Devon Sereda Goldie

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Graduate Student/Research Assistant
(she/they)

Devon Sereda Goldie serves as a Research Assistant at the Kule Folklore Centre. She is pursuing her PhD in Media and Cultural Studies through the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. She holds a BFA double major in Applied Theatre and Environmental Studies and an MA in Applied Theatre with a focus on Ukrainian Studies from the University of Victoria, BC. Her MA thesis is entitled “Пам’ять/Pam’yat (Memory): Theatre as a Vehicle for Healing Intergenerational Trauma within the Ukrainian Canadian Experience.” She is a scholartist*, activist, and community organizer with a deep passion for Ukrainian and Ukrainian Canadian culture and history, the arts, feminism, LGBTQ2S+, Ukrainian/Indigenous relations, and social activism. In June 2022, she became one of the youngest Canadians to be sanctioned by and banned from the Russian Federation for her activism in support of Ukraine.

*Credit for the term belongs to Dr. Lana Whiskeyjack (she/her)

Devon is a fourth generation Ukrainian Canadian who is actively involved in the Ukrainian community. She currently serves as Past President of the Ukrainian Canadian Cultural Society of Vancouver Island and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Victoria Branch, which she led concurrently from 2020-2022. Serving in these roles in early 2022, she co-founded Help Ukraine Vancouver Island (HUVI), which has since gone on to become an independent NGO. She also led the establishment of Ukrainian Village Assistive Housing in Victoria, BC, a residential facility that provides transitional housing to Ukrainian refugees. She currently serves as a Director at Large for Shumka Ukrainian Dancers. Professionally, she has worked for the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (Holodomor Education, Awareness, and Archives Assistant) and the Ukrainian World Congress (Social Media, Communications, and Administrative Assistant). 

Devon has received the Ukrainian Canadian Congress National Youth Leadership Award (2018) for “outstanding leadership which significantly contributed to the broader Ukrainian community and the betterment of Canada” and was shortlisted for the Ukrainian World Congress 30 Under 30 Award (2021) “for emerging Ukrainian diaspora youth leaders under 30.” In March 2023, she was included in UDonation and Ukraine to NATO magazine’s “Top 50 Canadian Supporters of Ukraine.” 

Email: seredago@ualberta.ca