Daria Vystavkina, NUIEC Scholar Lecture Series

Country of Origin: Ukraine
Location: Germany

“Autoethnography in Times of Censorship”

When societies become polarized and life unsafe, we fall silent. We balance between propaganda and what we witness, between public opinion and personal morality, between social conformity and our own values. Autoethnography offers a way to rethink this silence. By examining our own family histories, we can identify the survival patterns our relatives used, the values they inherited, and how they adapted while building lives of integrity. This lecture traces a journey from personal and family memory to its embodiment through performance. I propose we walk this path together, how hidden becomes visible. Witnessing ourselves helps others understand their own complex survival within divided societies.

Willing to share personal story.