How Ukrainian scholarship becomes diplomacy

“At the institute, we understand scholarly diplomacy as the cross-border mobilization of knowledge about Ukraine. We are talking about both real and conceptual borders.” 

In a recently-published profile with Ukrainian Science Diaspora, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) director Dr. Natalia Khanenko-Friesen discusses and frames her personal scholarship and the work of the institute as showcases of Ukrainian “scientific diplomacy”, emphasizing how CIUS’s research and international partnerships have helped shape global understanding of Ukraine and its diaspora. 

Founded nearly five decades ago to support independent Ukrainian scholarship outside the Soviet sphere, Dr. Khanenko-Friesen reflects on a shift in CIUS’s focus, and also within Ukrainian Studies more broadly, toward engaged scholarship with diplomatic impact, especially in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The profile highlights specific initiatives launched in the past few years that illustrate CIUS’s diplomacy in action. Since 2022, Dr. Khanenko-Friesen and CIUS’s international partners have initiated programs such as the Witnessing the War on Ukraine Summer Institute in Kraków, Wrocław, and Uzhhorod, and, beginning in 2024, the Wrocław-based Translating Ukraine Summer Institute, as well as the Transnational Workshop on Indigenous and Crimean Tatar Studies—all designed to foster research collaboration and broaden engagement with Ukrainian and related fields of study. Through this ever-expanding network of academic projects and public events, Dr. Khanenko-Friesen explains how the institute aims to elevate Ukraine’s voice in global dialogues and contribute to international support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and reconstruction.

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