A CIVIL CONVERSATION FOR UNCIVIL TIMES
A CIVIL CONVERSATION FOR UNCIVIL TIMES
A CIVIL CONVERSATION FOR UNCIVIL TIMES
A CIVIL CONVERSATION FOR UNCIVIL TIMES
From Ukraine’s humanist, cosmopolitan port of Odessa, the civic-intellectual collective Ukrainian Cosmopolis brings together those who refuse censorship and resist the comforts of orthodoxy — writers, scholars, and creators who hold fast to intellectual freedom and civic courage as public duties.
We are the only organisation in Ukraine openly confronting the weaponisation of culture — a core tactic of Russia’s hybrid war, designed to break up Ukraine. We oppose the culture-war politics that feeds Russia's propaganda and enables its hybrid war.
Through public debates, residencies, and civic initiatives, we cultivate Ukraine’s civic resilience to hybrid warfare and polarising radicalism — the resilience necessary not only for its democratic, European future, but for its ability to survive.
Meet our 2026 Civic Freedom Residents-Elect
In residence in Odessa this summer!
Christine Hamel is a German radio and television journalist with ARD, with more than twenty-five years of experience covering politics, society, and international affairs. Since 2014, she has reported extensively on Russia’s war against Ukraine and wider shifts across Eastern Europe.
Matthew Porges is an Oxford-based anthropologist whose work explores war, conflict, and post-conflict societies, with research spanning the Balkans, North Africa, and questions of pluralism, fragmentation, and moral life after violence.
Nick Sturdee is a British documentary-maker, journalist and writer whose work has explored culture, conflict, and social change across the former Soviet world since 1991. He has reported on Ukraine for decades, covered Russia’s full-scale invasion from Hostomel and the southern front, and this summer will work in Odessa on language, identity, urban change, and everyday life under war.
© 2025 Ukrainian Cosmopolis, all rights reserved
Ukrainian Cosmopolis operates in Ukraine under the NGO “Odesa Vilnyi Universytet” (“Odesa Free University”) (Registration No. 38227510), and internationally through Ukrainian Cosmopolis Ltd (Company No. 16901636), a UK non-profit company limited by guarantee. All funds support the cultural and civic programmes of Ukrainian Cosmopolis in Ukraine.
Textures courtesy of Odessa
moc.liamg%40silopomsoc.nainiarku
+38 063 487 70 13 (WhatsApp; Viber)
© 2025 Ukrainian Cosmopolis, all rights reserved
Ukrainian Cosmopolis operates in Ukraine under the NGO “Odesa Vilnyi Universytet” (“Odesa Free University”) (Registration No. 38227510), and internationally through Ukrainian Cosmopolis Ltd (Company No. 16901636), a UK non-profit company limited by guarantee. All funds support the cultural and civic programmes of Ukrainian Cosmopolis in Ukraine.
Textures courtesy of Odessa
moc.liamg%40silopomsoc.nainiarku
+38 063 487 70 13 (WhatsApp; Viber)