Hope on the Ground: Lived Resilience during the War in Ukraine

The Nanovic Institute for European Studies

Available on-demand

In the crucible of total war, how does a nation protect its soul? Join leading scholars as they deconstruct Ukraine’s “pedagogy of freedom.” From “immunizing” students against disinformation to the “optimal hope” of civil society, discover how active academic solidarity and symbolic recognition forge a resilient mental shield for the future.

Speakers include:

A. Austin Garey (Kennan Institute): “Wartime Pedagogy: Shifting Priorities in Ukrainian Educational Sciences”
Sarah D. Phillips (Indiana): “Three Years of War, Three Years of Support. The Nonresidential Scholars Program for Ukraine: Successes and Challenges.”
Sarah Wilson Sokhey (Colorado): “Ukrainians and Civil Society Organizations: Dimensions of Hope and Resilience During Wartime”
Kristina Šliavaitė (Vilnius University): “‘So many people helped us’: Help, Empathy, and Care as Signs of Humanity in the Narratives of War and Migration of Refugees from Ukraine in Lithuania”

Revolutions of Hope: Resilience and Recovery in Ukraine is a collaboration between Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs, and Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). The conference, hosted at the University of Notre Dame in March 2025, focused on the positive and corrective response to this destruction, exploring reasons for hope, sources of hope, and the politics and ethics of hope in Ukraine. How is hope powerful or even revolutionary? How does it encourage resilience and recovery? And, above all, how can we build and promote the integral development of hope in Ukraine? The conference explored the concept, dynamics, and practices of hope through keynote addresses, panel discussions, the arts, and liturgical observances. For more information visit the event website.

Co-sponsors included:

On March 7, 2025, a panel of anthropologists and social scientists converged to analyze the profound “lived resilience” currently defining the Ukrainian experience. Far from representing a passive state of endurance, this resilience is an active, strategic commitment to institutional and social continuity. As the ongoing conflict transforms Ukraine into a “large open-air lab” for social science, understanding these mechanisms—ranging from the “pedagogy of freedom” to the “anatomy of optimal hope”—is essential for global partners seeking to support a nation under existential duress.

Dr. Amy Austin G detailed how the Ukrainian National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences has fundamentally transformed the educational front line. Since the 2022 invasion, the traditional role of vikhovannia (values education) has shifted from an abstract pursuit of self-actualization to a targeted “immunization” against Russian information warfare. Drawing on 19th-century Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda, educators are deploying a “pedagogy of freedom” that explicitly links individual emancipation to the maintenance of territorial integrity. This resilience is hyper-local and adaptive; in regions under frequent shelling, teachers are encouraged to prioritize “social skills and play” over traditional content like math during in-person sessions to foster psychological stabilization. Furthermore, the delivery of education has pivoted to “asynchronous learning” to accommodate the chaotic realities of air raids, curfews, and students displaced across various time zones. This curriculum, often referred to as a “mental shield,” ensures the next generation remains oriented toward European integration and democratic justice.

While educators hold the local line, international “academic solidarity” serves as a vital flank for the Ukrainian intellectual class. Dr. Sarah Phillips presented the Indiana University non-residential fellowship program, which has recently scaled to include the Big 10 Academic Alliance, representing 18 universities. This model provides scholars who remain in Ukraine with stipends and—most crucially—remote access to digital library resources and peer-reviewed databases. Phillips emphasized that providing E-resource access is a low-cost but high-impact intervention that prevents intellectual isolation. By institutionalizing “academic bilingualism,” the program removes language barriers for scholars who are essential to their local communities but may not be English-proficient, ensuring the continuity of the Ukrainian academy during the turmoil of war.

The structural resilience of these institutions is fueled by what Dr. Sarah Wilson and Dr. Kristina Šliavaitė. identified as “optimal hope.” Wilson distinguished this from “naive hope,” defining it as a persistent commitment to a vision of the world regardless of the immediate probability of success. This is often born from the “power of hopelessness”—a realization captured by activist Tata Kepler, who noted that while the outlook is “dark and hard” and one might feel that “no one needs us,” the act of “doing something that makes you human” becomes the ultimate form of survival. This internal resolve is sustained by external “symbolic recognition.” In Lithuania, Christina Sh. found that the ubiquitous display of Ukrainian flags and the “pleasant shock” of empathy from strangers provide the validation necessary for displaced populations to regain agency. These gestures are the building blocks of trust, bridging the broad narrative of war to the specific, actionable insights that define the current struggle.

The following takeaways demonstrate the “So What?” of this conversation: resilience is not a prerequisite for action, but its result. These points provide a blueprint for supporting societies under extreme ideological and physical pressure.

The Instrumentalization of Values as a “Mental Shield”: Ukrainian pedagogy has reframed vikhovannia as a targeted intellectual “immunization.” By teaching democracy and justice as core national values, schools provide students with a psychological defense against disinformation and external ideological influence.
Scalable Academic Solidarity via E-Resources: The expansion of fellowships to the Big 10 Academic Alliance (18 universities) proves that providing remote access to library databases is an incredibly cost-effective way to sustain a nation’s intellectual capital and professional dignity during conflict.
The Framework of “Optimal Hope”: Resilience is best maintained through “optimal hope,” which focuses on the vision of what a society should be. This allows civil society to function even when the immediate outlook is uncertain, turning the “power of hopelessness” into a catalyst for human action.
Institutionalizing Academic Bilingualism: Effective solidarity programs succeed by removing English-language barriers. Operating bilingually ensures that the most relevant scholars on the ground—who hold the most vital data and community influence—can participate in the global academy.
The Strategic Utility of Symbolic Recognition: For displaced populations, gestures such as the public display of national colors or simple human empathy are not merely decorative. They serve as vital signals of recognition that facilitate psychological recovery and social trust in host countries.

These quotes convey the emotional and intellectual weight of the Ukrainian experience, illustrating the “lived” reality behind the academic synthesis.

“When you’re orienting towards a pedagogy of freedom, you’re also orienting towards a pedagogy of hope… the foundation of hope is also action.” — A. Austin Garey
“If you can do something good, do something that’s making you a human. I believe this will save the world… just remember that there’s so many cruelties in this world that you can’t just get crazy.” — Tata Kepler (as cited by Sarah Wilson)
“I apologize I can’t speak Lithuanian… and they say, ‘What are you apologizing for? It’s okay.’ For me that day was pleasant shock.” — Research Respondent (as cited by Kristina Šliavaitė )
“Teaching Ukrainian values of self-actualization and orientation towards justice will help immunize them against Russian information warfare… there was even a series of classes developed called ‘Mental Shield’ exactly to that end.” — A. Austin Garey
“Providing access to E-resources of libraries… doesn’t cost anything… it’s a way to support our colleagues in Ukraine that is very important and very cost effective.” — Sarah Phillips

Hope on the Ground: Lived Resilience during the War in Ukraine

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