1993: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Scholarship in 1993: explosion of activity

The "reform impulse" felt in 1992 had all but dissipated after the shock of Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma's resignation and under the weight of complacent "red directors." The resulting economic crisis affected education in a very real way in 1993, forcing many institutions to roll back staff and programs drastically.

However, notwithstanding the deepening economic hardships and political fragmentation facing the country in its second year of independence, on the education front, Ukraine and Ukrainian studies experienced an explosion of activity.

Joint programs conducted by Ukraine's individual teachers, academics and institutions with their counterparts in neighboring states (including Russia) and the Western diaspora, flourished.

On January 9-10, a handful of academicians and parliamentarians of Ukraine and Russia met in Kyyiv to discuss topics such as the emerging trend of regionalization in the two countries, the future of Ukraine's status as a nuclear power, and the psychological legacy of the "Russian" Soviet empire in the two peoples. Closed to the public and journalists, the participants promised that transcripts of the discussions would be published.

Prof. Frances Swyripa, appointed in September 1992 by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) to teach in the areas of immigration history, ethnic settlement, women's studies and others, participated in the University of Alberta-Lviv University Academic Exchange Program. Prof. Swyripa conducted archival research on the backgrounds of those who came to Canada and established contacts with interested scholars and students.

High school students from Kyyiv spent two weeks in Baltimore classes in January, a culmination of the efforts of local teacher Peter Sugatt. The director of Kyyiv's High School No. 143, Liudmyla Kovalenko, accompanied the group.

A group of 70 high-school-age students from Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan arrived in Washington on January 25. They were ready to participate in a U.S. Information Agency (USIA) program set up by legislation introduced by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) supporting exchanges of up to four weeks' duration.

By late February, the U.S.-based Junior Achievement education initiative had trained its first group of 24 teachers in "practical experiences in the competitive private enterprise system, through a partnership with business and education communities," in accordance with JA's principles.

The new political reality began to leave its imprint on leading institutions in the U.S. Well positioned to benefit from this shift was Prof. Alexander Motyl of Columbia University, who became the Harriman Institute's associate director, and who assisted in the establishment of a Ukrainian studies program, reflecting that "it was finally understood that Ukraine has to be studied." Also reflecting the shift to a post-imperial world, students wishing to pursue a program at the institute would no longer need to master Russian, because proficiency in another of the NIS region's languages was now made acceptable.

The new Ukrainian studies program, in which Ukrainian 1 was introduced in April, is to include language courses, courses in politics and economics, conferences, seminars by visiting scholars and policy makers, and contacts with Ukrainian institutions such as the CIUS at the University of Alberta, the Renaissance Foundation in Lviv and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI).

The University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia established a summer study program in Kyyiv that will emphasize Ukrainian language, culture and civilization.

Penn State University announced that it would be publishing the works of Hryhoriy Skovoroda, edited by Prof. Michael Naydan (Penn State) and Dr. Oksana Zabuzhko (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences), with translations by the aforementioned and a team including Agni editor Askold Melnyczuk. The first volume is slated to appear in 1994, to coincide with 200th anniversary commemorations of the wandering philosopher's death.

The HURI celebrated its 20th anniversary (formally established in January 1973) by filling several vacant positions and announcing a major expansion of its programs. Dr. Andrew Sorokowski became editor of the Harvard Ukrainian Studies Journal in February, joining Dr. Lubomyr Hajda, appointed assistant HURI director, in August 1992.

Dr. Sorokowski oversaw the final stages of publication of the 15th anniversary double issue of the HUSJ which, among other topics, featured discussions of Ukrainian Modernism and the life, times and writings of 16th century monk and polemicist Ivan Vyshensky.

The Ukrainian Canadian School Board, Toronto branch, continued its program of sponsoring visits of Ukrainian educators with the aim of acquainting them with southern Ontario's education system. This year's program was organized by Nadia Luciw, principal of St. Sophia Ukrainian Catholic School, and Tania Onyschuk, principal of the C. Palijiw Ukrainian Cooperative School, and held February 19 to March 12.

Three participants in the program were interviewed by The Weekly in April, including Oksana Kurysh, an inspector for the Ternopil Oblast Board of Education; Ivan Mytskaniuk, an alternative school principal from Ivano-Frankivske; and Svitlana Melnyk, principal of a high school (gymnasium) in Odessa. They gave their views on topics ranging from teacher retraining to contending with the aftereffects of Russification, to their fascination with North America.

In March, The Weekly carried a story about a course in oral history and archival organization given by the director of the Toronto-based Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre (UCRDC), Iroida Wynnyckyj. Ms. Wynnyckyj organized two courses for the fall 1992 semester at Lviv University. An agreement for a wide-ranging project, known as "The Social Political and Cultural History of Ukraine in the 20th Century, on the Basis of Oral Testimony of Contemporaries," was signed by representatives of the UCRDC and the Institute of Historical Studies at Lviv University. Work on the project will be conducted in 1993-1995.

Ms. Wynnyckyj's stay in Ukraine while setting up the agreement enabled her to experience first-hand the great change in approach to oral, archival and physical evidence of historical events. She was given 32 documents found in Ukraine in a Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) hideout that was discovered in 1976. Ms. Wynnyckyj was also told that in 1993 all KGB archives were scheduled to be opened.

In May, The Weekly carried an interview with Yaroslav Hrytsak, director of the aforementioned institute. He spoke about the establishment of his institute, whose mission of reform was put in motion and greatly abetted by (among others) Prof. Roman Szporluk (initially-of the Center for Russian and East European Studies, CREES, at the University of Michigan, and now Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of History at Harvard) and Dr. Frank Sysyn (CIUS and the Peter Jacyk Center for Historical Research). Mr. Hrytsak restated a position held by Prof. Motyl of Columbia, saying that interest in Ukrainian historical studies is becoming a factor in the post-Communist world.

In April, in Montreal, Dr. Lawrence A. Mysak, professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Changes and founding director of McGill University's Center for Climate and Global Change Research, was elected to a three-year term as president of the 800-member Academy of Science. This is the largest of the three academies making up the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the country's national academy. A graduate of University of Alberta, Adelaide University and Harvard, Dr. Mysak was elected vice-president of the academy in 1991.

On May 1, Stanford University's CREES hosted a conference on "Ukraine in the International Arena," attended by scholars from around the globe, including CREES Director Prof. Alexander Dallin, Dr. Sysyn and Prof. Olga Andriewsky from Canada, and Prof. Andrei Kortunov, formerly of the Russian Academy of Sciences, among others.

This conference was also the launching pad for a paper delivered by Prof. John Mearsheimer, "Why Ukraine Needs a Nuclear Deterrent." In stating his case, Prof. Mearsheimer, a Harvard Ph.D. now at Chicago University, drew analogies between U.S. and Ukrainian security needs. With its divisive but fresh (from a U.S. scholar) argument that political instability was more likely if Russia was the sole owner of an atomic arsenal, the paper was subsequently published in the summer issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

The summer, usually a time of academic quiescence and student travels, in 1993 became a feverish hothouse. The Royal Society of Canada and Ukraine's Academy of Sciences (UAS) established a program entailing an annual exchange of scholars. It will parallel Canada's existing bilateral relationships with the English, French, Polish, Italian and Indian scholarly communities.

After a four-year wait, the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies was formally registered at St. Paul University in Ottawa on June 11. It also received a $1 million (Canadian) endowment from Peter and Doris Kule of Edmonton.

On June 16, Rutgers University President Francis L. Lawrence and Kyyiv State University President Viktor Skopenko signed a five-year scholarly exchange agreement. Both institutions have a rich tradition. The eighth oldest post-secondary institution in the U.S., Rutgers was chartered as a college in 1766. Initially conceived as an instrument for the Russification of the local school system, Kyyiv State University became a hotbed of revolutionary activity and national awakening. Officials from both concurred that the partnership then formally established was "natural."

On June 22-27, the UAS co-sponsored an international conference held at the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, attended by over 200 delegates. Twenty of them were scholars from North America and Europe. Among the issues discussed were the development of science at a time of economic hardship and reform (with many students opting for business courses), problems with the study of physics in Ukrainian (terminology, texts) and Ukraine's global standing in the discipline.

In Cambridge, Mass., the HURI conducted its 23rd annual Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute, featuring an intensive eight-week program of accredited university instruction. As it has in recent years, this summer's experiences for students included a theater workshop led by Yara director Virlana Tkacz, in which Ukraine's popular Nina Hagen analog Vika Vradiy also participated.

Also at Harvard, on August 1-7, a one-week intensive seminar for professionals interested in working and investing in Ukraine was conducted at the HURI, with instructors from the Harvard faculty, the CIUS, the RFE/RL Research Institute, the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and other institutions.

The Ukrainian American Educational Exchange Association set up a program under which, from June 20 to August 25, 12 Ukrainian youths (age 16-18) visited Washington and traveled to the Binghamton, N.Y., area for language, culture and economics courses. During the same period, 10 U.S. youths went to Cherkasy for a similar array of activity. Coordinated by UAEEA President Ronald Czebiniak, this program was made possible by the "Bradley bill."

In Ukraine, the Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy conducted a language program cum archaeological field study from July 1 to August 20, as part of a summer program for international students. Sites visited included Scythian burial mounds in the Poltava region, Carpathian fortresses and ancient settlements in the Crimea.

Thirteen students from the Sumy Oblast spent the summer at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., as participants of the upstate New York school's English as a Second Language Teacher Training Institute. Sponsored by the Sumy Board of Education, Siena College and Americans for Democracy in Ukraine, the program was initiated by Lydia Tarnavsky, associate professor of German at Siena College.

In the fall, the University of Kansas introduced a master's program in Ukrainian language and area studies to complement its undergraduate curriculum, in place since 1989. Visiting faculty includes professors from Lviv University.

A group of MBA students from Lviv studying at Wayne State University (WSU) left for home in October after their UNA-, Ukrainian Professional Society of Philadelphia-, and WSU-sponsored sojourn.

Ottawa University approved the creation of a Chair of Ukrainian Studies, and Canada's Governor General, Ramon John Hnatyshyn, agreed to become its honorary patron. To be established as an autonomous unit of the university's graduate school, the chair's basic endowment was provided by Dr. Nadia Iwachniuk and her husband, Antin.

Without a doubt, the single most notable event in the field of Ukrainian education and scholarship in 1993 was the launching of the final three volumes of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine (EU) on September 25. The completed five-volume reference work represents a distillation of the work of at least three generations of scholars. It was initiated as a Ukrainian-language project by Prof. Volodymyr Kubijovyc and the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh), and shepherded to its completion by Prof. Danylo Struk, the CIUS and the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies (CFUS).

The stately launch gala featured testimonials of ringing praise for all involved from President Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine, Dr. Mykola Zhulynsky, deputy prime minister for humanitarian affairs, the president of the University of Toronto Press (the EU's publisher), the vice-president of the University of Toronto (host institution for the EU's editorial offices), the Ontario provincial ministerial secretary for education and training, and other dignitaries.

It also brought together many who made it possible, including Prof. Manoly Lupul and Peter Savaryn of CIUS (among the co-initiators of the English-language project), the directors of the CFUS, Dr. Arkadiy Zhukovsky and other NTSh officers and scholars, the extensive and impressive editorial board and the hardworking editorial staff. Those who did not attend were mentioned or mourned in gratitude.

In New York, the NTSh in the U.S. conducted its fall lecture series with an array of scholars and activists from North America and Ukraine.

On October 8-9, York University hosted the conference "Ukraine: Two Years of Independence," which attracted over 125 participants who examined the crises and successes in Ukraine's economic, social and political life. Among them were Ukraine's minister of culture, Ivan Dzyuba, Major Gen. Nicholas Krawciw (former high-ranking NATO commander), former Deputy Prime Minister Prof. Ihor Yukhnovsky and Levko Lukianenko, outgoing Ukrainian ambassador to Canada.

During the November 3-7 World Congress of Ukrainians, a number of Ukrainian educators involved in virtually all of the activities listed above held their own conclaves, during which they discussed matters such as correct approaches in the diaspora's assistance to Ukraine and its changing nature, the function of Ukraine in providing aid for the diaspora's struggle against assimilation and the range of assistance that can be provided.

In this way, consciously or not, they ushered in a new era of endeavor in the sphere of Ukrainian education and scholarship. As Dr. Sysyn put it during the press conference prior to the official publication date of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, not only are Ukrainian studies a matter of truly bilateral concern for Ukraine and its diaspora, they are now a distinct field of interest that will increasingly beckon non-Ukrainian scholars and teachers.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 26, 1993, No. 52, Vol. LXI

| Home Page |