Ukrainian Academics in Forced Migration Caused by the Russian–Ukrainian War: Problems of Identity
Ukrainian Academics in Forced Migration Caused by the Russian–Ukrainian War: Problems of Identity

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the problem of the migrant self-identification of displaced Ukrainian academics. The authors propose a typology of self-identities based on the different ways in which academics construct their autobiographical narratives, analysing the metaphorisation of the migration experience, the use of emotives and recurring themes and the temporal structure of narration. Three types of self-identification of Ukrainian academics in emigration are distinguished: ‘mobile academics’, ‘refugee academics’ and the transitional type of ‘displaced academics’. As a result, the authors aim to highlight the dynamic nature of the process of self-identification. The experience of migration, recast in terms of mobility, was a resource that allowed ‘mobile academics’ to construct a more consistent academic identity under extreme conditions. ‘Refugee academics’ – those who were unable to take advantage of professional opportunities in forced migration – demonstrate, in their interviews, that their experience abroad directly stimulated their professional mobilisation and shaped a positive perception of their own strengths and capabilities. Finally, the transition from a ‘refugee identity’ to the identity of ‘displaced academics’ took place in the course of rethinking the meaning of one’s professional activities through the lens of war and raising the significance of these activities to the level of social mission.

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