How to Teach about Multi-Ethnic Ukraine?
July 20, 2013
Center for Urban History, Lviv
The aim of the workshop was to present the current status of the educational program and research dealing with Ukraine’s multiethnic past. We discussed the challenges facing, and the potential for the instruction and investigation of, the country’s history; more broadly, that of East-Central Europe as a region of ethnic and religious diversity, a multifaceted region of established cultural contact and interaction.
The workshop was divided into three thematic segments. The first was to examine the Jewish studies educational program and the potential currently under discussion for the incorporation for Jewish studies programs in Ukrainian universities. This was followed up with a presentation featuring research projects conducted by junior researchers from Ukraine, and a suggested new approach to instruction dealing with Ukraine’s multicultural history. The final segment was conducted in the format of an open discussion which was pursued issues of the development of an innovative instructional and research program in our universities, and a rethinking of extant models for the betterment of our understanding and the broader education of those groups and territories where the past is defined by cultural interactivity and diversity.
Those taking part in the workshop included instructors and researchers from: Ivan Franko Lviv National University; Ukrainian Catholic University; Kyiv-Mohyla Academy; the Krypyakevych Institute for Ukrainian Studies; junior researchers investigating the historical record of multicultural interaction; visiting historians from foreign universities; and the instructors and participants of the Jewish History and Culture Summer Seminar.
The workshop was conducted in conjunction with the Summer School: "Jewish History and the Multiethnic Past of East Central Europe: Societies, Cultures, and Heritage".
Moderators / Supervision:
Dr Mayhill Fowler / Dr Sofia Dyak / Dr Marian Mudryi
Co-organizers:
Center for Urban History (Lviv, Ukraine)
Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (Ottawa, Canada)
