On May 19, in the conference hall of the library of the Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, a round table of the Council of Young Scientists “Transformation of Scientific Priorities in the Research of Young Scientists in Wartime” took place.
The event was implemented as a component of the Science Days 2022, taking place at the University under the slogan “Sustainability in War”.
The moderator of the event was the Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, Associate Professor of Economic and Social Geography Gennadii Golub. The event was opened with a welcoming speech by Doctor of Psychology, Professor of Practical and Clinical Psychology, Vice-Rector for Research and Teaching and International Cooperation Larysa Zasekina, Candidate of Psychology, Head of Research Iryna Glova, Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor, Curator of the Student and Post-Graduate Society Olga Karaim.
The venue was attended by the representatives of various faculties, speaking about the transformation of young scientists’ scientific priorities in research, as well as rethinking their own values, the fact that the war changed the space and guidelines for research in all fields. During their reports, the speakers raised important issues of the day.
Halyna Maleonchuk, Senior Lecturer at the Department of History and Archeology, and Alina Karpiuk, Senior Laboratory Assistant at the Department of Museum Studies, Monument Studies and Information and Analytical Activities, emphasized that the Russian military’s open aggression against Ukraine is currently under special surveillance by the international community. A need to analyse the long hundreds of years old and controversial history of Ukrainian-russian relations was noted and to clearly understand the cause of this aggression.
It was said: “The events of russian aggression in Ukraine have changed all of us, but it should be stated that Russia perceives history not as something to be researched, studied, preserved, but something to be manipulated, guided by domestic political considerations”.
With the philological aspect in mind, the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Philology Larysa Makaruk spoke about the activities of the Council of Young Scholars at the Ministry of Education and Science under martial law, verbal and nonverbal language of war, influence on society in the global dimension, and the rhetoric of Western politics.
The members of the organisation adjourned the meeting by listening to the recitations of the works of the library staff.
In her turn, Olga Moskvych, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Cultural Studies, began a discussion on the transformation of scientific priorities in the field of culture and art. She emphasized that culture is about time: “Culture is becoming a powerful tool of struggle and defence, so it needs new research and finding ways to develop.”
The round table also discussed the topics of pedagogical education and social work, which aimed to intensify the issues of distance and mixed forms of education and its quality under martial law, not to mention the patriotic upbringing of children and youth. Medicine remains an important topic in today's conditions. “In the field of medicine, at our University today there are no new research results related to the war in Ukraine. Such studies will apparently be conducted later. Now, in our opinion, it is important to focus not on theoretical research, but on practical assistance to the people. Our work is refocused on conducting training sessions teaching people how to behave in health crises. In addition, the treatment of depressive states continues, which is very important under martial law,” Olga Kostelova said, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Senior Lecturer, Department of Histology and Medical Biology.
Speakers representing the Faculty of Economics and Management, the Faculty of Psychology, the Faculty of Biology and Forestry, the Faculty of Chemistry, Ecology and Pharmacy, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Geography were involved into the discussion. Everyone spoke about the importance of the activities of each industry facing current hardships.
