Kolasky Fellowships Facilitate Exchange of Knowledge

By Bohdan Klid

In 2005/2006 there were five recipients of the John Kolasky Memorial Fellowship: Viktor Brekhunenko, Olha Luchuk, Myroslav Marynovych, Yurii Pokalchuk, and Iryna Tiurmenko. Each Kolasky Fellow is required to conduct research or work on a project and to give lectures to academic and Ukrainian community audiences.

Iryna Tiurmenko, Professor of History

A professor of history at the National University of Food and Technology in Kyiv, Iryna Tiurmenko's research focused on Metropolitan Ilarion (Ivan Ohiienko) and on the Ukrainian diaspora. In Winnipeg, Professor Tiurmenko researched at the Consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre (Oseredok), and the University of Manitoba. She also worked in the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa. Professor Tiurmenko was hosted and assisted by many individuals and institutions, among them Dr. Roman Yereniuk of Winnipeg, the Reverend Ihor Okhrymchuk of Ottawa, the Reverend Ihor Kutash of Montreal, the Consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, and the Volyn Society.

While in Canada, Professor Tiurmenko delivered lectures on Metropolitan Ilarion’s state-building views; the architecture of the Ukrainian baroque; Ukrainian culture between the Scythian-Sarmatian and Classical periods; the introduction of Christianity in Kyivan Rus’; and the Hetmanate of the 17th and 18th centuries. Tiurmenko is the author of the monograph Derzhavnyts’ka diial’nist’ Ivana Ohiienka [Mytropolyta Ilariona]) (State-Oriented Activities of Ivan Ohiienko [Metropolitan Ilarion]) as well as many articles on the Metropolitan’s life and activities. She has published articles on Ukrainian culture and learning and on Cossack Ukraine and is also co-editor of the textbook Kul’turolohiia: teoriia ta istoriia kul’tury (Cultural Studies: The Theory and History of Culture).

Myroslav Marynovych, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University

From January to April 2006, Myroslav Marynovych, vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, was hosted by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) and the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa. In Canada, Marynovych conducted research on the diaspora movement in support of a patriarchate for the Ukrainian Catholic Church and its influence on the formation of a new ecclesiastical identity, as well as on the Church’s attitude to ecumenism.

While in Edmonton, Marynovych worked in the Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Library at CIUS, the University of Alberta (U of A) Library, and St. Joseph’s College at the U of A. He also delivered the Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture on religious freedom in Ukraine and spoke on the dynamics of Ukrainian  interfaith and inter-church relations. In Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto, he spoke to community groups about politics and religion in Ukraine and his life as a political prisoner. In Ottawa, Marynovych researched in the St. Paul’s University Library. He also lectured on the spiritual experiences of prisoners in the Soviet GULAG and on ecclesiastical issues facing a post-totalitarian society.

Marynovych was a co-founder in 1976 of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, a human-rights organization. In 1977, he was arrested by the Soviet authorities for his human rights work and sentenced to seven years in forced-labour camps, followed by five years’ exile. Released in 1987, he returned to Ukraine, where he taught the history of religion in Ukraine at the Drohobych Pedagogical Institute (1990-94). Since 1997 he has been the director of the Institute of Religion and Society at the Lviv Theological Academy (Ukrainian Catholic University since 2003) and, since 2000, a vice-rector for external affairs. Marynovych is the author of numerous works on religion, politics and human rights.

Viktor Brekhu-nenko, Head, History and Theory of Archaeo-graphy, National Academy of Sciences

From January to April 2006, Viktor Brekhunenko, head of the Division of the History and Theory of Archaeography, Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv), was in Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton to conduct research on the typology of Cossack communities. Hosted initially by the CIUS office at the University of Toronto, Dr. Brekhunenko spent most of his stay in Winnipeg, where he was hosted by Dr. Roman Yereniuk of St. Andrew’s College, and at CIUS in Edmonton. In Winnipeg, he worked in the archive of Metropolitan Ilarion, while in Edmonton he worked largely in the U of A Library.

