Date of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Director of Thesis

Olesya Kisselev

Second Reader

Magdalena Stawkowski

Abstract

Language and other cultural symbols have become widely contested in post-Soviet Ukraine, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The conflict prompted many in Ukraine and its diaspora to re-negotiate and affirm Ukrainian national identity through language, traditions, and culture. The ways in which national identity is signaled in Ukraine has been widely studied in the wake of 2022, but less research has investigated how similar trends are occurring in migratory contexts, where conflict and displacement play crucial roles in identity construction. This study examines the ways that Ukrainian immigrant women in South Carolina signal their identities, and whether language and food play salient roles in this context. The data is presented in a polyphonic documentary of first-hand accounts, which emphasizes individual emotions and experiences in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The findings indicate that these Ukrainian women in South Carolina viewed language as morally neutral; approached cultural symbols as useful identity markers, but not sites of conflict; and understood the Russo-Ukrainian War through a moral framework, emphasizing themes of religion and morality.

First Page

1

Last Page

56

Rights

© 2026, Madeline R. Fyock

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