1999: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Academia: studies of Ukraine on the rise (12/26/99)

1999: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Academia: studies of Ukraine on the rise

The end of the decade and the end of the century provided an undercurrent of summation and overview to this year's academic activities regarding Ukraine. In general, the quality and quantity of scholarly and academic activity concerning Ukraine and Ukrainian topics continues to rise, maintaining a trend that began about a decade ago.

Major conferences in North America

Major conferences providing overviews of Ukraine were held at Yale University and the University of Toronto.

The first conference, "Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukraine: A Century in Perspective," was presented by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies and the Yale-Ukraine Initiative on April 23-24. It featured a banquet address by Ukraine's former Justice Minister Serhii Holovatyi titled "Ukraine at the Crossroads: Perspectives on Independence, Democracy and Reform." It was a speech Mr. Holovatyi also delivered at the annual meeting of the Trilateral Commission in Washington in March.

North American scholars examined the past 100 years in historical, economic and cultural terms. They were joined on the various panels by representatives of Ukraine's leading academic institutions, such as Lviv State University historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU) Center of Ethno-national and Political Studies Director Yuri Shapoval, Solomea Pavlychko of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Kyiv State University research fellow Georgii Kasianov.

The conference also included a session devoted to Ukraine's present economic woes, focusing on contemporary politics. Speakers included research fellow Hryhoryi Nemyria of Kyiv, University of North London Fellow Taras Kuzio, and Prof. Dominique Arel of Brown University. One panelist, Mykola Ryabchuk, managing editor of the Kyiv-based Krytyka journal, described Ukraine's current literary climate.

Harvard University's Dmytro Cyzevskyj Professor of Ukrainian Literature, George Grabowicz, was the keynote speaker at both Yale and Toronto conferences.

This was not the only case of overlap. Also speaking at the University of Toronto conference on "Problems of Development of Ukraine Since Independence: In the Light of Western Theories," were Dr. Kuzio and Prof. Arel, and with a focus on more recent events. Additional commentaries were provided by Bohdan Rubchak, University of Illinois, on literature; Volodimir Bandera, Temple University, on economics; and Frank Sysyn of University of Alberta's Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research, who served as chair of the panels on history.

Orest Subtelny of York University and Wsevolod Isajiw, the recently retired holder of the Robert F. Harney Professorship of Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies at the University of Toronto, represented the two institutional co-presenters of the conference, and they appeared together on a panel examining the process of consolidation of Ukraine's new élites. The Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada was another co-sponsor of the Toronto conference.

The conference began with two sessions on religion and development featuring Oleh Gerus of the University of Manitoba, who spoke on Ukrainian Orthodoxy; Andrii Krawchuk of Ottawa's St. Paul University speaking on Ukrainian Catholicism; Henry Abramson of Florida Atlantic University, presenting Ukrainian-Jewish relations; and Eugene Lemcio of Seattle Pacific University, speaking on Protestantism in Ukraine.

Other participants included Oleh Hawrylyshyn of the International Monetary Fund, Rutgers University's Alexander Motyl, Ostap Hawaleshka of the University of Manitoba, Trent University's Olga Andriewsky and Marta Dyczok of the University of Western Ontario.

Other conferences, symposia and panels

On January 22, Columbia University hosted the second of its three-part series on the "Ukrainian Revolutionary Period of 1917-1920," this one dedicated to the Hetman government led by Pavlo Skoropadsky, with Prof. Motyl, Dr. Sysyn, Vladyslav Verstiuk of the Institute of East European Studies, the Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Phonotology's Ihor Hyrych, Laryssa Onyshkevych of the U.S. Shevchenko Scientific Society in the U.S. and Oleksa Bilaniuk of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States.

On February 23 the University of Pittsburgh hosted an all-day symposium on "Ukraine: Taking its Place on the World Stage," which featured a group of entrepreneurs from Ukraine giving an insider's perspective on doing business in the country. Visiting from Kherson University was Fulbright Scholar Hanna Chumachenko, who presented the topic "History and Identity," Taras Filenko of Kyiv spoke about both ethno-musicology and Ukraine's distinctive business culture; and Kateryna Dowbenko (a Ukrainian language instructor at the hosting institution), discussed language and identity.

The Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) held its fourth annual convention on April 15-17, focusing on issues of ethnicity, nationalism, national identity and nation-building in the post-Soviet bloc, with nine panels dealing specifically with Ukraine. On the convention's last day, a commemorative panel in honor of the late Prof. Bohdan Bociurkiw was held, featuring Serhii Plokhy, director of the Church Studies Program at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Prof. Arel, Dr. Sysyn and Dr. José Casanova, chair of the New School for Social Research's department of sociology.

A symposium commemorating the 80th anniversary of Viacheslav Lypynsky's ambassadorship to Austria in 1918-1919 was held at the University of Vienna on June 11. The symposium was sponsored by the University of Vienna, the Lypynsky East European Research Institute in Philadelphia, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Embassy of Ukraine in Austria. The conference brought together scholars from the United States, Ukraine and Austria, and was convened by Prof. Andreas Kappeler, director of the East and Southeast European Institute of the University of Vienna.

The Ukrainian Free University (UFU) in Munich hosted two conferences this year. The first, on legal and judicial systems on May 28-29, drew scholars, government officials and judges from Germany, the United States and Ukraine, and the second, on Goethe and Ukraine, was held on June 19-20 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the German poet's birth.

On August 21-23 a conference was held in Kyiv to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the birth of Symon Petliura. Titled "Symon Petliura and the Age of the Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic," it was organized by the East European Research Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Philadelphia-based Lypynsky Institute, and was supported by the Academy of Sciences of Poland, the Central Archive Administration of Ukraine and more than a half-dozen research and academic entities from the United States, France and Canada.

The International Association of Ukrainian Studies (known by its Ukrainian-based acronym MAU) held its fourth international congress in Odesa on August 26-29. Over 700 participants, including 100 of non-Ukrianian origin, arrived from 25 countries around the world to take in reports about scholarly activity in the field inside Ukraine and out, and to participate in academic discussions of history, law, economics, political science, sociology, linguistics, culture, literary studies, education, musicology, cinema and theater, philosophy, religion and folk studies.

Mykola Zhulynsky was elected president, succeeding Yaroslav Isaievych, and Mark von Hagen (United States), Marko Pavlyshyn (Australia), Wolf Moskovich (Israel), Stefan Rozak (Poland), Yaroslav Hrytsak (Ukraine) and Giovanna Brogi (Italy) were chosen as vice-presidents.

The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana held its 18th annual Conference on Ukrainian Subjects, titled "Between Modernism and Post-Modernism: New Developments in Ukrainian Philosophy, Art and Literature," on June 14-19. Among the scholars from Ukraine attending were Roman Hromiak of the State Pedagogical University in Ternopil, and NANU's Taras Luchuk and Orest Pavlov. The conference also featured readings of recent verse works from Ukraine by their authors, including Prof. Luchuk, Ihor Tratsch, Taras Devydiuk and Iryna Starovoyt, a scholar from Lviv University.

On October 26 Rutgers University hosted its 14th annual symposium on education, co-directed by psychologist Ivan Holowinsky and with Petro Kononenko of Kyiv University participating.

The American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies held its 31st annual convention in St. Louis, Mo., on November 18-21, bringing together scholars worldwide to examine topics such as the possibility of a "third and fourth wave" of NATO expansion, current energy policies in Eastern Europe, Soviet policies during the "early famines" (1918-1933), icon motifs, Goethe and Ukraine, aesthetics versus politics in early 20th century Ukrainian literature, and issues in Ukrainian identity and language.

The convention also included a session titled "Ukrainian No More." Scholars from Poland and North America addressed the emergence of a "post-colonial" Rusyn identity in the "Ukrainian near-abroad." The principal discussant was Prof. Paul Robert Magocsi, chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto.

Appearances and passages

On December 1, the CIUS Press and the Petro Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research (PJCHCR) held a book launch at the University of Toronto's Hart House for Volume 7 of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine-Rus'" in the English translation, executed by the late Prof. Bohdan Struminski.

Ivan Koshelivets, the co-founder of the journal Suchasnist, a senior editorial board member of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, one of the diaspora's most respected literary critics and its most accomplished translator into Ukrainian, died in Munich on February 5 at the age of 91.

