Understanding Belarus: Past Challenges, Present Situation, Future Issues

About the course

This interdisciplinary course aims both to offer a better understanding of Belarus as a society and to contextualize this knowledge in the broader issues facing post-Soviet eastern Europe, Europe more generally, and the world as a whole. Students engage with a range of thematic areas – such as societal resilience, cultural and religious diversity, sustainable development, democratization and authoritarianism – that may already be familiar from other contexts. However, by examining these specifically through the lens of Belarus and collaboratively identifying the most suitable methodological approaches to study it, students will gain new contextually grounded insights and develop a mature set of analytical tools, applicable across various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, to approach such complex issues. Moreover, by learning how to independently research and critically reflect on knowledge production about “closed” societies, as well as the limitations of digital research methodologies, students are expected to acquire skills transferable to other areas of their studies or future work.