BEARR Event: Life in Spite of Everything: In conversation with Victoria Donovan
On Thursday 8 May, we marked the launch of the new Ukraine Community Resilience Fund with a special online event, featuring Professor Victoria Donovan, Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies at the University of St Andrews and author of Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East. In this conversation, Victoria reflected on stories of resilience from Ukraine’s east, the role of local voices in navigating crisis, and what recovery can look like from the ground up.
You can read the event report written by BEARR Trustee Sam Thorne here, as well Victoria’s book review here.
Since 2022, The BEARR Trust has responded to the devastating impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine by supporting grassroots organisations working with the most vulnerable. With our Emergency Appeal for Ukraine and Moldova now closed, we are shifting from emergency relief to long-term support. The Ukraine Community Resilience Fund will continue to provide small grants to local organisations that offer mental health support, integration initiatives, and practical recovery projects — helping communities not only survive, but rebuild stronger. More about the new Fund here.
All donations made as part of this event will go directly to the Ukraine Community Resilience Fund, supporting grassroots organisations that are helping communities in Ukraine recover, rebuild, and strengthen their resilience.
About the Speaker
Victoria Donovan is a Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies and the Director of the Centre for Global Postsocialisms at the University of St Andrews. Her current research investigates entangled colonialisms and extractivist politics with a focus on Ukraine’s east. She is the author of Chronicles in Stone: Preservation, Patriotism, and Identity in Northwest Russia, published with NIUP imprint at Cornell in 2019; Limits of Collaboration: Art, Ethics, and Donbas, published by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in 2022; and Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East, published by Daunt Books Publishing in 2025.
Her work has received grants and prizes, including a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award, an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker award, and in 2023, in partnership with the Centre for Urban History in Lviv a European Heritage Award/EuropaNostra Award for Citizens’ Engagement and Awareness Raising.
