25 Years of the Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture
"The World has Never been so Ukrainian: Challenges and Оpportunities of the Global Ukrainian Community"
25 Years of the Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture
Keynote Address | International Symposium "Recentring the Humanities: Ukraine and the World".
The Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture was established in November 2001 to honour the memory of Professor Bohdan R. Bociurkiw, an eminent political scientist and internationally renowned specialist in human rights, Soviet religious policy, and Ukrainian church history.
In celebration of 25 years of the Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture series and 50 years of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, this year’s lecture will be the Keynote Address at CIUS’ international symposium, Recentring the Humanities: Ukraine and the World.
This year’s Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, Metropolitan-Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.
“The World Has Never Been So Ukrainian: Challenges and Opportunities of the Global Ukrainian Community”
Ukraine is boldly and creatively confronting a veritable existential threat that has mobilized heroic military resistance, singular and systemic expression of solidarity, a cultural effervescence, and radical soul searching. Ukraine has become an epicenter and catalyst of global change. The world has watched with unprecedented awareness of Ukraine and attention to its people. Many nations, organizations, and individuals have engaged in and aided the struggle for the defense of God-given human dignity, democracy, and political, social, and religious liberties.
The struggle for survival is not only military but also demographic. Hundreds of thousands have been killed and maimed, millions traumatized and forced to leave their homes and homeland. Increasing emigration and plummeting birthrates have brought the population on territory controlled by the Ukrainian government down to approximately 28 million. Ukrainian migrants have landed and are settling on six continents and in many countries that never hosted Ukrainians. The broader and greater dispersion of Ukrainians and inevitable assimilation, while creating many opportunities, leads to many questions and our search for answers.
Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia 
Borys Gudziak is a native of Syracuse, New York, born to Ukrainian immigrant parents. He received degrees from Syracuse University, the Pontifical Urban University, and the Pontifical Oriental Institute. He holds a doctorate in Slavic and Byzantine Cultural and Ecclesiastical History from Harvard University (1992). In 1992, he moved to Ukraine, where he founded the Institute of Church History in Lviv. He subsequently served as vice-rector and rector of the Lviv Theological Academy and, from 2002 to 2013, as rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, the first Catholic university established in the former Soviet Union. In 2013, he became president of the UCU. He has taught and worked in Ukraine for more than twenty years and has published hundreds of scholarly, analytical, and journalistic works. In 2012, Gudziak was ordained a bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and appointed to serve Ukrainian Catholics in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. In 2019, he was enthroned as Metropolitan and Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainian Catholics in the United States.
Archbishop Gudziak is Chairman-elect of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace. He is also a member of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches and the Dicastery for Communication in Rome. He holds honorary doctorates from Syracuse University (2018), Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary (2021), the University of Notre Dame (2022), the Catholic University of America (2022), Ave Maria School of Law (2023), the University of San Francisco (2023), and Seton Hall University (2023). He heads the Department of External Church Relations of the UGCC. His honors include the French Legion of Honor (2015), the Polish Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Award (2016), the Notre Dame Award (2019), the Catholic Faith Network Award of Excellence (2023), the Cross of Ivan Mazepa (2023), the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2024), the CNEWA Faith and Culture Award
(2024), and the Order of Merit, First Class, of Ukraine (2025). Gudziak serves on the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America and the Board of Directors of the Children of Heroes Charitable Foundation. He is president of the UCU Board of Trustees in Lviv and continues to be an active member of the Ukrainian Scouting Organization Plast, serving on its supervisory board in Ukraine.
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