NEWS AND VIEWS: Shevchenko Scientific Society promotes Ukrainian studies (02/24/02)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Shevchenko Scientific Society promotes Ukrainian studies

by Dr. Orest Popovych

NEW YORK - It is only natural that a decade of Ukraine's independence has engendered increasing interest on the part of scholars and students in the study of the Ukrainian language, literature, history and culture. In American academia, this has been accompanied by a gradual emancipation of Ukrainian studies from their second-class status within Russian-area departments in many (though not all) universities to a discipline that is accorded independent recognition.

Much of the progress in this regard can be attributed to the determined efforts on the part of Ukrainists, including scholars of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) of America, who by their active participation in mainstream American and international scholarly conferences have elevated Ukrainian topics to the level they deserve.

For example, NTSh, which is a member of a number of American scholarly organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), showed up in force at the latter's 33rd National Convention, which was held in Crystal City, Va., on November 15-18, 2001.

An annual meeting of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies also took place there on November 17. It featured two related keynote addresses which defined the major objectives of the Ukrainists: Borys Tarasyuk, the former foreign affairs minister of Ukraine, spoke on "What We Should Do for Ukraine," followed by the NTSh President Larissa Onyshkevych, who developed this theme into a detailed program of action in her address titled "What Can we, as Ukrainists, do for Ukraine?"

Furthermore, NTSh organized two panels at the AAASS conference: a roundtable discussion on the topic "Current Ukrainian: Rules vs. Usage," which was chaired by Anna Lisa Crone, with papers presented by Andriy Danylenko, Assya Humesky, Dr. Onyshkevych and Svitlana Rogovyk, and another, titled "Western European Thought in 19th-Century Ukraine," chaired by Dr. Onyshkevych, with papers by Prof. Danylenko, Prof. Humesky and Anna Procyk, with Tamara Hundorova as the discussant.

In addition, NTSh members participated in a number of other sessions, in particular the roundtable devoted to the Anthology of Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry, chaired by Catherine Wanner. Here NTSh was represented by Antonina Berezovenko, Olha Luchuk, Michael Naydan and Myroslava Znayenko. Ukrainian themes were also explored in a session dealing with the beginnings of modern Ukrainian history. In other sessions, individual papers were presented by NTSh members Natalie Kononenko, Marianne Rubchak, Mark von Hagen, Dr. Wanner and Maria Rewakowicz.

At the conclusion of the conference, NTSh hosted a reception for all the AAASS participants interested in Ukrainian studies.

The AAASS Convention was not the only forum where NTSh promoted Ukrainian studies in 2001. As a founding member of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), NTSh traditionally holds panels at the ASN national and world conventions. Earlier in the year, at the sixth world convention of the ASN, held at Columbia University, NTSh sponsored a roundtable on "Identity in Ukraine," which was chaired by Prof. Procyk. Papers were presented by NTSh members: Prof. Danylenko ("Linguistics and Identity"), Taras Hunczak ("History and Identity"), Eleanore Solovey ("Literature and Identity") and Oleksander Zaytsev ("Politics and Identity").

That meeting also featured a second NTSh panel, titled "Dilemmas of Minority Language Policies in East Central Europe." It was chaired by Dr. Onyshkevych, with the following speakers, all of whom focused on the status of the Ukrainian language: Martha Trofimenko on "International Standards and Policies Regarding Linguistic Rights"; Lubica Bobotowa on "Language Policies in Slovakia"; Prof. Znayenko on "Language Policies in Poland"; and Dr. Berezovenko on "Language Policies in Russia." Other NTSh members who presented their individual papers at this convention were Oleh Wolowyna and Yaroslav Bilinsky.

NTSh plans to intensify its promotion of Ukrainian studies worldwide in a variety of ways, among them by expanding its collaboration with colleagues in Ukraine, by enabling their participation in joint as well as international conferences, by continuing to offer prizes to outstanding specialists in the Ukrainian language, by sponsoring scholars and students from Ukraine, and by coordinating efforts to educate a pool of specialists in the Ukrainian language, literature and culture.

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