Manoly Lupul, former director of CIUS, named to the Order of Canada (08/24/03)

Manoly Lupul, former director of CIUS, named to the Order of Canada

EDMONTON - Dr. Manoly R. Lupul has been named to the Order of Canada, the country's highest honor for lifetime achievement.

The announcement of new appointments, released by Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson on August 5 of this year, stated that "Manoly Lupul has worked to preserve and enhance Ukrainian culture and language within Canada's multicultural mosaic."

A highly respected teacher, scholar, educational innovator and administrator, Dr. Lupul played an important role in the development of multicultural policy in Canada in its formative and early stages, culminating in its enshrinement in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

A native of Willingdon, Alberta, Dr. Lupul was educated at the universities of Alberta (B.A., 1950, and B. Ed., 1951), Minnesota (M.A., 1955), and Harvard (Ph.D., 1963). Dr. Lupul joined the staff of Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta in 1958, retiring in 1990.

He is the author of "The Roman Catholic Church and the North-West School Question," a pioneering study that remains the definitive work on the topic. Over the course of his distinguished academic career, he also edited several books and published numerous articles on a wide range of topics that included education in western Canada, church-state relations, minority education, the politics of language and culture in Canada, multiculturalism and the history of Ukrainians in Canada.

At the same time, Dr. Lupul showed exceptional leadership and organizational skills within the university community. It was largely through his efforts that native studies courses were introduced at the University of Alberta in the 1960s. He played a key role in establishing the first native studies course in the Faculty of Education - A History of Native Education in Canada - well before courses of this kind were introduced in other university departments.

Dr. Lupul was also a founder of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta. Under his leadership as its first director (1976-1986) the CIUS emerged as an internationally recognized center of Ukrainian studies. One of the institute's major accomplishments, initiated under his leadership, was the publication of the six-volume Encyclopedia of Ukraine. This ambitious scholarly endeavor has often been compared to the Canadian Encyclopedia in terms of its magnitude and scope.

Dr. Lupul's signal contribution has been the promotion and defense of multiculturalism in Canada. In his writings, such as "Multiculturalism and Canadian National Identity," "Canada's Options in a Time of Political Crisis and Their Implications for Multiculturalism," and "Multiculturalism as State Policy," Dr. Lupul elaborated on some of the philosophical and moral principles that justified the adoption of multicultural policies at the federal and provincial levels of government.

Dr. Lupul also pointed out the need for government support for second-language education, addressed in such essays as "Bilingual Education and the Ukrainian in Western Canada: Possibilities and Problems" and "Ukrainian-Language Education in Canada's Public Schools."

He followed up with practical work by helping to support educational programs in the newly established Ukrainian-English bilingual school program in Alberta. This was done largely through research and publication programs at the CIUS, which under his leadership developed educational materials for teachers and students.

Dr. Lupul promoted understanding of Canada's multicultural diversity not only in his writings, but also in practice. He supported, organized and participated in seminars and conferences on Ukrainian relations with Jews, Russians, Germans and Poles. His commitment to these endeavors reflected his firm belief that in a democratic and multicultural society it is crucial for ethnic groups, often historically antagonistic, to discuss past and current issues openly in a scholarly context.

In 2002 Dr. Lupul was honored by his alma mater, receiving the Alumni Honor Award. He will receive the Order of Canada in a ceremony in Ottawa at a later date. A passionate Canadian who is equally proud of his Ukrainian roots, Dr. Lupul now makes his home in Calgary.

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