Becoming Canadian: Ukrainians in Canada from  Eve to Aftermath of Second World War

Conference for November 11-12, 2011, at Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre (Oseredok), Winnipeg

Call for Papers – Proposals Submission Deadline: May 31, 2011

The Second World War marked a turning point in the history of Ukrainians in Canada. The conflict simultaneously heightened tensions within the Ukrainian community while uniting fractious and formerly hostile organizations in common cause with Canada’s war effort. The War further helped to change mainstream perceptions of Ukrainians as an undesirable and inassimilable “foreign” element in Canadian society, and made sudden and unlikely Allies of the Western democracies and the Soviet Union as the European conflict widened with the Nazi invasion of the USSR.

We are interested in soliciting proposals for papers dealing with all aspects of Ukrainian Canadian life between 1938 and 1946. Presentations examining Ukrainian organizational, social, religious, political and cultural history during this period are welcome, as are papers dealing with the participation of Ukrainians in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, the Canadian Armed Forces, attitudes towards conscription, and community involvement in activities on the Home Front. Of course, the formation of the UCC and the Canadian government seizure of Ukrainian Labour Temples, along with the internment of Ukrainian Canadian Communist leaders and trade unionists, are also topics that we hope to see addressed in presentations and panels. We are likewise interested in receiving proposals dealing with the impact that events in Ukrainian lands had on Ukrainians in Canada, such as the short-lived creation of the Carpatho-Ukrainian Republic; the German-Soviet invasion of Galicia and the Soviet annexation of Bukovyna; and how the battles and developments on the Eastern Front were reported on by the press in Canada.

Proposals for papers should include a title and a 250 word abstract, as well as short biography of the presenter. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2011. Send your details to Jars Balan, Administrative Co-ordinator, Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre, University of Alberta, at jbalan@ualberta.ca.

Sponsored by the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at the University of Manitoba and the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre (KUCSC) at CIUS, in partnership with the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba.