Chiara Di Leone, 2025-26 Recipeient

Thanks for the 2026 UCLA Canadian Studies I will be able to cover expenses to attend a workshop for the Ukrainian Global History Initiative at the University of Toronto. The workshop brings together dozens of established scholars of Eastern Europe. My contribution focuses on archeological expeditions in the region now known as Ukraine throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Thanks for the 2026 UCLA Canadian Studies I will be able to cover expenses to attend a workshop for the Ukrainian Global History Initiative at the University of Toronto. The workshop brings together dozens of established scholars of Eastern Europe. My contribution focuses on archeological expeditions in the region now known as Ukraine throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. I zoom in on the technological regimes that informed different waves of archeological discovery and how each of those have foregrounded radically different theories of prehistoric cultures. I analyze how these methods produced competing interpretations of prehistoric cultures such as the Trypillian and Yamna, reshaping theories about the origins of early cities and the foundations of “Western civilization.”

Published: Friday, October 2, 2026