ABC Books at War: Literacy, Childhood, and Ideology in Times of Conflict
How can something as innocent as an alphabet book become a tool of propaganda? In a thought-provoking guest lecture, alumna Ekaterina Shatalova returned to the Erasmus Mundus Master’s programme to explore how wartime ABC books in Russia and Ukraine reshape childhood and national identity through early literacy.
On April 22, Ekaterina Shatalova delivered a guest lecture titled "ABC Books in the Russia-Ukraine War and the Militarisation of Childhood" for students of the Erasmus Mundus Master's programme in Children's Literature, Media, and Cultural Entrepreneurship, as part of their course Children’s Literature and Childhood. Drawing on her own research and personal experience as a graduate of the same programme (2020–2022), Ekaterina explored how contemporary wartime ABC books in Russia and Ukraine function as powerful tools for early ideological formation, shaping national identity and reframing childhood through the lens of conflict.