Neporany Fellow to publish book on Ukrainian cultural politics (10/11/98)

Neporany Fellow to publish book on Ukrainian cultural politics

TORONTO - Dr. Catherine Wanner, an anthropologist, is the 1997-1998 recipient of the Neporany Teaching and Research Fellowship. The fellowship allows a scholar to do research on a topic concerning Ukraine and to teach a course related to that research. The fellowship is funded by the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies and administered by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Dr. Wanner, who earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1996, received the fellowship to conduct research on contemporary Ukrainian cultural politics and to complete her book, "Burden of Dreams: History and Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine" (Penn State Press, 1998). The book is an ethnographic study of identity politics and the role of history in forging a collective identity after the fall of the Soviet system.

The book covers four areas: educational reform; the state calendar of commemoration and celebration; popular culture; and monuments. Dr. Wanner analyzes how pivotal events of the Soviet experience, namely, the Revolution of 1917 and the Soviet victory in World War II, are transformed in the consciousness of the people to reflect a post-Soviet Ukraino-centric perspective in their historical interpretation.

In addition, she analyzes how the Great Famine of 1932-1933, which has become one of the most powerful defining experiences of the Ukrainian exposure to Soviet rule, and the Chornobyl nuclear accident, an event that galvanized immense anti-Soviet, pro-independence sentiment, are represented in these four areas.

By comparing and contrasting Soviet and post-Soviet historical representations of these four pivotal events with ethnographic data, the author illustrates how these historical events are understood and acted upon. This approach reveals the role of historiography and generation in shaping the politics of identity and influencing perceptions of state legitimacy It also serves to illustrate regional variations in cultural and political orientation in contemporary Ukraine. Research for the book was conducted in 1992-1994, primarily in Lviv, Kyiv and Kharkiv.

As part of the fellowship, Dr. Wanner also taught a course at Penn State University during the 1998 spring semester on the politics of identity in post-Soviet Ukraine. The class focused on the particularities of the socialist experiment and its legacy for Ukraine by comparing the dynamics of national identity formation in capitalist and socialist societies.

Also considered were interdependent phenomena such as the redefinition of gender roles, shifts in family structure, and the beginnings of civil society. Some of the topics chosen by students for their own research included the relationship of the environmental movement to the ascendancy of Rukh, the religious revival currently under way and language politics.

Penn State has a long-standing program of Ukrainian studies and offers courses in Ukrainian language, literature and history.

Dr. Wanner, who has no Ukrainian background first became interested in Ukraine during a trip to Kyiv in 1980. When she began graduate study in anthropology in 1989, she also began to study Ukrainian. The changes in Soviet society that occurred in the late 1980s made it possible for scholars to engage in long-term participant observation, a methodology that is the hallmark of cultural anthropology. For her part, Dr. Wanner decided to conduct this type of research in urban Ukraine.

Dr. Wanner is currently pursuing research on the ramifications of demographic change for familial relations and for family structure in post-Soviet Ukraine. She also continues to teach anthropology at Penn State University.

The Neporany Teaching and Research Fellowship is named after Osyp and Josaphat Neporany of Toronto and is funded at $20,000 annually out of income from a bequest entrusted to the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies.

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