Slavic studies association convention covers Ukrainian topics (12/25/94)

Slavic studies association convention covers Ukrainian topics

by Larissa Onyshkevych

PHILADELPHIA - The 26th national convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies AAASS took place in Philadelphia on November 17-20. There were four groups of 25 concurrent sessions held each day. AAASS members include historians, economists, linguists, folklorists, anthroplogists, literature and art scholars, as well as librarians.

There were several individual sessions that dealt strictly with topics related to Ukraine, and which are now attracting a much wider audience of scholars.

Two of these panels were organized by the Shevchenko Scientific Society; the session on "Ukrainian Academy's Normative Orthography, 1993 vs. 1928", was chaired by Larissa Onyshkevych, with Myroslava Znayenko, George Shevelov, Iryna Koropenko and Assya Humesky participating in the roundtable discussion.

The other session was dedicated to the centenary of the literary historian Dmytro Chyzhevsky's birth. Zoya Yurieff's and Ivan Fizer's papers dealt with Chyzhevsky as a scholar teacher, and a historian of literature.

The session on "The Church in Ukraine: An Ecumenical Perspective" was chaired by Leonid Rudnytzky, with Patricia Herlihy, Andrew Sorokowski, and Thomas Bird presenting papers, and Lubomyr Hajda serving as commentator.

A roundtable discussion on "Independent Ukrainian Culture in Transition" was chaired by Michael Naydan, with Ivan Fizer, Oksana Zabuzhko, Mykola Riabchuk, and Volodymyr Dibrova reading their papers.

A session on "Ukraine, Poland and East Central Europe After Communism" was sponsored by the American Association for Ukrainian Studies, with Dr. Hajda as chairperson, and Zenovia Sochor, Andrzej Kaminski and David Marples as panelists.

A roundtable discussion on "Rethinking Russian History: Does Ukrainian History Have a Place in the Study of Russia?" was chaired by Jane Burbank, with Olga Andriewsky, Zenon Kohut, Frank Sysyn, and Patricia Herlihy participating.

Several sessions also included papers on Ukraine-related topics. On the panel "Four Prominent Slavic Theaters Today," chaired by Prof. Znayenko, Prof. Onyshkevych read a paper on Volodymyr Kuchynsky's "The Lviv Les Kurbas Theater." Natalie Kononenko presented a paper on blind women kobzari and blind lirnyky guides. Prof. Sochor participated in a roundtable discussion on "Russia and the Near-Abroad."

An annual meeting of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies was also held during the convention. Besides various business matters and elections of two new board members, the meeting passed a resolution with a suggestion to the Special Committee on Ukrainian Orthography appointed by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (to work on a new orthography for 1996): that special attention be given to preserving typical characteristics of the Ukrainian language; and that foreign words be considered directly from the host language, without a third-language serving as an intermediary.

The next convention of AAASS will be held in Washington in October 1995.

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