability? What is a colony of the Russian Empire and how did we gain independence? The USPS group discussed these issues with Yaroslav Hrytsak, PhD in History, Professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University.

Achieving gender equality is a process. It is also a long-term process. It will take Ukraine 170 years to achieve full gender parity. This figure is a variable, depending on the many processes taking place in the country.

Academic communities take rankings of the best universities and the position of their alma matres very seriously. Unfortunately, no Ukrainian university has been at the top for many years. Why and how can this be changed? How can the Ukrainian education system be improved?

The participants had an opportunity to discuss the future stages of the education reform, its successes and challenges with Mykhailo Vynnytskyi, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine and USPS Permanent Lecturer. We are grateful for the informative discussion!

The history of the liberation movement and political opposition conceals difficult lessons in critical thinking and difficult moral and ethical decisions. What was the dissident movement all about, and how can the lessons of the humanity of Ukrainian dissidents be useful today? How and why should we talk about dissidents today? The USPS group discussed this with Radomyr Mokryk, a historian, cultural scientist, publicist, Associate Professor at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, and lecturer at the Ukrainian Catholic University.

In this panel, participants discussed the global impact of AI technologies on humanity, trends and local perspectives of AI for Ukraine together with Oleksii Molchanovskyi, Chief Innovation Officer at the Ukrainian Catholic University and USPS 2018 alumnus.

The ideas of the rule of law and the state of law have taken root in Ukraine. We strive for fair justice and the rule of law. But how can this be achieved, and can law solve all our problems?

According to Dmytro Hudyma, a Supreme Court judge in the Civil Cassation Court and a 2012 USPS alumnus, law is the most imperfect social regulator of human relations. Law is a set of mechanisms for the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of primarily economic goods.

In our country, people perceive the court as the “last resort,” which is why there are so many lawsuits that overload the judicial system. So, what kind of effective justice can we talk about when there are so many cases of various kinds? The court is not designed to resolve all conflicts. There are other instruments, but this is not talked about enough. The justice system in Ukraine needs to be changed. However, not only from within but also to change people’s perceptions – not to demonise, but also not to idealise the law. We thank Dmytro Hudyma for this conversation and further reflections!

Contrary to the narrative that culture is outside of politics, they have always been interconnected. Artists have expressed their positions and reflected on events in the country through art and have been a litmus test for social, political and spiritual changes, particularly in Ukraine.

Marta Kuzii, a classical pianist, Associate Professor of cultural studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University, and this year’s USPS participant, gave a lecture on composers Mykola Lysenko, Lev Revutskyi, and Myroslav Skoryk and the power of Ukrainian classical music for her group at the Potocki Palace.

Today, the world is in the process of rethinking the security system that emerged after World War II. This is not the first such challenge in history. Humanity is prone to the accumulation of global problems and their military solution. Now, the world is coming to the point where, first, liberal democracy has not yet overcome all the problems, and second, we do not know what will happen, for example, in 20 years and whether the idea of liberal democracy will still be alive then.

How can Ukraine survive in this world? What can we offer the Western world to “sell” the idea that Ukraine should exist as an independent and sovereign state?

“We have to use rational thinking and understand the needs of our partners because we have no allies yet,” says Ivan Naumenko, Advisor to the Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine and USPS 2023 alumnus.

“The architecture of Ukrainian cities is an eclectic ensemble of many styles as a memory of different stages of history. Each city has its own unique architectural tradition. Finding a balance between the private, commercial and public, experimenting with form and materials – this was the path of Kharkiv’s development,” says Oleh Drozdov, architect and co-founder of the Kharkiv School of Architecture.

The loss of a sense of “home” and the crisis of Sovietism means that we need to rethink the concept of “housing” and prepare it for transformation into a fundamental space of basic dignity, from which a good life begins. In addition to population density and space availability, climate change is also forcing us to prepare for new technological solutions in future Ukrainian cities.

Together with Oleh, participants had the opportunity to discuss the future of Ukrainian architecture, its mission and the changes that await our cities.

We already miss the participants, but we are not saying goodbye – the group still has the World Forum for Democracy ahead. Preparation for it is underway. We are also looking for new ways to draw attention to Ukraine. And we will see how it works in a month.