EDMONTON, Alberta – Father Bohdan Prach, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv since 2013, visited the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) and the dean of arts at the University of Alberta on May 1. A day earlier Father Prach took part in the CIUS-co-sponsored book launch at the St. Josaphat Cathedral Hall of his two-volume study on the clergy of Peremyshl Eparchy between 1939 and 1989.
The study documents the fate of 1,000 Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergymen on the basis of Father Prach’s decades-long examination of archives and collection of over 5,000 interviews and eyewitness testimonies. Through his visit to Edmonton he sought to strengthen the close relationship between CIUS and UCU.
During his meeting with Prof. Volodymyr Kravchenko, CIUS director; Prof. Frank Sysyn, director of the Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research; Dr. Bohdan Klid, CIUS assistant director; and Dr. Stephen Bello, CIUS’s newly appointed team leader, Father Prach outlined his plans for the development of new fields and programs at UCU that would answer the needs of post-Maidan Ukraine.
Dr. Kravchenko informed the rector of the numerous new initiatives at the CIUS, especially those focusing on contemporary Ukraine. Dr. Kravchenko also drew attention to the various CIUS programs in Ukraine and the desirability of closer cooperation among them and with the University of Alberta.
The meeting was also devoted to the signing of a new memorandum of understanding between CIUS and UCU to facilitate the work of the Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Modern Ukrainian History and Society. Founded in 1989 through an endowment of the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation as part of the Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research at the CIUS, the program involves faculty and staff at the UCU and the Lviv Ivan Franko National University (LNU). The program has been headed by a prominent specialist in modern Ukrainian history, Prof. Yaroslav Hrytsak. Its activities are closely connected with the Institute for Historical Research at the LNU.
In addition to producing one of the most prominent historical journals in Ukraine, Ukraïna Moderna, the program organizes a series of publications titled “Memoirs, Diaries, Interviews” and of archival and source materials, such as the collected works of Father Mykhailo Zubrytsky, and also supports research projects. The program sponsored the research of Prof. Oleksandr Zaitsev, whose recent monograph on Ukrainian nationalism won numerous book awards, as well as Dr. Liliana Hentosh’s forthcoming book about Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.
The University of Alberta’s dean of arts, Prof. Lesley Cormack, received Father Prach and his staff, accompanied by Profs. Kravchenko and Sysyn. In presenting his vision of UCU’s role in spearheading educational reform in Ukraine, Father Prach emphasized the importance of Western partners such as the University of Alberta.
His expression of thanks to Dean Cormack for “your support of our institute” demonstrated how deeply educational institutions and scholars in Ukraine identify with the CIUS and the Ukrainian programs at the University of Alberta. Father Prach invited Dean Cormack to come to Lviv as soon as her schedule permits. In turn, Dean Cormack reiterated the University of Alberta’s commitment to the CIUS and Ukrainian studies.
She was especially pleased that the UCU would be looking to the University of Alberta as a destination for UCU graduates wishing to pursue master’s and doctoral studies.