CIUS at 50
In 2026, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta will mark the fiftieth anniversary of its founding.
"As we mark the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), we reflect on a legacy shaped by community vision, scholarly excellence, and a sustained commitment to advancing knowledge about Ukraine and the Ukrainian experience in Canada and worldwide. For five decades, CIUS, based at the University of Alberta, has served as a leading centre for research, publication, and academic exchange, fostering rigorous scholarship and meaningful public engagement. In times of profound historical change, the institute has played a vital role in ensuring informed, evidence-based understanding of Ukraine’s past and present. Looking ahead, CIUS remains dedicated to supporting new generations of scholars and strengthening global Ukrainian studies, confident that its next fifty years will deepen and further expand the impact of its first."
- Natalia Khanenko-Friesen, CIUS Director
Below, read more about our 50th Anniversary events and projects.
“Recentring the Humanities: Ukraine and the World” International Symposium
In 2026, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta will mark the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. To celebrate this milestone, CIUS will host an international symposium, Recentring the Humanities: Ukraine and the World.
The symposium will (re)consider the place of Ukraine, Ukrainians worldwide, and Ukrainian studies in a rapidly changing global order, particularly in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It will examine the conceptual and epistemic shifts in scholarly discourse prompted by Ukraine’s heightened geopolitical and cultural visibility. Bringing together internationally recognized scholars, experts, and thought leaders and connecting several major international initiatives, this symposium will serve as a vital forum for critical debate on Ukraine’s role in shaping contemporary understandings of global history, society, and the humanities.
28–30 October 2026 | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Registration now open.
CIUS 50th Anniversary Exhibit: Shaping Knowledge and Community
Founded at the University of Alberta on 1 July 1976, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies grew out of a vision to create a dedicated space in Canada for the study of Ukrainian language, history, and culture. Fifty years later, this exhibit looks back at how that vision took shape and how CIUS developed into an institution with an international reach and impact.
On display 22 September - 6 November 2026.
The project “50 Stories, 50 Years: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies” is a landmark initiative marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), founded in 1976 at the University of Alberta. Its purpose is to preserve and document the Institute’s living history through a series of filmed interviews with fifty scholars, directors, staff members, grant recipients, and supporters whose dedication and expertise have shaped CIUS’s internationally recognized reputation over five decades. The project captures the personal experiences behind the Institute’s major scholarly achievements — from the multi-volume Encyclopedia of Ukraine and the annotated translation of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s History of Ukraine-Rus’ to pioneering research on the Ukrainian experience in Canada and the broader decolonization of Russian and East European studies. The outcome will be both a publicly accessible audio-visual archive and a published oral history volume, ensuring that the intellectual legacy and institutional memory of CIUS are preserved for scholars, students, and the wider community at a moment when Ukrainian studies are more vital than ever.
More information is coming soon.
CIUS’s Digital Archives Project is an open-access database (cius-archives.ca) that contains unique materials in Ukrainian studies and Ukrainian language, history, and culture. It currently comprises over two thousand items and is being continuously augmented.
Developed in close cooperation with the University of Alberta Libraries and the Faculty of Arts’ Arts Resource Centre, CIUS’s Digital Archives aim to digitize, systematize, and describe the core publications of the institute that have been produced over the last five decades—essentially since its establishment in 1976.
CIUS Youtube Channel
The CIUS Youtube Channels features an archive containing a variety of lectures, symposia, conferences, and webinar recordings.
Visit the CIUS YouTube Channel
Over the last five decades, CIUS has developed rewarding and productive relationships with universities both in Ukraine and globally, partnering on research, publishing projects, and other joint initiatives such as conferences, seminars, and round-table discussions. These accomplishments have been made possible thanks to CIUS’s steadfast and generous donors in our community, who manifested their commitment to Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian studies in the establishment of eighty-six endowed funds based at the University of Alberta.
By donating to the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, you allow us to provide annual scholarships, fellowships, and grants to students and scholars from all parts of the world.
Your support enables us to publish books, develop materials for Ukrainian-language education, organize conferences, lectures, and seminars, critically assess dominant narratives, identify disinformation, and produce vital publications about Ukraine and Ukrainians globally.
Your generosity contributes to CIUS’s mobilization of knowledge, transformation of international understandings of Ukraine historically and today, and engagement with the world through dialogue, research, and collaboration.
The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies hosted the 60th Annual Shevchenko Lecture on Friday, 6 March 2026 at the University of Alberta. Serving since 1966 as a forum for important intellectual discussions concerning Ukrainian history, nation building, language, literature, culture, and identity, the Annual Shevchenko Lecture has presented eminent speakers such as Myrna Kostash, James Mace, Chrystia Freeland, James Sherr, and Alexander Vindman.
2026 marks 60 years since the first Shevchenko Lecture in Edmonton, initiated by the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association, and 49 years since it has been sponsored by CIUS. As the institute’s oldest and most distinguished invited lecture, it attests to our commitment to build and disseminate knowledge about Ukraine and Ukrainians in the world.
This year, we welcomed the well-known historian and author Serhii Plokhy from Harvard University, who delivered the 60th Shevchenko Lecture:
“The Russo-Ukrainian War through a Historian’s Eyes.”