Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS; Ukrainian: Канадський iнститут українських студiй). A leading center of Ukrainian studies outside Ukraine, established in July 1976. The campaign for its creation as a publically financed institutional home for Ukrainian studies in Canada had been a major undertaking of the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation. Owing to the lobbying efforts of Manoly Lupul, Peter Savaryn, Laurence Decore, and other prominent Ukrainian Canadians, and with the support of Albert Hohol, then Alberta’s minister of advanced education, the Government of Alberta initially funded the establishment of the CIUS at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Thereafter it has been a regular part of that university.
The CIUS promotes Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian studies by awarding research grants, fellowships, and scholarships; publishing books and research reports through the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, the Journal of Ukrainian Studies (1976–2012), the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (www.encyclopediaofukraine.com) (est 2001), and the electronic journal East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies (www.ewjus.com) (since 2014); organizing or cosponsoring conferences, colloquiums, public lectures, and seminars; facilitating Ukrainian-studies research by scholars in Canada, Ukraine, and other countries; and facilitating the development of Ukrainian-language educational resources for Canada’s elementary and secondary schools.
The CIUS’s main office and several of its centers and programs are based at the University of Alberta: the Ukrainian Language Education Centre (formerly the Ukrainian Language Resource Centre, est 1977); the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research (PJCUHR, est 1989); the Stasiuk Program for the Study of Contemporary Ukraine (est 1990); the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre (formerly the Ukrainian-Canadian Program, est 1992); the Research Program on Religion and Culture (formerly the Ukrainian Church Studies Program, est 1994); the Canada-Ukraine Legislative and Intergovernmental Project (1996–2004); the Kowalsky Program for the Study of Eastern Ukraine (est 1998), which is affiliated with the Kowalsky Eastern Institute of Ukrainian Studies (est 1999, with branches in Zaporizhia and Chernihiv) at Kharkiv University and supports the Baturyn Archeological Project; the Contemporary Ukraine Studies Program (est 2013); and East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies. The Edmonton office also houses a Ukrainian-language resource center, the archives of several Ukrainian scholars, and the Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Library (specializing in East European church history).
Since 1976 the CIUS has also maintained an office at the University of Toronto, headed by George Stephen Nestor Luckyj (1976–82), Danylo Husar Struk (1982–99), and Frank Sysyn (since 1999). From 1977 staff at the Toronto Office translated, partly wrote, and edited the five-volume Encyclopedia of Ukraine (University of Toronto Press, 1984–93) in collaboration with Volodymyr Kubijovyč, Arkadii Zhukovsky, and other editors and contributors to the Entsyklopediia Ukraïnoznavstva (Encyclopedia of Ukraine) based at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Sarcelles, France. Since 2001 Toronto staff have continued that project, under the editorship of Marko Robert Stech, as the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (www.encyclopediaofukraine.com). Also located at the Toronto Office have been the editorial offices of the Journal of Ukrainian Studies (1976–85, 1993–2012) and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press (since 1992); the director of the PJCUHR (Frank Sysyn) and much of the work of its Hrushevsky Translation Project (the publication of the English edition of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s History of Ukraine-Rus'); the Danylo Husar Struk Program in Ukrainian Literature (est 1989); and the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (est 2013).
In recent years the CIUS has collaborated with Lviv National University and the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv on a number of scholarly and educational projects, most significantly the Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Modern Ukrainian History and Society (est 2008) in Lviv and its journal Ukraina Moderna.
The first director of the CIUS was Manoly Lupul (1976–86), who was aided during its first few years by associate directors Ivan Lysiak Rudnytsky, George Stephen Nestor Luckyj, and Bohdan Bociurkiw. Lupul was succeeded by Bohdan Krawchenko (1986–91), Frank Sysyn (acting director, 1991–92), Zenon Kohut (1993–2012), Volodymyr Kravchenko (2012–17), Jars Balan (2017–20), and Natalia Khanenko-Friesen (since 2020). Other scholars and scholarly editors who have worked for the CIUS include Olenka Bilash, Serhiy Bilenky, Serge Cipko, Heather Coleman, John-Paul Himka, Bohdan Harasymiw, Andrij Hornjatkevyč, Halyna Hryn, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Oleh Ilnytzkyj, Bohdan Klid, Bohdan Kordan, Svitlana Krys, Taras Kuzio, Andrij Makuch, David Marples, Alla Nedashkivska, Uliana M. Pasicznyk, Roman Petryshyn, Tania Plawuszczak-Stech, Serhii Plokhy, Thomas Prymak, Roman Senkus, Roman Shiyan, Mykola Soroka, Marko Robert Stech, Frances Swyripa, Maxim Tarnawsky, Serhiy Bilenky, Myroslav Yurkevich, and Taras Zakydalsky.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lupul, Manoly. ‘The Establishment of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta: A Personal Memoir,’ JUS 18, nos 1–2 (Summer–Winter 1993)
Savaryn, Petro. ‘Spohady uchasnyka: Polityka, bahatokul'turnist', Kanads'kyi instytut ukraïnoznavstva, abetkova Entsyklopediia Ukraïny-2,’ Zakhidn'okanads'kyi zbirnyk (Edmonton) 3 (1999)
CIUS history https://www.ualberta.ca/canadian-institute-of-ukrainian-studies/about/history.html
CIUS official website https://www.ualberta.ca/canadian-institute-of-ukrainian-studies/
CIUS Press https://www.ciuspress.com
East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies https://ewjus.com/
Forum for Ukrainian Studies http://ukrainian-studies.ca/
Roman Senkus
[This article was updated in 2020.]