Scholar in Residence 2025

Project: Military Conscription as Site of Justice: From Imperial Service to National Defense

Shynkarenko's project investigates how political and social justice were conceptualized in Ukraine from the 19 th century and until present, using military conscription as a key analytical site where notions of justice, equality, and responsibility become particularly visible.

Across the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, conscription shaped political belonging and reinforced civic inequality, disproportionately affecting peasants, minorities, and lower-status groups. Ukrainian thinkers responded by formulating ideas of fair obligation, collective responsibility, and legitimate authority long before a modern Ukrainian state emerged, and these debates resurfaced during the 1917–1921 struggle for independence. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, mobilisation policies have once again intensified public discussions on justice, equality, corruption, and the moral economy of patriotic duty.

This research is especially timely in light of revitalized discussions over conscription and mobilization across European countries provoked by threats from Russia. How should collective obligations be balanced with individual rights? What does equality mean in a society at war, hybrid of conventional? By tracing conscription across imperial, revolutionary, and contemporary contexts, this project provides a long-durée conceptual history of justice, offering a deeper understanding of how ideas forged in the past continue to shape Ukraine’s present and future.