Leading Ukrainian scholarly institutions confer at Shevchenko Society (11/05/06)

Leading Ukrainian scholarly institutions confer at Shevchenko Society

NEW YORK - The Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) on October 21 hosted the third meeting of the representatives of leading scholarly institutions and programs dedicated to Ukrainian studies.

Held at the NTSh headquarters, the conference was a follow-up to two previous such meetings, held on October 1, 2005, and May 6 of this year.

Dr. Orest Popovych, president of NTSh, welcomed the participants, recognizing first Dr. Larissa Onyshkevych, the immediate past-president of NTSh, who had initiated these conferences. He then extended special welcome to first-time participants Dr. Michael S. Flier, director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) and Oleksandr Potebnja Professor of Ukrainian Philology at Harvard University, as well as the Rev. Dr. Borys Gudziak, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv.

Also in attendance were (in the order of their presentations): Dr. Frank Sysyn, director of the Peter Jacyk Center at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS); Dr. Lubomyr Hayda, HURI; Dr. Zenon Kohut, CIUS director; Dr. Myroslava Znayenko, president of the American Association of Ukrainian Studies (AAUS); Dr. Mark von Hagen, chair of both the Ukrainian Studies Program and the department of history at Columbia University; Dr. Roman Procyk, vice-president and learned secretary of NTSh, representing the Ukrainian Studies Fund; Dr. Albert Kipa, president of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S. (UVAN) and rector of the Ukrainian Free University (UFU) in Munich, Germany; and Dr. George Grabowicz, Dmytro Chyzhevsky Professor of Ukrainian Literature at Harvard University, representing the Krytyka magazine and publishing house.

In the general part of the program, each representative was given five minutes to report about the latest developments at the given institution in the areas of scholarships, grants, publications, scholarly conferences and archives.

Dr. Popovych distributed copies of the recent NTSh announcements about the society's pre-doctoral scholarships and the new post-doctoral fellowships in Ukrainian studies. He also spoke about continued financial support for the publications of the NTSh in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University and the archeological excavations at Baturyn in Ukraine.

Dr. Sysyn reported on the work by the CIUS on the electronic encyclopedia of Ukraine, the publication of the Journal of Ukrainian Studies and the English translations of the volumes of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine." The CIUS is also planning conferences to mark the anniversaries of the Holodomor and the battle of Poltava in 1709.

Drs. Hayda and Flier presented a rich menu of the seminars, symposia and exhibitions on Ukrainian themes either taking place or planned at HURI. They also announced that 12 post-doctoral fellows will be doing research at the HURI this year, each for a period of four months.

Dr. Kohut reported about the extensive publication program at CIUS, its support of the Baturyn excavations project, and an exchange program between the University of Alberta and Lviv University for undergraduate students.

Dr. Znayenko, representing some 60 members of the AAUS, spoke about her society's participation in scholarly conferences and the awarding of prizes for the best works of Ukrainian literature.

Dr. von Hagen cited examples of recent activities at the Ukrainian Studies Program of Columbia University: a roundtable in Washington, devoted to the subject of Ukraine and NATO; conferences on Babyn Yar, on Nadia Svitlychna, and with Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk. Also active at Columbia University is the Ukrainian Film Club, run by Dr. Yuri Shevchuk.

Dr. Procyk stressed the need to find benefactors for Ukrainian scholarly institutions. In the case of archives, he advised that copies be retained in North America when transferring the originals to Ukraine.

Dr. Kipa reported that both UVAN and UFU were in a state of financial crisis. According to him, the financial resources of the UFU will be exhausted by the end of October after which the university will be run by unpaid volunteers. Teaching at the UFU is expected to end in July 2007. The good news is that at UVAN work is being done on the archives and their electronic version will hopefully appear soon.

Dr. Grabowicz spoke about the joint publication projects of Krytyka and HURI. As examples he cited books by Yaroslav Hrytsak, Tamara Hundorova, Yurii Andrukhovych and Vasyl Makhno. He announced proudly that Krytyka was voted the best publishing house in Ukraine.

The second half of the meeting was devoted to more specific recent problems, such as the crisis in the area of the state archives of Ukraine, and the efforts by some universities in Ukraine to gain autonomy.

Directly involved in these efforts is the Rev. Dr. Gudziak, who reported that the UCU is one of the eight universities that formed a consortium designed to develop Ph.D. programs in humanities and social sciences according to Western models. At present, the official educational establishment in Ukraine does not recognize the American Ph.D. degree as a doctorate, confirmed the Rev. Gudziak. If Ukraine's educational system is to modernize, it must do so independently of the government and its ministries, according to the Rev. Gudziak.

The conferees were unanimous in their agreement to meet again in the spring of 2007, albeit perhaps with a less ambitious agenda.

Prof. Vasyl Makhno served as the recording secretary for the above conference.

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