Science and Education

Jews and Ukrainians: A Millennium of Co-Existence by Paul Robert Magocsi and Yohan Petrovsky-Shtern is long-awaited book. It is unique, since it provides answers to some of the crucial questions facing all of us who work in the humanities in the twenty-first century. It makes each of us—not to mention the entire intellectual community—reflect upon the question put forth by Professor Magocsi: why is it that conflicts, wars, confrontations, and destructions attract more attention from researchers than do periods of relative well-being? Why do analysts and scholars tend to focus on such topics? Why, finally, are these topics more interesting for readers? I believe that these are...

A new resource for teaching and learning about the Holodomor was officially launched on September 27 in Toronto. About two hundred people joined dignitaries at the hall of the Ukrainian National Federation for a presentation of Holodomor in Ukraine, the Genocidal Famine 1932–1933: Learning Materials for Teachers and Students, authored by Valentina Kuryliw, director of education for the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (HREC) at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS, University of Alberta)...

HREC Education is pleased to announce that our national panel of four education adjudicators has selected the 2018 winners of the HREC Educator Prize for Holodomor Lesson Plan Development, awarded this year for the first time to mark the 85th year of commemorating the Ukrainian genocide known as the Holodomor. This year the judges have awarded a total of five prizes to educators, totaling $4,200. The top 3 winners who will receive a $1,000 prize are: Michael Anthony, Weston Collegiate Institute, Toronto District School Board, Ontario (for grades 11 and 12 lesson plans); Jeff Kozak, Springfield Middle School, Sunrise School Division, Winnipeg, Manitoba (for grade 7 lesson plan); Olga Chassé, St. Martin Catholic School, Edmonton District School Board, Alberta (for grade 5 lesson plan). Individual prizes vary up to, but not exceeding, $1,000.00 CDN and are awarded per grade level based on the quality of submissions...

The conference is organized by the Kule Folklore Centre at the University of Alberta and its Friends Society in cooperation with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta. The purpose of the conference Ukrainian Archival Collections in Canada: Preserving the Past, Building the Future is to bring together researchers, archivists, curators, collection managers, and other custodians of Ukrainian Canadian archival collections in order to start a conversation among stewards of Ukrainian cultural documentary heritage. This conference aims to increase awareness about Ukrainian heritage collections in Canada, survey problem areas and needs of archival collections. It will help establish connections and collaboration among the institutions, will provide an opportunity to share knowledge and successes and, therefore, improve their sustainability. The conference is the first event within a larger program of the Kule Folklore Centre with a working title; Sustainable Ukrainian Canadian Heritage...

On 15 February 2018, the Contemporary Ukraine Studies Program (CUSP) at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) launched its new website, a significantly redesigned and updated online resource replacing that of its predecessor, the Centre for Political and Regional Studies (est 2013). Contemporary Ukraine has been a focus of the research done by CIUS since its very beginnings. For over 40 years, socio-economic topics as well as the dissident movement, religion and church in Soviet Ukraine, issues in contemporary politics, and Ukrainian-Russian relations have been explored in depth by many scholars associated with CIUS...

Demographer Oleh Wolowyna delivered a lecture in Toronto on February 22 titled “Regarding Questions about the Study of the Holodomor.” The event was sponsored by the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta), the John Yaremko Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, the Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada, the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre, the Ucrainica Research Institute, and the BCU Foundation’s Yurij Skripchinski Holodomor Education Fund...

A case study developed by the UCU Leadership Center together with the UCU Lviv Business School (LvBS) will be used at Canada’s Ivey Business School. The case study involves the conduct of reforms at the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine after the Revolution of Dignity. A group of researchers and experts from the UCU Leadership Center and the UCU Lviv Business School worked on the case study. It includes the history of the work of the so-called “volunteer troop,” activists and volunteers who worked at the ministry after the revolutionary events of 2013-2014 and set a goal of introducing changes in the area of Ukraine’s defence...

The life and work of Rhea Clyman, who was one of the few journalists to witness and report on the Holodomor, was the topic of the 20th Toronto Annual Ukrainian Famine Lecture delivered by Jars Balan, Director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, on November 28th, 2017 at the University of Toronto. Following introductory remarks delivered by Dr. Frank Sysyn of the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium, a co-organizer of the event, Balan offered a captivating account of this ambitious and unrelenting journalist. He began by setting the context of Clyman’s childhood years, describing Toronto in the early 1900s when the Clymans, a poor immigrant Jewish family, emigrated from Poland and settled in the city...

A leading publisher in Istanbul, Yapi Kredi Yayinlari, has recently released what is probably the first scholarly book about Ukraine in the Turkish language. The book in question is This Blessed Land: Crimea and the Crimean Tatars, by Professor Paul Robert Magocsi, Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. This Blessed Land, which first appeared in 2014 in three separate English-, Russian-, and Ukrainian-language editions, is now available to readers in Ukraine’s strategically important neighbor to the south—Turkey. What follows is Professor Magocsi’s new preface written specially for the Turkish edition...

Montreal: The Ukrainian-language educational version of the documentary film “Okradena Zemlya” has been completed ushering in the upcoming 85th anniversary of the 1932-33 Famine Genocide in Soviet Ukraine. The new documentary release will add to the resource material available for Ukrainian-language teachers in Canada, the United States, Ukraine and other countries. This documentary is a shortened version of the original 75 min feature documentary directed and edited by filmmaker Yurij Luhovy. The Ukrainian-language educational release includes two versions for teachers to select from (28 min and a 54 min), on one DVD. Teachers of the Holodomor can choose the version that better fits into the length of their class time...