MAPA: Digital Atlas of Ukraine is an interactive mapping tool that enables researchers to display and analyze data based on geographical location. By presenting this information on a map, researchers can assess how location and combinations of other variables, such as political preference and national identity, are related. Scholars who use the maps might be able to arrive at new insights and generate new questions for additional research that would not have occurred to them without the spatial representation.
This year, HURI’s MAPA team—which includes Kostyantyn Bondarenko (MAPA Project Director), Serhii Plokhii (MAPA Project Faculty Director), and Viktoria Sereda (MAPA Project Research Fellow)—added a new project to the MAPA website. The History and Identity webmap takes survey data (gathered through a project Sereda has been working on and by other sociological centers) to depict historical memory and identity in contemporary Ukraine. This webmap is unique in that it has data down to the oblast level, overcoming the limitations of macro-region divisions, and it allows users to present data in chart form over the maps, rather than just representing data by shading the regions.
In addition to importing data sets to create new maps, which anyone can use on the MAPA website, the MAPA team’s work includes using the webmaps to form analyses. For example, as part of her research fellowship at HURI, Sereda is working on a comparative cross-regional analysis of the national identity and historical memory of Ukraine.
This year, the MAPA program has been presented around the world at conferences and academic events. The team showed audiences how to use MAPA, offered their analyses based on the data, and used MAPA to visually depict information in research presentations. Many of these presentations are available online, with links to videos (when available) included below.
Seminar in Ukrainian Studies, HURI
On January 30, 2017, Viktoria Sereda gave a seminar talk titled "Remapping Spaces of Historical Memory in Ukraine After the Euromaidan" for an audience of students, scholars, and community members from Harvard and nearby universities.
Department of Sociology, Ukrainian Catholic University
The first Ukrainian-language presentation of MAPA, this seminar in Lviv, Ukraine, was attended by students and scholars from many of the city's academic institutions.
Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Sereda presented ""When you are coming here – it is a complete black hole!: Reimagining the past in Ukraine after the Euromaidan" to scholars and political representatives in Budapest on February 21, 2017.
Danyliw Seminar, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa
During her "Transformation of Identities and Historical Memories in Ukraine After the Euromaidan: National, Regional, and Local Dimensions" talk, which focused on preliminary research results, Sereda incorporated some MAPA maps that were part of her research project.
MAPA History and Identity Project Launch
HURI held a Ukraine Study Group event, titled "Goodbye, Lenin: Mapping Memory in Revolutionary Ukraine," to celebrate the new webmap project. At the event, Plokhii and Sereda presented analyses of the data, while Bondarenko demonstrated how to use the webmap.
Ukraine Conference, Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies
In Sweden, Plokhii presented analysis from the History and Identity project at the international conference, "International Conference "QUO VADIS UKRAINE? Taking Stock of a Quarter Century of Disappointment." His May 18, 2017, talk was titled "“Leninopad: Region and Politics of Memory in Revolutionary Ukraine.”
Holodomor Research and Education Consortium, Toronto, Canada
Serhii Plokhii gave the 19th Toronto Annual Ukrainian Famine Lecture, "The Fields of Sorrow: Mapping the Great Famine," on November 11, 2016.
CREEES Seminars, Stanford University
In April, Sereda gave two seminars at the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, where students, faculty, and members of the Ukrainian community were in attendance. In addition to introducing MAPA, Sereda discussed identity shifts in Ukraine after the Euromaidan.
Association for the Study of Nationalities Convention
Sereda's presentation was part of the "State and Society in Ukraine Since 2014” panel. This year, over 600 scholars from 49 countries participated in the ASN World Convention in New York City.
Kostyantyn Bondarenko demonstrated the capabilities of MAPA at the Association of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Convention in Washington, DC. His paper, "The Geography of Starvation: The Maps of the Great Ukrainian Famine, 1932-33," was part of a panel about geo information systems as research tools.
Faculty of Arts Seminar, University of Winnipeg
Sereda presented her preliminary research results, including some maps, to an audience of scholars, students, and representatives of the Ukrainian community.
Revolutions, Maidans & Protests in Contemporary Ukraine Conference
At the College of Europe in Warsaw, Bondarenko gave an overview of HURI’s Holodomor analysis and an introduction to using MAPA for research and teaching. The conference gathered scholars from 20 leading research centers in Europe and North America.
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Additionally, Davis Center Visiting Scholar Olena Nikolayenko combined several maps to conduct spatial analysis of support for a student strike in Soviet Ukraine during the Revolution on the Granite. She created a poster representing her research, which won the Davis Center Prize for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Projects in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies.
To learn more about MAPA and to use the webmaps yourself, visit the MAPA website. You can also watch a short video tutorial, which covers the basics of navigating the website and using the mapping tools.