Center for Urban History of East Central Europe

The Center for Urban History of East Central Europe was founded in 2004 as a private non-profit organisation. It is committed to non-material aims.

In all its activities, be they academic or cultural, the Center strives to adhere to principles of openness (toward what is new), tolerance (with regard to difference and diversity) and responsibility (for the future).

As an institute of historical scholarship, we seek to offer fresh intellectual impulses and help abandon dated questions and preconceived answers. By information and open discussion, we try to help prevent history from being abused for political ends. Through conferences, seminars and exhibitions we hope to promote scholarly and cultural exchange.

We offer young researchers additional opportunities to do advanced, internationally recognized work in their own country, seeking to reduce the "brain drain" emigration of qualified scholars.

We strive to be a part of contemporary Lviv's urban society and public, open to diverse communities and in productive cooperation with public and cultural institutions.

As an institute that not only researches the city of the past, but also lives and works in the city of the present, we want to go beyond academic activity and support cultural and other public initiatives, which we see as both valuable and seminal.

We want to contribute to Lviv becoming a central site for intellectual, academic and cultural life not only in Ukraine but in Europe.

The specific goals of the Center are also listed in its Foundation Charter of 9 November 2005:

• To encourage research into the Urban History of East Central Europe through the founding of an academic research institute
• To anchor Urban Studies as a field of interdisciplinary research in Lviv and East Central Europe through international cooperation with other scholarly institutions
• To encourage research into the history of Lviv as an urban center of a multi-cultural past and heritage in cooperation with the city's existing academic institutions
• To enrich Lviv's current cultural life by organizing and supporting public events
• To support an awareness of Ukraine’s European belonging – inside as well as outside Ukraine – through academic research and international cultural exchange, to support Ukraine's perspective toward membership in the European Union
• To promote public awareness of the importance of the historic cityscape of Lviv through the gathering and cataloguing of information and documentation, helping to protect and preserve part of Europe's cultural treasures