International Conference “Ukrainian Diaspora: the Problems of Research”

September 30, 2016

The Institute of Ukrainian Diaspora Studies has been functioning at the National University of Ostroh Academy since 2002. The workers of the Institute have already organized plenty of scientific conferences and seminars, some of which were of international level. Some of the scientific meetings are regular. In particular, this year the International Conference «Ukrainian Diaspora: the Problems of Research», which is biennial, took place on 27-28 September.

The researchers and public figures from Ukraine, the USA, Canada, Slovakia, Croatia, Germany, Belarus, and Russia were among over 120 participants. Some of them took part in the conference via Skype.

The plenary session and oral session took place on the first day of the conference. The Rector of Ostroh Academy Ihor Pasichnyk opened the plenary session with his salutary speech.

The President of the Ukrainian Historical Association (the USA) Liubomyr R. Vynar and the head of the Institute of Ukrainian Diaspora Studies, the dean of Faculty of International Relations of Ostroh Academy Alla Atamanenko delivered their salutary speeches as well.

The participants in the conference discussed important issues connected with the history and the current state of Ukrainian diaspora studies. The lectures by Viktor Girzhov (Russia), Mykola Mushynka (Slovakia), Volodymyr Potulnytskyi (Ukraine), Valerii Polkovskyi (Canada), Iryna Matiash (Ukraine) and others generated the interest of the audience and initiated a discussion.

The presentation of the pictures by a famous Ukrainian poet and writer Emma Andriievska, which were presented to Ostroh Academy, took place after the plenary session. The Assistant Director General of the National Art Museum of Ukraine Halyna Chumak accompanied the presentation with a moving narrative.

The second day of the conference began with the concluding plenary session. This time the most intense discussion was provoked by the addresses D. Kariev (Belarus), A. Atamanenko (Ukraine), and others. Following the good tradition, the books on Ukrainian diaspora studies published both in Ukraine and abroad were presented on the same day. The authors Mykola and Magda Mushynka, Myroslav Sopolyga (Slovakia), Daryna Blokhyn (Germany), Oksana Suproniuk (Ukraine), Serhii Vakulenko and Kateryna Karunyk (Ukraine), Nataliia Rebryk (Ukraine), Halyna Chumak (Kyiv), Tetiana Lysenko (USA), Svitlana Kucherenko (Ukraine), Dmytro Kariev (Belarus), and others presented their books to the library of the Institute of Ukrainian Diaspora Studies of the National University of Ostroh Academy.

An essential part of the conference was making a resolution to start the journal of the World Association of Ukrainian Foreign Studies. The Association itself was established on the initiative of Dr Roman Yeryniuk, the professor of the University of Manitoba, the director of the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies to establish the Association. We hope that this step will contribute to the advance of diaspora studies in the world.