The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies turns 40

CIUS celebrates four decades of Canadian-Ukrainian community building in Canada and the world

Donna McKinnon - 14 October 2016

Canada is home to the world's third largest population of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine and Russia. One in 10 Albertans claim some Ukrainian heritage. With such a large (1,250,000+ members) and thriving Ukrainian community, the existence of theCanadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), regarded world-wide as a leading centre of Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian scholarship, is both essential to the well-being of the community and a point of pride.

Established at the University of Alberta in 1976, CIUS now encompasses 10 different centres and programs actively engaged in research, Ukrainian language pedagogy, outreach, scholarship and the development of national and international partnerships. In celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the institute is keen to showcase these accomplishments, but also reaffirm its commitment to the Ukrainian-Canadian community at home and abroad.

"Anniversaries are about more than just patting yourself on the back," says Susanna Lynn ('14 MA), 40th Anniversary Project Coordinator. "We want to use it as a reason and as a catalyst to really show people the diversity of what we do."

The CIUS anniversary coincides with other significant milestones, including the 25th anniversary of the independence of Ukraine and the 125th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada.Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn ('81 BFA, '16 MA) knows this firsthand. Her great grandparents were part of the original wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada. Their legacy found expression in each successive generation, from Sembaliuk Cheladyn's father Paul Sembaliuk, designer of the famedVegreville Pysanka, to Sembaliuk Cheladyn herself, an acclaimed artist and volunteer with UAlberta's Kule Folklore Centre. Throughout her undergraduate and graduate programs, Sembaliuk Cheladyn relied on CIUS as an academic resource, and in 1981, as an employer. "I remember my dad saying it's really tough to be an artist, but then CIUS hired me to illustrate several projects!" she says. "I designed the covers of some of their very first books. It helped to build my confidence."

Among CIUS'anniversary activities is a two-day international conference October 14 and 15,Ukrainian Studies in Canada: Texts and Contexts, and earlier this summerCIUS partnered with Children for Peace to bring 14 Ukrainian youth aged 13 to 16 to Edmonton and the UAlberta campus. Another anniversary project - an initiative to create a digitized archive of CIUS' journals, newsletters, public lectures and publications - will extend beyond 2016. "It's a very large project," laughs Lynn, adding that it will take a few years to complete.

CIUS' three main research areas - Ukrainian-Canadian Studies, Ukrainian Studies and Ukrainian Language Pedagogical Resources - are served by 10 centres, each with specific mandates, such as theHolodomor Research and Education Consortium, which advocates for the inclusion of Holodomor education materials (the Great Famine that killed between 2.5 and 7.5 million Ukrainians) into schools and curricula. CIUS also has their own publishing arm, CIUS Press, which thus far has produced more than 160 books, including the five-volume Encyclopedia of Ukraine and the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research translation of Mykhailo Hrushevsky'sHistory of Ukraine-Rus′ into English.

The significance of the Hrushevsky project, established in 1989 through a generous donation from Peter Jacyk, cannot be overstated. Roderick Fraser, former president of UAlberta, said: "Through the creation of the Hrushevsky Project, which changes the Western view of the history of Ukraine, Dr. Jacyk is himself creating history."

According to Jacyk's daughter Nadia Jacyk, president of Petro Jacyk Education Foundation, Hrushevsky's "magnum opus" was a declaration that Ukrainians "constitute a nation," adding that "Ukraine was not an adjunct of Poland, Russia or any other claimant. [My father] determined CIUS would be the ideal facility to carry out the long-term project of the translation and publication of Hrushevsky's History of the Ukraine-Rus′, along with other future publications."

Now in its fourth decade of service, CIUS continues to be an integral part of the Ukrainian academic and cultural community in Canada and abroad, and one of its most dedicated champions. "Today, as in Peter Jacyk's lifetime, it is imperative to have a very clear understanding of Ukraine's history and the views and modus operandi of its oppressors," says Nadia Jacyk. "Only through education and objective knowledge can we influence changes to the positive."