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Department of modern languages & cultural studies. The Ukrainian Culture Language & Literature Program
SCHOLARS

Irene Sywenky — Ірина Сивенька

 

Assistant Professor: Comparative Literature; Slavic Literatures (Polish, Russian, Ukrainian).

Research Interests:

  • The postcolonial and post-imperial cultural spaces in Central and Eastern Europe
  • Postmodernism in Central and Eastern Europe
  •  Post-Soviet popular culture in Central and Eastern Europe
  • Contemporary Canadian literature
  •  Border identities and diasporic writing/culture
  • Science fiction, fantasy, literary fairy tales, and postmodernism; science and literature; Canadian science fiction and fantasy; science fiction of Québec
  • Theory of translation

Principal Teaching Areas: Literary Theory; World Literature; Fundamentals of Comparative Literature; Ukrainian-English and English-Ukrainian Translation.

For coordinates and office hours, please click on  “Contact us.” 

DEGREES AND AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

Ph.D. University of Alberta, Comparative Literature. Thesis title: Liminal Postmodernisms: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe (2005). 
 
This dissertation examines the phenomenon of Central and East European postmodernism in Ukraine, Russia and Poland as part of the development of the literatures of totalitarian and post-totalitarian periods and within the broader context of Western and international postmodernism. I maintain that the reception of the literature of postmodernism in these countries was grounded in the geopolitics and ideology of conceptualization of these historically decentered cultures and in the prevalent understanding of postmodernism as an inherently Western phenomenon. Central and East European postmodernism(s) constitute a development simultaneous to the Western model. Although there are significant analogies, there also are significant differences and idiosyncrasies. Besides providing an overview of the theoretical issues that play an important role when broaching this topic, I also consider, among other questions, the complex and ambivalent nature of intertextual links and influences.
 
Alberta Teaching Certificate. University of Alberta
 
M.A. (Candidate of Philological Scienes [Кандидат філологічних наук]). Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, English and Linguistics
 
B.A. Honors. Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, English and Linguistics
 

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Ukrainian and Russian: native speaker
Polish and French: working knowledge
 

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Assistant Professor (July 2007 - present). Program in Comparative Literature (Office of Interdisciplinary Studies) and Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. University of Alberta.
  • Full-time Lecturer ( Sept. 2004 - 2007) Program of Comparative Literature Program (OIS) , U of A
  • Sessional Instructor (Sept. 2003- April 2005). Department of English, U of A.
  • Sessional Instructor (Sept. 1999- April 2003). Department of Comparative Literature, Religion and Film/Media Studies, U of A.
  • Sessional Instructor (Sept. 2001- April 2002). Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, U of A.
  • Teaching Assistant (Jan. 1999- April 1999). Department of Comparative Literature, Religion and Film/Media Studies, U of A.
  • Contractor for the development of educational materials for Ukrainian Bilingual Programs (Sept. 1990 - Oct. 1994). Alberta Education (Edmonton Public School Board) and ULECON (U of A)

PUBLICATIONS

Co-Edited Books

  • [with S. Tötösy de Zepetnek and M.V. Dimić, eds]. Comparative Literature Today: Theories and Practice.  Paris: Honoré Champion, 1999. 
  • [with S. Tötösy de Zepetnek, ed.].  The Systemic and Empirical Approach to Literature and Culture as Theory and Application.  University of Alberta, Canada, and University of Siegen, Germany:  Lumis, Vol.7, 1997.

Guest-Editing / Special Issues

  • [with W. Osadnik]. Beyond Words and Images: Central European Cinema Today. Special issue. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 34.3 (2007): 251-360.
  •  [with E. Eoyang, ed.]. The Human, the Not Human and Cultural Contact. Forthcoming in the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, forthcoming in winter 2009.

Book Chapters

  • “Nomadic Homes, Postmodern Travel, and the Geopolitical Imaginary in eth Post-Totalitarian Cultures of Poland and Ukraine.” Postcommunism, Postmodernism, and the Global Imaginary. Ed. Christian Moraru. East European Monograph Series. Ed. Stephen Fischer-Galati. New York: Columbia UP, forthcoming 2009.
  •  “Displacement, Trauma, and the Use of Fairy Tale Motifs in Joy Kogawa’s Poetry and Prose.” Joy Kogawa: Critical Essays. Ed. Sheena L. Wilson. Guernica Writers Series. Toronto: Guernica Press. Forthcoming 2009. 32 ms. pp.

