Key research themes
1. How is Belarusian national identity constructed and contested through historiography and cultural discourse?
This research area investigates the discursive construction of Belarusian national identity within historiography, cultural events, and public discourse in the context of authoritarianism, Soviet legacy, and grassroots cultural activism. It explores how narratives of Belarusian history, language, and creative community articulate alternative or oppositional identities to prevailing state and Soviet-era ideologies, reflecting a dynamic, fragmentary, and negotiated sense of nationhood.
2. What are the dominant narratives and controversies in Belarusian historiography regarding national history and historical policy?
This theme addresses how Belarusian historical narratives are shaped and contested through official historiography, history textbooks, and political speeches, focusing on issues such as the legacy of the Soviet past, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and competing national-democratic versus Soviet-Russian discourses. It assesses the political instrumentalization of history and the fragmentation of memory in Belarus’s post-Soviet national identity construction and state legitimacy.
3. What methodological challenges and innovative approaches characterize contemporary Belarusian historiography, including emerging fields like oral history?
This theme focuses on the epistemological and methodological state of Belarusian historiography, exploring issues such as Soviet legacy influences, methodological stagnation, ethno-historical myth persistence, and the gradual institutionalization of oral history scholarship. It considers how methodological limitations and state ideological constraints affect academic research while pointing to emerging alternative research strategies that seek to revitalize Belarusian historical studies.