Prisma Ukraïna
2022/ 2023

Olha Haidamachuk

The Tonality of the Archives of Ukrainian Migrants’ Memory

Olha Haidamachuk received her PhD in Philosophy from the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in 2021. Her dissertation is titled “Intonation in a Philosophical Text: The Philosophical-Culturological Dimension”. Her background is in philology. In 2006–2022, she worked at the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”. Since 2019, she is a member of the Kharkiv Historical and Philological Society. Her research interests include the philosophy of culture, philosophical anthropology, Ukrainian studies, Ukrainian and European culture, the philosophy of language, the history of philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics. Olha Haidamachuk is 2022/23 Prisma Ukraïna Fellow from September to December 2022.

The Tonality of the Archives of Ukrainian Migrants’ Memory

The project focuses on the factors that shape the current tonality of what can be ‘archived’ by the memory of Ukrainian migrants. Above all, it asks: how does tonality affect the meaning and knowledge that is extracted or removed from (written and unwritten) memory archives? War forces us to reconsider not only our attitude to the present, but also to the past and future. War upsets, injures, and destroys confidence in what is to come, overturns worldviews, and tests the depth of beliefs. War is a powerful challenge to all forms of life, including consciousness and humanity itself. It is important to discover which tonal foundations of memory we can safely rely on in our present and future, and which, on the other hand, carry the risk of detonation from the beginning. This project involves the use of hermeneutic, semiotic-cultural, and philosophical-anthropological approaches. To practically explore tonal diversity, it directs the research into three key areas: a tonal analysis of media, a tonal analysis of posts on social networks, and a tonal analysis of self-reflective anonymous questionnaires of selected respondents from the target group. Comparing these three areas of analysis, the project will reveal connections, interactions, and plausible patterns.