Власними словами | In Our Own Words was a project that brought Ukrainians in Glasgow together with other Glaswegians and used creative writing and multilingual translation to build confidence, community and mutual understanding. It was sponsored by the University of Glasgow and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and run in partnership with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, Scottish Refugee Council, Scotland against Modern Slavery, GRAMnet and Common Ground. Власними словами | In Our Own Words was coordinated by Dr James Rann and Katherine Mackinnon, University of Glasgow. If you have any questions or comments, you can email them to james.rann @ glasgow.ac.uk. 

Read the project publication here:

Listen to some of the many languages and voices which made up the project, alongside some reflections from the project team, on the University of Glasgow UNESCO RILA Sounds of Integration podcast.

The richness of Ukrainian culture is, in part, a product of the multitude of languages that have flourished on Ukrainian soil. In addition to the long history and diverse dialects of the state language, Ukrainian, the streets and fields of Ukraine have echoed with the sounds of Crimean Tatar, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Gagauz, German, Greek, Polish, Romani, Yiddish, and, yes, Russian too, not to mention Surzhyk. 

These many tongues tell many tales: one is a story of states and empires, of repression and resistance; another is of literary excellence, of the geniuses of the written word like Lesya Ukrainka, Bruno Schulz, Mykola Hohol whose birthplaces dot the map of Ukraine. But there is a third story, too, the largely untold story of ordinary Ukrainians and the creativity and connection they find in language every day. 

Now, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been forced to find safety in Scotland. They have found themselves in another land of many languages where, behind the ubiquity of English, one can still hear the voices speaking in Gaelic and Scots, in Urdu, Polish and Romani, and the echoes of the complex histories they embody. 

The aim of this project was to use this shared linguistic diversity as a point of connection and creative exploration between Ukrainians newly arrived in Glasgow and other Glaswegians, of many nationalities. 

We often talk about language barriers; this project was about making those barriers into bridges. 

Власними словами | In Our Own Words consisted of a series of three two-hour-long workshops in Glasgow in November 2023. These offered a safe, welcoming space for Ukrainians in Glasgow to meet with Glaswegians who share an interest in creative expression and to explore the many languages of their homes, old and new, using the divergences and overlaps between them as sites for connection and inspiration. 

Together, we explored that concept of ‘home’ and its expression in language and used this as the basis for a series of creative translations and pieces of writing, produced in small groups. One outcome of this collaboration was the above print publication, which captures and preserves the meeting of cultures and languages and the new understandings and shared perspectives that emerge from working together.