CIUS representatives meet with Denver's Ukrainian community (01/14/01)

CIUS representatives meet with Denver's Ukrainian community

by Bohdan Klid

DENVER - The annual meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies provide a forum for scholarly exchange and a meeting place for organizations such as the American Association for Ukrainian Studies. This year's meeting was held November 8-12, 2000, in Denver.

As in years past, CIUS associates organized a panel on Ukrainian-Russian relations. The theme of this year's panel was "Intellectual Origins of the Russian-Ukrainian Entanglement." Chaired by Prof. Paul Bushkovitch of Yale University, CIUS presenters included Dr. Bohdan Klid, who read a paper on "Claiming Sovereignty over Rus': The Russian-Ukrainian Historical Debate"; Dr. Zenon Kohut, who gave a paper on "Ukraine and the Intellectual Construction of the All-Russian Empire"; and Dr. Serhii Plokhy, who spoke on "Orthodoxy and the Idea of Russian-Ukrainian Unity in the First Half of the 17th Century." Dr. Frank Sysyn was the discussant on the panel.

The AAASS meetings occur in a different city each year. At times, they are held in cities like New York, Chicago, Boston and other centers with large Ukrainian communities, where specialists in Ukrainian studies frequently give public lectures. In other years, they are held in cities off the Ukrainian beaten path, such as Phoenix, Seattle and St. Louis, and, this year, Denver.

When the conference was held in Phoenix, Patience Huntwork, an energetic activist for the Ukrainian community, organized a meeting of scholars with the Phoenix Ukrainian community. In Seattle, the Petro Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research held a book launch for the Hrushevsky Translation Project in cooperation with the Seattle community.

This year CIUS associates were pleased to respond to an initiative by Denver community members Marta Arnold, Denver branch president of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, and Danylo Tkach, to hold an information meeting with the Ukrainian community. The meeting was organized by Denver's UNWLA branch, which was preceded by a reception at the hall of Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church.

After members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Mary's Protection arrived at the luncheon, a video prepared for the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies was shown to introduce the Denver community to the history of CIUS and its accomplishments. The visitors were then greeted by the Rev. Peter Bohdanowycz, pastor of the Transfiguration parish, after which CIUS Director Dr. Kohut spoke on "CIUS on the Eve of its 25th Anniversary."

He was followed by Dr. Sysyn, director of the Jacyk Center, who gave a talk on "The Petro Jacyk Center and the Hrushevsky Translation Project." Dr. Plokhy, director of the Ukrainian Church Studies Program, then completed the series of presentations, speaking on "Mykhailo Hrushevsky and the History of the Ukrainian Kozaks."

Following these presentations, Halyna Myroniuk of the Immigration History Research Center of the University of Minnesota, who had also given a lecture at the AAASS conference, made an appeal to Ukrainian organizations to preserve their archives and consider donating them to the Minnesota center.

The more than 60 participants at the meeting posed questions about the Hrushevsky translation project and CIUS activities. Many purchased Volumes 1 and 7 of Hrushevsky's History of Ukraine-Rus'. Institute associates said they were impressed by the warm response from this relatively small community that is quite distant from major Ukrainian centers in the United States and Canada.

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