Prof. Danylo Husar Struk, editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine Project and president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe, and prolific scholar, passed away unexpectedly at age 59 in Munich on June 19.

Prof. Struk had undertaken many projects, many of which are now being administered by his colleagues, Prof. Maxim Tarnawsky and Dr. Frank Sysyn. The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies established a program in Ukrainian literature in the name of Prof. Struk and the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies established a commemorative memorial fund.

Ukrainian studies in Europe

Since the independence of Ukraine, studies of Ukrainian literature and culture in Europe have been growing steadily in demand.

In Germany, in addition to the Ukrainian Free University, which has been the mainstay of Ukrainian studies in the Federal Republic of Germany for over 50 years, several universities, such as Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Hamburg and others, have initiated courses dealing with Ukrainian matters. The number of students and doctoral candidates is steadily growing. A parallel development can be observed in the east European countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland, where historically such studies have enjoyed relative prosperity. There are also Ukrainian studies at the University of London and courses in Ukrainian language have been offered in Switzerland at the University of Bern and the University of Fribourg.

At La Sapienza, also known as the University of Rome, for the first time a course of Ukrainian literature was officially introduced last year. It was taught by the prominent Ukrainian scholar and literary critic Oksana Pachlovska.

In order to provide an impetus at this, the Western world's largest university, with well over 140,000 students, the chairperson of the Department of Slavic Studies and Eastern Europe, Prof. Mario Capaldo, and Prof. Emanuella Sgambatti who heads the Ukrainian studies area, invited Prof. Leonid Rudnytzky (La Salle University) to deliver a lecture on Ukrainian literature and its contemporary status. Thus, in Rome, Italy, on Wednesday, March 4, at the historic Villa Miraflori, Slavic scholars and students gathered to take part in this event. The eminent Italian Slavist, Prof. Sante Graciotti, eloquently introduced the speaker as a scholar of comparative literature who in addition to being the director of the Central and Eastern European program at La Salle University, in Philadelphia, Pa., also heads the Shevchenko Scientific Society and serves as the pro-rector of the Ukrainian Free University in Munich.

Prof. Rudnytzky greeted the assembled audience in Italian and then delivered his lecture in Ukrainian - copies of an Italian translation having been provided to the participants. He began his remarks with the notion that the literature of any nation is a living organism: it is born, it lives, it grows, and sometimes, depending on historical circumstances, it withers or even dies. He concluded his analysis with several observations regarding the development of contemporary Ukrainian literature and the status of Ukrainian studies.

Briefly noted

Columbia University's Harriman Institute in January announced the creation of a new endowment fund, the Volodymyr O. and Lydia Z. Bazarko Fellowship, and the establishment of a Petro Jacyk Visiting Professorship. Dr. Sysyn was the first to benefit from the Jacyk endowment, and in the spring term taught a course titled "Problems in Modern Ukrainian History."
The Kennan Institute of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars announced in February the opening of a Kyiv project office to better effect its program of seminars, conferences and the granting of scholarships and fellowships.
On April 17 the Prairie Center for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage was formally inaugurated at the University of Saskatchewan and its first director, Prof. Bohdan Kordan, introduced. Sen. Raynell Andreychuk and former Saskatchewan Lt. Gov. Stephen Worobetz delivered addresses.
On June 24, the Center for Ukrainian Studies at St. Andrew's College in Winnipeg honored seven major benefactors whose contributions made possible the development of the center's programs and the establishment of several scholarships.
The Weekly's August 22 issue carried an article about the Taras Shevchenko Foundation's grant to the Ukrainian Center for Multimedia, Interactive Learning and Digital Publishing at the University of Alberta, whose goal is to turn the Ukrainian language and literature program in the department of modern languages and cultural studies into the leading site for the delivery of Ukrainian courses in digital form.
The Erast Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography at the University of Alberta celebrated its 10th anniversary in September with a special conference attracting scholars from North America and Ukraine. The event featured performances by various dance and artistic groups.
The U.S. Information Agency announced a grant of $296,000 to Montclair State University of New Jersey to establish a partnership with Kirovohrad State University in Ukraine.

The vindication of a Cold Warrior

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