Articles 

  •  “Romancing the Empire: Central European Nostalgia in Iurii Andrukhovych.” Australian Slavonic and East European Studies. Forthcoming 2010.
  • [with W. Osadnik]. “Variations on Central European Theme: New Cinema of Central Europe as a Part of Our Common Cultural Heritage.” Beyond Words and Images: Central European Cinema Today. Special issue. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 34.3 (2007): 253-64.
  •  “Animal-Human Dichotomy and Negotiation of Cultural Space in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Victor Pelevin The Life of Insects.” Forthcoming in the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, winter 2009.
  •  “Liminal Identity and Fairy-Tale Topoi in the Prose of Joy Kogawa.” Forthcoming in East Asian Diaspora in North America. Eds. M. Dimic and P. Chan. 2009.
  • “Joy Kogawa.” Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 7. 21st Century Canadian Writers. Ed. C. Riegel. Detroit, Mich.: Bruccoli, Clark, Layman, 2007. 127-35.
  •  “Postcolonial Context, Postmodernist Perspective: Niyi Osundare’s Waiting Laughters  and Yuri Andrukhovych’s Carnival Poetry.” The People’s Poet: Emerging Perspectives on Niyi Osundare. Ed. A.-R. Na'Allah. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003. 373-90.
  •  “Between Two Worlds: M. Keivan’s Prose and the Spirit of Diaspora.” Anthology of Ukrainian Literature in Canada. Eds. Y. Slavutych, M. Shkandrij. Edmonton, 2001.
  •  Structural, Morphological and Semantic Parameters of the Toponymic System: Issues of Synchrony and Diachrony. Diss. Lviv: I Franko Lviv University Press, 1990.
  •  “Toponymic System: Towards the Problem of Correlation of Linguistic and Onomastic Aspects.” Inozemna filolohija 96 (1990): 28-33.
  •  “Towards the Issue of the Systemic Organization of Toponymy.” Inozemna filologija 92 (1988): 32-39.
  •  [with Zavgorodnev, Yu.].  “Transformation of the Semantics of Anglo-Scandinavian Synonyms.” Inozemna filolohija 81 (1986): 9-14.

Reviews

  • Review of New World Myth. Postmodernism and Postcolonialism in Canadian Fiction. By Marie Vautier. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1998. Forthcoming in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée.
  •  Review of  Post-modernism in Literature and Culture of Central and Eastern Europe. Eds. Halina Janaszek-Ivanickova and Douwe Fokkema. Forthcoming in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée.
  •  Review of Shifting Borders. East European Poetries of the Eighties. Ed. Walter Cummins. Canadian Slavonic Papers  38.1-2 (1996): 210-12.

WORK IN PROGRESS

"Re-Imag(in)ing Central and Eastern Europe"

In the context of the collapse of totalitarian regimes in Europe and the radical restructuring and unification of Europe in 1992, Central Europe belongs to one of the most rapidly evolving and changing regions today. In a world of shifting borders and continuously redefining collective identities the geopolitical and geocultural space of Central Europe belongs to one of the most often debated and contested designations. Key intellectual thinkers of today, such as Jacques Derrida, Jurgen Habermas, Umberto Eco, Richard Rorty, and Susan Sontag, to name a few, concerned themselves with the problem of European identity and European geocultural politics in the last two decades. Proceeding from the working assumption that identity is a fluid space that undergoes continuous (re)construction and is a site of ideological contestation, some of the questions that emerge are: what has the new idea of Mitteleuropa / Central Europe meant since the late 1980s? How does the historical imperial context (Austro-Hungarian, German, and Soviet) impact the way these cultures perceive themselves and are perceived today? How does this reflect on the process of self-definition? How do these changes impact the process of cultural production and the cultural models current in the region today?
 
The main research questions are grouped around the following problems:  1) redefining the theory of identity; in the world of changing local and global communities do we think of identity differently? what does Central European identity mean today? 2) representing the space of Central Europe; geopolitical mediation between European West and East; geographicity and ecodiscourse; boundaries and borders: material, cultural, and human; representations of urban space and culture; 3) cosmopolitan vs. national; how does the centrifugal impetus towards the homogenization of Europe work with (or against) the centripetal drive towards the (national) centre? 4) beyond the material: virtual communities and digital identities.
 
