CIUS Scholars Return to Argentina to Advance Research on Ukrainian Diaspora Life and Participate in International Memory Studies Conference
31 July 2026
Edmonton / Buenos Aires — July 2026
A research team from CIUS has returned to Argentina to continue a multi-year research project on post–World War II Ukrainian community life in the country. Dr. Natalia Khanenko-Friesen, Director of CIUS, and Dr. Maryna Hrymych, Senior Researcher at the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kyiv, are carrying forward work that was first launched in 2024 by the Ukrainian Diaspora Studies Initiative at the institute’s Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre.
Academic Diplomacy in the Argentine Capital
At the invitation of the Canadian Ambassador to Argentina, Stewart Wheeler, and the Ukrainian Ambassador to Argentina, Yurii Klymenko, Hrymych and Khanenko-Friesen took part in a round-table session, “Ukraine in Focus: Academic Diplomacy and International Relations,” on 23 July 2026, organized in collaboration with the Embassy of Ukraine in Argentina.
The discussion underscored a point central to CIUS’s own mission. Diplomacy is not the work of governments alone, and universities, museums, archives, cultural organizations, researchers, and diaspora communities all play an essential role in building international ties, preserving memory, and defending democratic values. The participants reflected on how, amid ongoing disinformation and attempts to distort history, academic and cultural diplomacy that is grounded in research and personal testimony can strengthen international solidarity and build lasting bridges—including between Argentina, Canada, and Ukraine.
CIUS extends its sincere thanks to the embassies of Canada and Ukraine in Argentina for their collaboration in organizing the event, and particularly to Ambassador Klymenko for joining the conversation and sharing his reflections.
Fieldwork in Buenos Aires and Berisso
As part of their fieldwork, Drs. Khanenko-Friesen and Hrymych met with Ukrainian community organizations in Buenos Aires and Berisso, including the Prosvita and Vidrodzhennia societies in both cities.
At Prosvita Berisso, the scholars were welcomed for a tour of the organizations’ facilities and a discussion touching on the preservation of the Ukrainian-Argentine community’s history. The visit to Vidrodzhennia in Berisso further deepened the team’s engagement with the community’s institutional memory keepers.
These community encounters form the empirical core of the broader research project, which examines the trans-generational transmission of culture among Ukrainian Argentines.
Presenting Ukrainian Oral History at the Memory Studies Association Conference
The scholars’ visit to Argentina includes their participation in the 10th annual conference of the global Memory Studies Association, held 28 July–1 August 2026 at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires under the theme "Resilience and Resistance."
Dr. Khanenko-Friesen and Dr. Hrymych are contributing to a panel examining how memory work in Ukraine has evolved, from documenting the legacies of totalitarianism to responding to the ongoing war. The panel is chaired by Dr. Eleonora Narvselius of Lund University.
Khanenko-Friesen’s topic is “From reclaiming the personal to forging the nation: Oral history in independent Ukraine (1991–2026),” and Hrymych’s topic is “"Trans-generational transmission of memory among Argentinians of Ukrainian descent and Ukrainian repatriates from Argentina."
Acknowledgments
CIUS extends its sincere thanks all those who made this research and its accompanying academic exchange possible, including the Embassy of Canada in Argentina, the Embassy of Ukraine in Argentina, Alejandro Pundyk, Jorge Danylyszyn, Prosvita Buenos Aires, Vidrodzhennia Buenos Aires, Prosvita Berisso, and Vidrodzhennia Berisso.
The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, based in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta, supports research, teaching, and community engagement in Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian studies. This research trip was carried out under the Ukrainian Diaspora Studies Initiative at CIUS’s Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre.