About the Fellowship

The full-scale invasion has made starkly visible the entanglements between war, colonialism, and extraction. Situating Ukraine within histories of imperial extractivism, fast and slow violence, and dependence on a petro-capitalist empire is crucial not only for Ukraine’s survival but for the survival of the planet. Ukraine’s resistance to Russian ecocide is inseparable from broader global struggles against extractivist imperialisms, opening space for mutual learning that strengthens attempts to create a lasting transnational solidarity. 

Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine has exposed multiple forms of violence, including the destruction of natural habitats, and human and non-human lives. At the same time, other, less visible forms of violence and extraction remain less studied and discussed. Without diverting attention from the acute and ongoing horrors of Russia’s ecocide in Ukraine, this fellowship aims to address the layered, inter-imperial, and extractivist violences embedded in the Ukrainian landscapes.

Hosting one fellow from Ukraine and one from abroad, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across the arts and humanities, this fellowship supports the development of projects that document, preserve, and critically analyse the war’s impact on Ukrainian landscapes. Fellows engage in reciprocal exchange, strengthening one another’s understanding of international environmental justice frameworks and methodologies while developing grounded knowledge of how past imperial extractivism and present-day ecological warfare shape Ukrainian ecologies today. Both fellows should focus on the Ukrainian context, with the possibility of having a comparative or transnational approach to other geographies. 

What is included in the Fellowship?

• Accommodation in a flat in the centre of Lviv

• Office space at INDEX (Fellows’ room in the INDEX premises)

• Stipend to support living expenses during the residency 

• Research seminars, peer review sessions, and workshops

• Research expeditions to sites of environmental significance in Ukraine (Ukraine’s east and south)

• Exchanges with Ukrainian environmental organisations tracking wartime ecocide

• Support with logistical costs of up to €400

• Media outreach (opportunity to conduct interviews with the media partners of INDEX)

• Voluntary documentation trips to liberated and frontline territories organised in partnership with PEN Ukraine

• Study visits to local cultural institutions

• Possibility to participate in the Environmental Humanities Laboratory in the Carpathians

Who can apply?

Creative Practitioners (2 positions: 1 from Ukraine, 1 international):

• Researchers, artists, filmmakers, writers, photographers, or other creative practitioners

• Working at the intersection of environmental humanities, political ecology, and creative practice

• Interested in exploring themes such as:
  
  

  • War’s environmental impacts

  • Ukraine in transnational environmental justice framework

  • Nuclear colonialism and terrorism

  • Extractivism and resourcification of Ukrainian land

  • Political ecology of Russia’s war against Ukraine

  • Climate change and Russia’s war against Ukraine

  • Rethinking post-extractivist and more-than-human futures through the prism of Ukraine 

  • Russian, Soviet, and inter-imperial violence in Ukraine

  • Multispecies collaboration in art and research

For 2026 open call, all applicants should demonstrate how their creative practice engages with the programme’s thematic focus, Landscapes of War and Ecocide. 

Expected Outcomes

• Contribution to a digital open-access volume published in partnership with Academic Studies Press

• One essay or column reflecting on the Fellows’ experiences during the programme published in INDEX’s online journal Narysy

• By the end of the Fellowship, INDEX will request a narrative report describing the activities and outcomes of the residency period.

Contact

Should you have any additional questions, please contact the Environmental Humanities programme curator Yuliia Kishchuk at environmental@index-ukraine.org.

Selection Committee for 2026 open call:

• Yuliia Kishchuk, curator of the Environmental Humanities Fellowship, INDEX

• Kateryna Iakovlenko, curator, writer, and editor-in-chief of Suspilne Culture

• Adrian Ivakhiv,  J. S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University

• Andrii Linik, curator, director of ‘Lvivske radio’

• Jonathon Turnbull, Assistant Professor of (More-than-)Human Geography, Durham University; Co-founder, Ukrainian Environmental Humanities Network 

Note regarding safety: In light of the risks associated with Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, those international participants who choose to travel to Ukraine assume personal responsibility and are encouraged to purchase travel insurance. INDEX will not be held liable for any emergency that might occur during their stay.