This project envisions collaboration with colleagues at Krakow (Jagiellonian University, Poland), other Central European institutions.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

  • “Carpathologia Cosmophilica: Cultural Geography and the Literary Constrcution of East) Central Europe.” American Comparative Literature Association, Harvard University, Boston, March 26-29, 2009.
  • “L. Ukrainka and the Problem of the Representation of Crimea.” 7th Congress of the International Association of Ukrainianists (MAU). Tavria National University, Simferopil/Yalta, Ukraine, June 21, 2008.
  •  “‘Fables of lonely transcendence’: The  Cultural Politics of Anglo- and  Franco-Canadian Speculative Fiction.”  Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 1, 2008.
  • “Reading the Coffee Grains: Knajpy L'vova by Yuri Vynnychuk.” Canadian Association of Slavists. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 1, 2008.
  • “Nomadic Homes and Spatial Liminality in the Discourse of Central European Identity.” American Comparative Literature Association. California State University, Long Beach, April 25, 2008.
  •  “Digital Border Identities: Negotiating Central European Space in Virtual Literary Communities.” University of Saskatchewan, Canadian Comparative Literature Association, May 28, 2007.
  • “Empire and History: Central European Nostalgia in Y. Andrukhovych’s Twelve Rings.” University of Saskatchewan, Canadian Association of Slavists, May 26, 2007.
  • “Anxieties of New Europe: Constructing Central European Space in the Discourse of Virtual Culture.” Navigating Interdisciplinarity, Cultivating New Spaces of Comparison. Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, March 16-17, 2007
  • “Comparative Literature in the Digital Age: The Sophia Project.” Comparative Literary and Cultural Research in Canada as a Multicultural Society. Edmonton, October 4, 2007
  •  “Animal-Human Dichotomy and Negotiation of Cultural Space in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.”  American Comparative Literature Association, Princeton University, March 24-28, 2006.
  • “Exorcising ‘Semiotic Ghosts’ of the Past: Literary Cyberpunk in Russia.” Modern Languages Association, Philadelphia, December 29, 2004.
  • “Recovering the Voice of the Japanese-Canadian Community: Private and Public Discourses in J. Kogawa’s Obasan and Itsuka.” International Comparative Literature Association, Hong Kong, August 8-15, 2004.
  • “Reading ‘Otherworldliness’: Cognitive Response to Simulated Worlds and Virtual Realities.” IGEL International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature, Edmonton, August 3-7, 2004.
  •  “Negotiating Post-Isms in Contemporary Central and East European Culture: Ideology of an Academic Debate.” Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies Lecture Series, University of Alberta, March 14, 2002.
  • “Conceptualizing Postmodernism in Central and East European Culture,” Graduate Seminar, Department of Comparative Literature, Religion and Film/Media Studies, University of Alberta, November 14, 2001.
  • “Im/Possible Worlds and Heterocosms: ‘Fantastic’ Prose of V. Shevchuk.” Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities, Canadian Association of Slavists, University of Alberta, Edmonton, May 27-29, 2000.
  •  “The Dichotomized Aesthetic of Yukio Mishima.” Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities, Canadian Society for Aesthetics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, May 25-27, 2000.
  • “Bakhtin and the Postmodern: A Dialogue of Ideas.” Eighth International Conference on Mikhail Bakhtin, June 20-25, 1997, University of Calgary.
  • “The Modernist Prose of Maksym Ryl’s’kyi.” Learned Societies Congress, May 30, 1996, Brock University.

 

INVITED LECTURES

  •  “Interpretation of Folk- and Fairy-Tales and Psychoanalysis: Freud, Klein, and Lacan,” MLCS 205, Introduction to Folklore, November 2, 2007 (60 minutes)
  • “Possible Worlds, Parallel Ontologies, and the Split Self: Postcolonial Reading of Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World ,” C Lit 342, Introduction to Science Fiction, March 18, 2008 (90 minutes)
  • “Pathogenesis of Our Solitude: Historiographic Anxieties, Collective Memory, and Construction of Cultural Identity in the Literatures of the Post-Totalitarian Central and Eastern Europe.” University of Alberta, November 24, 2006.
  •  “Collective Memory, Mythologies, and Apocrypha: Negotiating Postcolonial and Postmodern Historical Space in Contemporary East European Literature.” University of Saskatchewan, March 17, 2006.

