Second year MPhil student researching the influence of the Russo-Ukrainian war on nation branding in Ukraine

The influence of the Russo-Ukrainian war on nation branding in Ukraine

In September, I went to Kyiv for a week to interview Ukrainian officials, civil society organisations and creative companies that are involved in Ukrainian nation branding

campaigns. The insights that I have gathered from these interviews have been extremely helpful for my thesis that looks at the influence of the Russo-Ukrainian war on nation branding in Ukraine. The REES grant we received took away any doubts I had about the feasibility of conducting fieldwork for my thesis.

In Ukraine, I was met with eagerness to help me and my research in the best way possible. Informants took a lot of time to answer all questions that I had, pointed me in directions I had not yet thought of and put me in touch with contacts of theirs that also work in the nation branding world. My main tip for other students thinking of undertaking fieldwork would therefore be to plan some more time for your fieldwork than you think you will need – you might just miss an amazing opportunity to speak to a new contact who could be extremely valuable for your research if your schedule is too packed.

I asked my informants, among many other things, about the process of nation branding in Ukraine, the influence of the war on Ukrainian nation branding and to what extent nation branding in Ukraine is actually inner-oriented, and I was fascinated by the extremely diverging answers I received from people who all work together in a work field as small as nation branding in Ukraine. I am already looking forward to analysing all of their viewpoints with help of the relevant academic literature.

In order to answer my research question about the influence of the war on Ukrainian nation branding, I am of course also analysing the actual campaigns – promotional videos, articles, websites, logo’s, brand books – and the existing academic literature on nation branding, but without insider interviews my evidence would be much less persuasive.

Slogan on image translates a:

“@tiramarit came to us all the way from the Netherlands to ask us about UkraineNOW for her thesis at Oxford University.”