UKRAINIAN STUDIES PROGRAM COURSES AND EVENTS - 2010 SPRING SEMESTER
The Spring 2010 semester at Columbia University will feature six courses in Ukrainian studies and a series of stimulating events on Ukrainian topics. The courses and events to be offered for this semester focus on contemporary Ukraine, providing analyses of different aspects of the country’s existence today. Continuing its tradition of attracting the world’s top scholars studying Ukraine, the Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia’s Harriman Institute will be hosting historian and anthropologist Dr. Oksana Kis for this upcoming semester.
Dr. Kis is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv. She graduated in 1992 from Lviv State University, completed her PhD in 2002 at the Ivan Krypyakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She is also currently the Director of the research center “Woman and Society”, an NGO based in Lviv. Since 1994 Dr. Kis has been studying women’s and gender issues in the history and anthropology of Ukrainians; she has published over 50 academic articles on related topics and has presented her research at numerous forums in Ukraine and abroad. Her monograph “Women in Ukrainian Traditional Culture in the Second Half of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries” was published in Lviv in 2008. In the capacity of a visiting professor, she teaches gender studies and oral history. She also lectures at Ivan Franko National University and at the Ukrainian Catholic University, both in Lviv. Presently, she is leading the research project “Twentieth Century Ukraine in Women’s Memories” based upon recording and analysis of oral autobiographies of Ukrainian women.
At Columbia, Dr. Kis will be teaching a new course - Women in Post-Socialist Transformations: Ukraine, Russia, Poland (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30-11:50AM). The course examines the complex impact of radical political, social, economic and cultural changes onto women’s lives. Exploring challenges women faced in transition from state socialism to market economy and democracy, women will be analyzed as both targets and agents of change. Special attention will be given to the problems of female migrant workers and the trafficking of women from Ukraine. Later in the semester, Dr. Kis will also be presenting a special lecture open to the public entitled ”Beauty Will Save the World! Normative Femininity as a Political Strategy: the case of Yulia Tymoshenko", a most timely topic coinciding with the 2010 presidential elections in Ukraine.
Another course presented for the first time at Columbia will be Brand NEW: Creating Identity in Contemporary Ukrainian Culture. Taught at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures by Dr. Mark Andryczyk, the course presents and examines post-Soviet Ukrainian culture. Students will learn about the significant achievements, names, events, scandals and polemics in contemporary Ukrainian culture and will see how they have contributed to Ukraine’s post-Soviet identity. Centered on the most important successes in literature, the course will also explore the key developments in music and visual art in this period. Students will look at what images have come to represent Ukraine and how they were created. This course will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:10-2:25PM.
The current political situation in Ukraine will be addressed in a course entitled Today’s Ukraine: Power, Politics, Diplomacy (Tuesdays, 11:00AM-12:30PM). Delivered by a career diplomat, Ambassador Valeriy Kuchynsky, this new course will examine the evolution of Ukraine’s politics since independence and will analyze the causes of current domestic problems. The results of the 2010 presidential elections and Ukraine’s relations with its major partners will also thoroughly be discussed.
Dr. Yuri Shevchuk (Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures) will continue to teach three levels of Ukrainian language at Columbia this spring: Elementary Ukrainian (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:10-10:25AM), Intermediate Ukrainian (Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:35-11:50AM) and Advanced Ukrainian (Mondays and Wednesday, 1:10AM-2:25PM).
Courses at Columbia are open to students from other universities in the New York metropolitan area seeking credit, as well as to outside individuals interested in non-credit continuing studies. Additionally, through the Lifelong Learners program, individuals over 65 years of age who are interested in auditing courses may enroll at a discount rate as Lifelong Learners. The final date to register for class is January 29th.
Many events have already been planned for the Spring semester. Among them are the following February events, all of which are free and open to the public.
On February 5 the Ukrainian Studies Program will host a presentation by historian Serhii Plokhy (Harvard University) of his new book Yalta: the Price of Peace. The book is a study of the eight days in February 1945 when FDR, Churchill, and Stalin decided the fate of the world. On February 11th Dr. Volodymyr Mezentsev will deliver a presentation entitled Archeological and Historical Research of Baturyn, the Capital of the Ukrainian Cossack State. The presentation will be based on Canada-Ukraine excavations that were conducted in Baturyn 2001-2009, which unearthed much new archaeological materials for the study of hitherto little-known history and culture of the Cossack capital as well as its destruction and massacre of the population by the Russian army in 1708.
February 16th will feature the latest installment in the three-year old Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series. On that day, one of Ukraine’s top writers, Taras Prokhasko, will read and discuss his works and meet with his fans. The event will also feature the premier of new, English-language translations of essays from Mr. Prokhas’ko book “FM Halychyna.” The Series is cosponsored by the Kennan Institute in Washington DC, where Mr. Prokhasko will appear on Feb 18th. This semester’s subsequent event in the Series is scheduled for April and will feature a writer whose name will be announced soon.
For more information about courses, events and the Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University, please contact Dr. Mark Andryczyk at ukrainianstudies@columbia.edu or (212) 854-4697.
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