INVITED SPEAKER 

  • Roundtable on the Terminal M.A. in Comparative Literature. American Comparative Literature Association. California State University, Long Beach, April 25, 2008.
  • Opening greetings at the opening ceremonies/plenary meeting of the 7th Congress of the International Association of Ukrainianists (MAU). Tavria National University, Simferopil/Yalta, Ukraine, June 19, 2008. 
  • Invited panel leader and discussant for the panel on "New Media" at the Comparative Literature Program graduate student conference "Coordinates of Comparison 2008: Extraordinary interpretations and Practices", March 22, 2008.

COLLOQUIA AND SEMINARS

  • “Dissemination of Knowledge and Open Access.” Comparing Literatures, Theories, Media, Publishing and Cultures:  Meetings/Workshop/Colloquium, April 17 -18, 2007, University of Alberta

EDITING AND PUBLISHING

  • Sept. 2008 - present. Associate and Managing Editor, Canadian Review of  Comparative Literature/RevueCanadienne de Littérature Comparée, University of Alberta.
  •  July 2000 - Aug. 2003.  Editorial Consultant and Contributing Editor, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, University of Alberta.
  •  May 2000 - Aug. 2001.   Technical/Managing Editor, Qualitative Health Research, International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, University of Alberta, Edmonton.
  •  Jan. 1999 - June 2000.  Editorial Consultant, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, Department of Comparative Literature, Religion and Film/Media Studies, University of Alberta
  •  Sept. 1996-  Dec. 1998.  Editorial Assistant, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, Department of Comparative Literature, Religion and Film/Media Studies, University of Alberta.

 

MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT

Canadian Slavonic Papers

Canadian Review of Comparative Literature

 

AWARDS

Selected:

  • 2009          Killam Conference Travel Grant 
  • 2009          University of Alberta Conference Grant, “Coordinates of Comparison 2009”
  • 2008          Endowment for the Future Fund/EFF: Special Competition 
  • 2008          University of Alberta Strategies for the Advancement of Scholarship Grant; Conference Travel Grant  (Project “L. Ukrainka and the Problem of the Representation of Crimea,” Tavria National University, Simferopil/Yalta, Ukraine) 
  • 2006/07         SSHRC-funded Postdoctoral Associate (Sophia project)
  • 2000/01       Faculty of Arts Graduate Student Teaching Award
  • 1997/98      J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Scholarship
  • 1997/98      Graduate Student Association travel grant
  • 1996/97      Walter H Johns Graduate Tuition Scholarship
  • 1996/97      J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award

 

GRADUATE SUPERVISION

[Section under construction]

COURSES TAUGHT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

As Assistant Professor (2007 - present):

  • C LIT 206                 Introduction to Literary Theory
  • C LIT 460/560      Fundamentals of Comparative Literature
  • C LIT 697            Victorian Speculative Fiction
  • C LIT 502            World Literature II
  • UKR 211                  Ukrainiain-Speaking World I
  • UKR 300/400           Ukrainian Through Its Living Culture, I & II
  • UKR 407/ 698       Translating Literature: Ukrainian to English                                   

As Sessional Instructor

Modern Languages and Cultural Studies

  • MLCS 300            Introduction to Translation
  • UKR 307            Ukrainian-English Translation
  • UKR 401            Readings in Ukrainian

Program in Comparative Literature, OIS:

  • C LIT  202 Literature of the European Tradition II
  • C LIT 205  Introduction to Literary Theory
  • C LIT 207   Introduction to Literary Theory II
  • CLIT 256   Introduction to Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures
  • C LIT 342   Introduction to Science Fiction
  • C LIT 343   Introduction to Fairy Tales and Folk Tales
  • C LIT 345 Introduction to Poetry
  • C LIT 346 Introduction to Drama
  • C LIT 440 Comparative Studies in Popular Culture
  • C LIT 444  Autobiographical Writing
  • C LIT 497 Special Topics in Comparative Literature (Free Will in Philosophy and Literature of the Western Tradition)
  • C LIT 497 Special Topics in Comparative Literature (Russian Formalism and Bakhtin: Theory and Application)
  • C LIT 497 Special Topics In Comparative Literature  (Contemporary Drama)
  • C LIT 498  Special Topics in Comparative Literature (Twentieth Century Counterculture)
  • C LIT 498 Special Topics in Comparative Literature (International Postmodernism)
  • C LIT 502 World Literature II
  • C LIT 521   Special Topics in Comparative Literature (Postcolonial Autobiography)

Department of English:

  • ENGL 100  Literature in English: Beginnings to the Present
  • ENGL 101 Critical Reading and Writing
  • ENGL 113  English Literature in Global Perspective
  • ENGL 199 Writing Essentials

