NEW YORK – Columbia University’s Harriman Institute will be offering a unique course in the spring 2017 semester – “Ukraine in New York” – focusing on the history and development of the Ukrainian community in New York City. Prof. Alexander Motyl of Rutgers University will teach the course, which will be open to both graduate and undergraduate students.
“Ukraine in New York” is a multidisciplinary exploration of the Ukrainian American community in New York City from its beginnings in the late 19th century to the present. The course focuses on the history, politics, culture, demographics, economics, religion and society of the community, devoting particular attention to the influence of the New York setting, the tensions encountered in navigating between America, Soviet Ukraine and independent Ukraine, the impact on community politics and culture of major crises (World War I, Ukrainian independence in 1918, the Famine of 1932-1933, World War II, Ukrainian independence in 1991, and the Euro-Maidan Revolution of 2014), identity shifts within and between immigrant waves, and self-representations.
Guest lecturers will be invited to several sessions; a walking tour of the Ukrainian neighborhood in lower Manhattan, as well as conversations with community leaders, scholars, and artists will be organized.
Individual sessions will be devoted to the following topics: coming to North America, the geography of settlement, the fall of the Lower East Side and the rise of the East Village, changing demographics and economics, between America and Ukraine, inter-wave dynamics, and identity and cultural self-representations. In particular, students will explore The Ukrainian Weekly, the Ukrainian National Association, the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, the New York Group of Poets and other community institutions.
Born and raised on New York City’s Lower East Side, prof. Motyl (Ph.D., Columbia University, 1984) is professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark. He served as associate director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University in 1992-1998. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia and the USSR, he is the author of six academic volumes, the editor or co-editor of “The Encyclopedia of Nationalism,” “The Holodomor Reader” and “The Great West Ukrainian Prison Massacre of 1941: A Sourcebook,” and the author of nine novels.