Folklore and Ethnology Draw Attendance at National Conference

Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore Press Release

The Canadian Association of Slavists (CAS) annual conference was held on May 26-28, 2007 at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and ethnologists were pleased to note that the number of panel discussions regarding Ukrainian Ethnology doubled from the previous year and quadrupled from 2005.

Seven panel discussions addressed topics in Ukrainian Folklore and Ethnology. There was a large contingency of speakers from the University of Alberta’s Peter and Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore that included Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky, Director and Huculak Chair in Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography and Dr. Natalie Kononenko, Kule Chair in Ukrainian Ethnography; who spoke on “ Ukrainian Ballads in Canada”. From the Centre’s Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives, Dr. Bohdan Medwidsky presented a paper on “Revisiting High and Low Culture:  Two Sides of the Same Coin”; Dr. Peter Holloway presented “Packaging Ukrainian Folklore for Schools” and; Nadya Foty, Archivist, talked about “Data Collection and Retrieval: Current Projects at the Archives”.  University of Alberta graduate students from the Modern Languages and Cultural Studies Department, Mariya Lesiv, Andriy Chernevych, and Greg Borowetz presented papers on: “Constructing Charisma:  Leaders of the Ukrainian Neo-Pagan Movements”; “The Ukrainian-Canadian Pysanka in the Context of Western Aesthetics”; “Pioneer Stories:  Family Narratives about Immigration and Settlement among Ukrainian Canadians” and; “Dual Coding in the Proverbs of Kalendar kanadiis ‘koho farmera.”

 Speakers from other Canadian institutions included Andrij Makuch, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies; Peter Melnycky, Alberta Historic Site and Museums; David Makowsky, Gord Yaremchuk, and Vita Holoborodko, independent scholars; Irene Jendzjowsky, Provincial Archives of Alberta; Dr. Natalia Shostak, University of Saskatchewan; Orysia Tracz, Dr. Denis Hlynka, and Dr. Robert Klymasz, University of Manitoba; and Lessia Petriv, Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, Alberta Historic Sites and Museums.

They were joined by a record number of participants from Ukraine: Dr. Maryna Hrymych, University of Kyiv; Dr. Yuriy Makar and Dr. Vitaliy Makar, Chernivtsi National University and;  Dr. Iryna Matiash, Ukrainian Research Institute for Archival and Records Studies, Kyiv. 

Conference participants attended a reception at the St. Thomas More Gallery where they enjoyed the exhibition Far, Far Away: Postcards from Pre-revolutionary Ukraine organized by The Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage (PCUH) and St. Thomas More Gallery.  The Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Association of Ukrainian Ethnology (CAUE) was also held at the conference.  The Kule Centre extended its thanks to Radomir Bilash, President of CAUE, for encouraging so many panel participants to submit their presentations for discussion. 

Based on the record attendance at the 2007 conference, the CAS looks forward to increased numbers of participants and audience at next year’s conference.