Harvard to sponsor conference on Ukraine since independence (06/22/97)

Harvard to sponsor conference on Ukraine since independence

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University will sponsor a major conference, "Ukraine Since Independence: A Symposium on Politics, Economics, Society and Culture," on July 31-August 2. The conference represents the culmination of a yearlong examination of the first five years of Ukrainian independence, which included lectures in the institute's weekly seminar series in Ukrainian studies, a special section that appeared in two issues of The Ukrainian Weekly in August 1996, and an international conference on Ukraine's foreign relations held last December in Washington in conjunction with George Washington University and with the assistance of the Embassy of Ukraine.

This summer's three-day symposium is aimed at both those with an academic and a professional interest in contemporary Ukraine - specialists in government service, businesspeople, journalists and other practitioners. It will bring together leading experts to discuss a broad range of topics: political development, economic reform, the state of Ukrainian culture and current social issues. The proceedings of the conference, together with additional commissioned articles, will later be published in a separate volume.

Each day of the symposium will examine a particular theme of the post-independence era in Ukraine. Day one will focus on Ukrainian domestic political issues, and will include discussions on such topics as the development of state administration in the state-building process; political parties and elites; the connection between ethnicity and regionalism, religion and inter-confessional relations; and gender issues in independent Ukraine. The first day's presentations will be made by such noted experts as Bohdan Krawchenko (Academy of Public Administration, Office of the President of Ukraine), Roman Solchanyk (Rand Corp.) and Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak (National Endowment for the Humanities). The day's sessions will conclude with an evening roundtable discussion by a group of visiting Ukrainian students who will offer a youthful perspective on Ukraine since independence.

Day two of the symposium will bring together distinguished international experts and practitioners dealing with economic issues and the challenge of economic reform in Ukraine. The morning session will consist of analyses of developments in the Ukrainian economy and economic reform efforts by Daniel Kaufmann (World Bank) and Jeffrey Sachs (Harvard University Institute for International Development). The afternoon session will focus on international economic relations, with presentations by Oleh Havrylyshyn (International Monetary Fund) and Anders Aslund (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace). Viktor Pynzenyk, Ukraine's former vice prime minister for the economy, will speak on the practical experience of managing the economy and promoting reforms.

A dinner and reception complete the second day of the symposium; the dinner speaker will be Roman Szporluk, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute and Mykhailo Hrushevskyi Professor of History, Harvard University, who will speak on the topic "Ukrainian Independence in Historical Perspective."

Day three of the symposium will deal with issues of culture and society. The morning session will be devoted to developments in the field of Ukrainian culture, including assessments of literature and literary studies by George G. Grabowicz (Harvard University); the performing and fine arts by Virko Baley (University of Nevada); and history and historiography (speaker to be announced). Solomea Pavlychko (Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) will provide insights of a Ukrainian practitioner. The afternoon session will examine important social problems: Oleh Wolowyna will speak on demography and population change; Murray Feshbach (Georgetown University) is tentatively scheduled to speak on environmental and health issues. The final presentation of the symposium by Alexander Motyl (Harriman Institute, Columbia University) will assess the Ukrainian experience since independence in the comparative framework of developments in other former Soviet states.

For further information on the program, fees and application forms, contact Dr. Lubomyr Hajda, associate director, at: Ukrainian Research Institute, 1583 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138; telephone, (617) 495-9828 or 495-4053; fax, (617) 495-8097; e-mail, [email protected]

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