UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Woskob Family Foundation, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Agricultural Sciences, and the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence and 25 years of Ukrainian studies at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa., on Tuesday, April 4.
The event will also mark 25 years of cooperation in Forestry and Agricultural Sciences with the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences (NULES) in Kyiv. The rector and representatives of NULES will be in attendance at the daylong series of events.
The schedule for the day includes the following:
• 3 p.m. – Helen Woskob’s memoirs “Freedom and Beyond: My Journey from Ukraine to a New Life in America,” as well as Prof. Michael Naydan’s novel about the city of Lviv, “Seven Signs of the Lion,” will be launched at the Hintz Alumni Center on the Penn State University Park campus. Actor Michael Bernosky will provide dramatic readings from both books.
• 4 p.m. – Markian Dobczansky (Ph.D. in history from Stanford University and Jacyk Fellow at the University of Toronto) will present a lecture on “The Legacy of Soviet State-Building: A Historical Primer on the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict” at the Hintz Alumni Center.
• 5 p.m. – Dean Susan Welch of the College of Liberal Arts and Dean Richard Roush of the College of Agricultural Sciences will open a reception at the Hintz Alumni Center.
• 5:15-7 p.m. – A reception sponsored by the Woskob Family of State College will be held at the Hintz Alumni Center in honor of the 25th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence and to mark 25 years of Ukrainian studies in liberal arts and agricultural sciences at Penn State. There will also be an exhibit of woodcarvings by Ukrainian artist Serhiy Karpenko during the reception.
• 7:30 p.m. – The Ukrainian world music group DakhaBrakha will perform in Schwab Auditorium. The performance is sponsored by The Woskob Family Foundation at Penn State.
Dr. Dobczansky studied Soviet, East European and imperial Russian history at Stanford University. The topic of his dissertation was “From Soviet Heartland to Ukrainian Borderland: Searching for Identity in Kharkiv, 1943-2004.” His academic interests include Soviet history, nationalism, Russian-Ukrainian relations and urban history.
DakhaBraka is a world-renowned group from Ukraine whose music, described as “ethno-chaos,” presents unexpected music at the intersection of folklore and theater. Using traditional music from various regions of Ukraine as a starting point, the quartet incorporates rhythms from around the planet to create a bright, fierce and unforgettable sound. (For information on tickets call 814-863-0255 or go to cpa.psu.edu or http://cpa.psu.edu/news/dakhabrakha-infuse-controlled-rhythmic-chaos-april-4.)
Mr. Karpenko is an artist who was born in the town of Koziatyn, Vinnytsia region of Ukraine. Originally educated as a physical education teacher, he has been a woodcarver since 1993. He has exhibited throughout Ukraine and the U.S. His woodcarvings are known for extraordinary detailed and refined technique, as well as for the presentation of traditional Ukrainian historical themes in the unique medium of wood bas-relief.