Summer Institutes
The Witnessing the War in Ukraine Summer Institute (WWSI) began in 2022 as a response to the unfolding humanitarian trauma resulting from the Russian Federation’s February 24, 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Researchers in oral history, ethnography, cultural anthropology, memory studies, and journalism and media stepped forward and engaged in active collection of evidence and eyewitness testimonies emerging from the war. The WWSI seeks to inform, equip, and support individuals to conduct oral history research that is ethical, impartial, and that reduces the chances of retraumatization and harm to interview subjects. Now in its third year, the WWSI has attracted leading academics and practitioners from around the world and continues to evolve in its scholarly and practical approaches to oral history.
As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues to unfold, posing a major existential threat to the Ukrainian nation and jeopardizing scholarly development and cultural exchange, many academic presses and publishers have experienced an acute shortage in quality Ukrainian translators, while talented translators, some exposed to precarious living conditions, have been increasingly deprived of professional opportunities. With this understanding, the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies (MLCS), and DUSS UAlberta (Disrupted Ukrainian Scholars and Students Initiative), along with the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University (USA), the Harriman Institute of Columbia University (USA), the Ukrainian Studies Program at Cambridge University (UK), Kolegium Europy Wschodniej (Poland), and the journal New Eastern Europe launched the first international Translating Ukraine Summer Institute (TUSI) in 2024. With a focus on training emerging and mid-career translators in the field of literary and academic translation, TUSI aims to build key skills in Ukrainian-English translation and foster a global network of translators.