Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a major North American centre for the study of Ukrainian subjects.
Besides the Ukrainian Culture, Literature and Language Program, the Department of ModernLanguages and Cultural Studies also houses the Peter and Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore.
The Department of History and Classics, which like MLCS is part of the Faculty of Arts, offers several courses in Ukrainian history. Specialists in this department also train scholars with an academic interest in Ukraine of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), under the aegis of the Vice-President of Research, is an institution devoted to the study of Ukrainian history, as well as the history of Ukrainian-Canadian communities. The CIUS is not involved in teaching, nor does it grant degrees. Its large resources are dedicated to research and publishing. It regularly offers lectures by visiting scholars in various disciplines. A branch of the CIUS, the Ukrainian Language Education Centre (ULEC), develops and publishes teaching resources for Alberta’s bi-lingual schools. The latter also runs an Internet portal, designed to assist teachers at the primary and secondary levels of education.
The Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies sponsors and organizes lectures, conferences, artistic festivals, symposia, exhibitions and other scholarly and cultural events with an Austrian and central European theme. It assists all relevant units within the university community in the task of having the University of Alberta recognized as the leading center for Central European Studies in this country. Inasmuch as the lands of Halychyna and Bukovyna were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Wirth Institute often works together with the CIUS and History & Classics to organize events and collaborative research projects of direct relevance to scholars specializing in Ukrainian topics.
The University of Alberta has an exchange agreement with Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and is strongly commited to International Studies. It also supports the publication of the prominent journal Canadian Slavonic Papers. The rich Ukrainian collections in the libraries of the university make it an excellent place to conduct research.
The synergy of all these independent units make the University of Alberta a most attractive intellectual environment for pursuing a degree in Ukrainian studies.
