About this Event
In a moment marked by war, migration, and a shifting political climate, Central-Eastern Europe is being actively redefined. London-based cultural institutions play a pivotal role in this process, operating at the intersection of national agendas, diasporic communities and global audiences. They become key agents in producing meaning, shaping narratives, and negotiating soft power in a networked, transnational space. By bringing these actors into dialogue, the panel will discuss how Central-Eastern Europe is continuously re-articulated through cultural programming, epistemic "translation" and public engagement. It will also ask how we can step outside our own institutional and intellectual bubbles to engage meaningfully with communities that hold different values and political agendas.
Speakers:
Anna Tryc-Bromley
Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in London
Minister-Counsellor at the Polish diplomatic mission to the United Kingdom
Anna brings over 20 years of experience in cultural diplomacy, public relations, and international collaboration, working across South Asia, UK, and Poland. She previously served as Deputy Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in London (2006–2011) and later became the founding Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in New Delhi, India (2012–2015). Since 2025 she leads the Polish Cultural Institute in London. Throughout her career, she has led major cultural initiatives, developed international partnerships, and shaped communications for institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and HP Poland. She has also worked closely with NGOs to support institutional development and fundraising. Anna is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
Tereza Šídlová
Director of Czech Centre London
Tereza Šídlová is a cultural diplomat and author who serves as the director of Czech Centre London since February 2026. Prior to that she led external affairs and communications of the Czech Centre headquarters in Prague, at this position she headed communication of the developing nation branding project of the Czech Republic. She has more than twenty years of experience in journalism, covering Czech foreign and EU policy for major national media in the Czech Republic. In her academic work she focused on 21st century information warfare and in 2025 published an interview book with the former Speaker of the Czech Parliament, focusing on position of women in Czech politics.
Dr Olesya Khromeychuk
Director of Ukrainian Institute London
Dr Olesya Khromeychuk is a historian and writer. She is the author of The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister (2022) and Undetermined Ukrainians (2013). Khromeychuk has written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Prospect and The New Statesman, and has delivered a TED talk on ‘What the World Can Learn From Ukraine's Fight for Democracy’. She has taught the history of East-Central Europe at several British universities and is currently the Director of the Ukrainian Institute London.
Moderator:
Dr Iryna Odrekhivska
Dr Iryna Odrekhivska is Lecturer in Czech and Comparative Literature at UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Her research lies at the intersection of literary and translation studies and East-Central European cultural history, with a particular focus on Czech–Ukrainian literary entanglements, exile literature and women’s writing. She works on translation as a key site through which cultures negotiate knowledge, identity and power, from historical translation networks to contemporary writing shaped by war and displacement. She is co-editor of Translation as Resistance: Czech and Ukrainian Historical Perspectives (Karolinum - The University of Chicago Press, 2026), Translation Studies before “Translation Studies” (UCL Press, 2026) and Translation in Ukraine (1991–2022) (Lviv University Press, 2025).
Event venue & nearby stays
UCL Laws Denys Holland Lecture Theatre, Endsleigh Gardens, London, United Kingdom
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