COURSES TAUGHT AT OTHER INSTITUTIONS

Grant MacEwan College, Edmonton: 

  • ENGL 101  Critical Reading and Writing
  • ENGL 108   Introduction to Language and Literature
  • ENGL 111   Communication
  • ENGL 199    Essentials of Writing

 Concordia University College, Edmonton:

  •  ENGL 110   English Literary Forms
  •  ENGL 389  Classics of Children’s Literature

SUBSTITUTE AND GUEST LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA 

  • C Lit 448/ 610  Colonialism / Postcolonialism (Fall 2005)
  • C LIT 507  Critical Theory (Fall 2004): Response and Reception Theory
  • ENGL 338  Shakespeare (Winter 2004): King Lear                
  • ENGL 338  Shakespeare (Fall 2002): Measure for Measure
  • C LIT 100    World Literature (Winter 2000): Philosophy of Enlightenment; literature of Enlightenment; Voltaire; Candide 
  • C LIT 342  Introduction to Science Fiction (Fall 1999): Historical and theoretical overview of the genre of science fiction through antiquity, Middle Ages and Renaissance; science fiction in the 20th century; science fiction and popular culture; cyberpunk; themes and motifs in science fiction.

PERSONAL TEACHING DEVELOPMENT

Seminar/ Workshop "Vista 4 Express  (WebCT Vista 4)", November 23, 2007

Seminar/ Workshop "File Manager Magic" (WebCT workshop series), February 27, 2008

Seminar/ Workshop "Best  Practices in Vista"  (WebWorkshop online), April 9, 2008

Seminar/ Workshop "Introduction to Community Service-Learning", February 5, 2008

 

ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

2009                     St. Jerome’s Day/MLCS Translation Day, Organizing Committee
2008                International Fair, MLCS (for Ukrainian Summer School Program)
2008                Acting Director, Comparative Literature Program (Aug. 27 – Sept. 8)
2007/10            Graduate Coordinator, Comparative Literature Program
2006/07            Undergraduate Coordinator, Comparative Literature Program (high school campaign, university open house; major/minor recruitment)  
2005/06            Sessional Lecturer representative, Faculty of Arts Council
2003/04            "Visibility" campaign for the Program of Comparative Literature
2001-02,            GSA representative (Arts Faculty) to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research
2002-03              " " "          
1999/00             High School Outreach Program (four presentations), Department of Comparative
                        Literature, Religion and Film/Media Studies
1997/98            "Visibility" campaign for the Division of Comparative Literature, Department of
                        Modern Languages and Comparative Studies.
1997/98            Graduate Student Representative, Departmental Council, Department of Modern
                        Languages and Comparative Studies.
1996/97            V.P. Internal, Graduate Student Council, Department of Modern Languages and
                        Comparative Studies.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AT NATIONAL LEVEL

Aid to Scholarly Publications (ASP) Committee, Representtaive for Cultural Studies, SSHRC  

PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC ACTIVITIES

  • Association of Departments and Programs of Comparative Literature (ADPCL) meeting at American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, California State University, Long Beach, April 26, 2008. (I represented Comparative Literature at the U of A)
  • Canadian Comparative Literature Association Executive Meeting, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 1, 2008. (I represented the U of A Comparative Literature Program and journal)
  • Member of the International Organizing Committee for the 7th Congress of the International Association of Ukrainianists, Tavria National University, Simferopil/Yalta, June  18-21, 2008.
  • Research Associate, Sophia, Virtual Institute of Comparative Studies of Culture and Literature, Comparative Literature Program, U of A
  • Organized and conducted a seminar for the graduate students of Comparative Literature Program on the oral candidacy examination (writing a successful dissertation prospectus, examination procedure, etc.), November 30, 2008
  • Organized a seminar for the graduate students of Comparative Literature Program on preparing a successful SSHRC grant application, September 25, 2007.
  • Set up a network of academic and administrative contacts (from the departmental to the presidential/rectoral level) to facilitate scholarly and other exchanges between the Ukrainian program at the U of A and Tavria National University
  • [with Jonathan A. Hart] organizer of panel on “The Human, the Not Human and Cultural Contact.” American Comparative Literature Association, Princeton, March 19-20, 2006.
  • Chair of Panel on “Contemporary Slavic Literatures through a Postmodern Prism: Psychic, Bodily and Textual Extremes.” AATSEEL, Philadelphia, December 28, 2004.