NEWS

We, scholars from more than 30 European countries, express our full support for Ukraine which is suffering from the Russian invasion. This invasion is happening in today’s Europe, where we live and work.  

Ukraine is part of the European scholarly community and we stand by our Ukrainian colleagues. It is utterly heartbreaking and unacceptable that such an invasion can happen. We have been working together closely, productively, and successfully for many years with colleagues across Europe, including in Ukraine and Russia, in scholarly projects, initiatives, conferences and associations. We value this collaboration brought about by shared scholarly values and mutual respect. 

We urge our governments to take a decisive stance and act now to stop the terror and bloodshed inflicted on Ukrainians. In response to the Russian invasion we call for the following:

• together with NATO allies, introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, effective immediately, to stop Russian airstrikes on civilian areas;
• implement full-scale economic sanctions, including exclusion from SWIFT, more visa bans and asset freezes on Kremlin-linked figures and companies;
• continue to support Ukraine with weapons, protective equipment, fuel, and whatever else necessary to counter the biggest army on the continent;
• continue to support the humanitarian effort to help the Ukrainian people. 

We also urge the European Commission, the COST Association, as well as national governments and research funding agencies across Europe to swiftly prepare funding schemes to support Ukrainian researchers and sustain their presence within the European Research Area. 

Scholars of the COST Action “Distant Reading for European Literary History” and of the Horizon 2020 project “Computational Literary Studies Infrastructure”

Слава Україні! / Glory and peace to Ukraine! 

(February 26, 2022. Text based on a statement by the COST Action NEP4Dissent.)