The Donetsk Regional Local History Museum has launched a series of online coworking sessions entitled "Decolonization Studies." Together with the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, they held the first meeting dedicated to a professional discussion of the problem of decolonization of Ukrainian cultural and educational heritage as a process that is not only a social demand today, but also a professional necessity.
The event aims to promote understanding that decolonization is not a mechanical removal of names or facts from history, but a complex intellectual work of rethinking narratives, restoring voices, reconstructing contexts, and critically analyzing imperial influences.
This allowed us to form a group of experts consisting of scientists, university professors, museum workers, local historians, and public figures from different regions of Ukraine. Such interdisciplinary interaction helped to approach the proposed cases from various theoretical and practical positions.
The meeting outlined the legal mechanisms and value guidelines of decolonization policy in Ukraine, and also focused on the issue of institutional responsibility in shaping contemporary memory culture. Participants had the opportunity to learn about "decolonization optics" approaches—analytical tools that help identify colonial layers in the biographies of public figures, the history of institutions, and public interpretations.
Within the case lab, these approaches were put into practice: specifically, participants worked with the Geographic Lens, analyzing spatial markers, imperial centers of influence, and local contexts that were often pushed out of national memory.
The meeting demonstrated the professional community's readiness for in-depth, reasoned, and responsible work in museum, educational, and research activities related to the process of decolonization.