While in Canada, Dr. Brekhunenko lectured on the Muscovite conception of the Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654 and on political developments in Ukraine since the Orange Revolution. He also spoke on the Dnipropetrovsk school of Ukrainian Cossack history, the Treaty of Pereiaslav (1654), Russo-Ukrainian relations, and the current work of the Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography.

A specialist in the early history of Cossack Ukraine, Brekhunenko is the author of more than 80 scholarly works. In his latest study, Moskovs’ka ekspansiia i Pereiaslavs’ka Rada 1654 r. (Muscovite Expansion and the Pereiaslav Council of 1654), published in 2005, Dr. Brekhunenko traces the origins of Muscovy’s  conception of the Treaty of Pereiaslav in the context of its expansionist strategies between the 14th and 17th centuries.

Yurii Pokalchuk, Writer and Social Activist

In February and March 2006, the Kyiv-based writer Yurii Pokalchuk was in Edmonton to work on an anthology of prose to be published in Ukraine. Hosted by  CIUS at the U of A, Pokalchuk worked on this project with George Melnyk, a professor in the Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary. He also consulted with Jars Balan of CIUS and with writers Rudy Wiebe, Robert Kroetsch, Myrna Kostash, and Candace Jane Dorsey.  The planned anthology consists of works by 20 authors on the theme of love in Alberta.

In Edmonton, Pokalchuk, who volunteers with juvenile delinquents, gave a lecture co-sponsored by the Ukrainian Canadian Archives and Museum of Alberta on working with Ukraine’s juvenile delinquents in the creative arts. Pokalchuk is also the author of some 15 books of prose and poetry and is a member of a Ukrainian rock/jazz group. He has also served as the president of the Association of Ukrainian Writers.

On his way back to Ukraine, he spoke, in Toronto, about his community activities and writing. 

Olha Luchuk, Professor of International Affairs, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

In March and April 2006, Olha Luchuk, professor in the Faculty of International Affairs at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and head of the Department of English at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, was hosted by the Petro Jacyk Program at the University of Toronto’s Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies and by CIUS at the U of A. Professor Luchuk came to Canada to research the epistolary legacy of the late professor George S. N. Luckyj, a renowned specialist in Ukrainian literature. She worked in Luckyj’s archives at the University of Toronto and in the archives of Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky at the U of A. In Toronto she lectured on George Luckyj and his contemporaries and on new perspectives in contemporary Ukrainian politics, history and culture. She also participated in a round-table on the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary elections. In Edmonton she lectured on the reception of Ukrainian literature in North America.

Olha Luchuk is the author of Dialohichna pryroda literatury (The Dialogic Nature of Literature) and scholarly articles on translation and literary studies. She is also a co-author and compiler of Sto rokiv iunosti (One Hundred Years of Youth), an anthology of 20th-century Ukrainian poetry in English translation, published in 2000.

Supporting the Program

The visits by the John Kolasky Memorial Fellows are testimony to the fellowship program’s success. Many of the Fellows are distinguished scholars and experts who have been able to achieve their scholarly goals as a result of their stays in Canada and have shared their knowledge with audiences in many Canadian cities.

Sponsoring scholars and other professionals from Ukraine to work on a project or do research in Canada continues to be of critical importance, as Ukraine’s educational institutions are still extremely under-funded.

The John Kolasky Memorial Endowment Fund was established as the Ukraine Exchange Fellowship Endowment Fund in 1990 by William and Justine Fedeyko, Peter Kindrachuk (1912-1998) and Pauline Kindrachuk, and John Kolasky (1915-1997) to support Ukrainian scholars and professionals conducting scholarly research or updating skills in Canada. The fund was renamed in 1998 in honour of its co-founder, the late John Kolasky.

Thanks to donors, the capital of the John Kolasky Memorial Endowment Fund now stands at $750,787. The last large donation ($200,179.88) came from the estate of William Lipkewich of Vancouver  in 2004.

On establishing the fund in 1990, the late John Kolasky stated his capital fundraising goal was one million dollars. Donations to CIUS can be earmarked for the John Kolasky Memorial Endowment Fund.

If your community would like a CIUS academic staff member or a visiting scholar to give a lecture, please contact the CIUS.

Bohdan Klid is Assistant Director of the CIUS.