Danylo Husar Struk assumes presidency of Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe (09/21/97)

Danylo Husar Struk assumes presidency of Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe

by Dr. Marta Dyczok

TORONTO - The oldest Ukrainian scholarly society recently got a new injection of energy. Prof. Danylo Husar Struk, the man who has been the main motor behind the Encyclopedia of Ukraine Project, was elected president of the European branch of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (Naukove Tovarystvo im. Shevchenka - NTSh) to bring it into the 21st century.

"New life comes not only with new people, but with new aims and goals," he said in a recent interview. "I would like to establish an institute of Ukrainian studies in France with the NTSh as one of its sponsors."

NTSh has gone through a number of phases in its history. Established in Lviv in 1873, it was headed by Ukraine's most famous historian, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, from 1897 to 1913. After World War II, most of the NTSh's active membership fled Westward.

Led by the late Dr. Volodymyr Kubijovych, who acted as general secretary, the society was initially revived in Munich in 1947, and later moved its headquarters to France, where in 1951 the library, archival repository and executive center were set up in the Parisian suburb of Sarcelles. Branches of the NTSh were also set up in other countries where Ukrainians emigrated after the war, including Canada, the U.S. and Australia.

The NTSh's greatest post-war achievements are the 11-volume Ukrainian-language encyclopedia, completed in 1995, and the five-volume English-language reference work, undertaken in collaboration with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, completed in 1993.

A professor of Ukrainian language and literature at the University of Toronto department of Slavic languages and literatures since 1970, the Harvard-educated Prof. Struk first became involved in the NTSh through the English-language Encyclopedia of Ukraine, where he took over as managing editor in 1982. In 1989 he was designated editor-in-chief, and currently oversees the updating and indexing projects. He was granted full NTSh membership in 1988, and is currently the head of the organization's Canada's Philological Section.

In recent years the NTSh's European membership has aged and shrunk. Because of Prof. Struk's demonstrated ability to complete large-scale academic projects, he was asked to lead the organization by its outgoing president, Dr. Arkady Zhukovsky, Paris-based Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Michael Hrynchyshyn and other leading figures in Europe's Ukrainian community. Prof. Struk assumed the presidency on May 17.

Prof. Struk has already brought in three new members into the executive. Jean-Bernard Dupont-Melnyczenko, a French-born Ukrainian lecturer in history, will act as the treasurer. Dr. Yury Boshyk, professor of geopolitics and international business and the director of executive education at the Theseus Institute in Sophia-Antipolis (near Nice), and Parisian Ukrainian artist Volodymyr Makarenko, will be members-at-large.

The new NTSh president also secured the services of Stéphane Dunikowsky, a young Paris-based attorney, who will serve as the society's legal counsel.

To ensure continuity, Dr. Zhukovsky, professor emeritus of Ukrainian language and literature at the Paris-based Institut National de Langues et Civilizations Orientales (INALCO), has remained in the post of vice-president; Dr. Émile Kruba, current chair of Ukrainian studies at INALCO, will continue to serve as second vice-president; and Iryna Popovycz was re-elected to the post of scholarly secretary. Dr. Viktor Koptilov, another INALCO veteran, remains as an executive member-at-large.

Prof. Struk plans to make Sarcelles the center of West European scholarship on Ukraine by fueling interest in the newly independent state. He pointed out that Sarcelles, in the Paris area, is central to both Brussels, home to NATO's headquarters, and Strasbourg, the seat of the European Council - two institutions that have shown considerable interest in Ukraine.

Prof. Struk said Ukraine has all of the potential to become "the France of the East" and could learn much from France's economic virtual self-sufficiency and from its ability to preserve, develop and promote its culture, history and natural beauty.

"Only a concerted Ukrainian academic and cultural presence in France can, with a determined effort and in time, change France's attitude toward Ukraine," Prof. Struk added. "This will not happen by itself, it must be nurtured and promoted."

To fulfill these aims, Prof. Struk plans to promote closer links with the National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

And he plans to raise funds. He is hoping to find a Carnegie, Ford or Mellon to give his/her name to the planned institute. Prof. Struk said the institute would need $350,000 annually to become the academic powerhouse it is envisioned to be. When properly funded, he said the new interdisciplinary institute of Ukrainian studies in France would employ eight full-time researchers, host conferences, publish studies on all aspects of Ukraine and create a milieu in France for meetings between scholars.

"It is my hope that the NTSh in Europe will be able to bring into reality a new raison d'être for Sarcelles and at the same time contribute to the creation of a better climate for Ukraine in France, in particular, and Europe, in general," said the new president.

For further information write to: Société Scientifique Sevcenko, 29 rue des Bauves, Sarcelles, 95200 France; or Prof. D. H. Struk, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A5.

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