Universities are reacting to the invasion in a range of ways, and some could affect the study of Russia and Ukraine for both scholars and students.

The Kremlin’s war on Ukraine has evoked such strong reaction in Canadian academia that scholars may remove the word “Russian” from at least one program title. That’s just one way the conflict is leaving a potentially permanent mark on the university sector. The fallout includes a surge of support for Ukrainian scholars fleeing the war; a rupture in collaboration between Canadian and Russian researchers; and changes in how Russian and Ukrainian history and literature are taught.

Maria Popova, a political science professor at McGill University, said the war has prompted “a deep debate” about course and research content, structure and titles that imply support for Russian imperialism or portrayal of Ukraine as inferior. “A lot of people working on Russia, Russian politics, literature, history, have not looked into Russian imperialism very much and have indeed perpetuated Russian imperialist positions in this field,” she said. “There has to be a decolonization of the field and that’s one of the things we’ll be dealing with.

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