January 15, 2016

Columbia’s Ukrainian Studies Program announces spring schedule

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NEW YORK – During the Spring 2016 semester, the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute will offer eight courses and will organize several events in Ukrainian studies at Columbia University. Prof. Sergei Zhuk will be visiting associate professor in history at Columbia University. His appointment is generously supported by the Ukrainian Studies Instructional Fund.

Professor Zhuk is an associate professor of history at Bal State University. His research work concentrates on the history of popular culture, religion and identity in Russia and Ukraine. He has authored three English-language monographs, the latest of which is “Rock and Roll in the Rocket City: The West, Identity, and Ideology in Soviet Dniepropetrovsk, 1960-1985” (Baltimore: the Johns Hopkins University Press, and Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2010).

Prof. Zhuk will teach two courses at Columbia during the spring semester. The first course, titled “History of Ukraine as Unmaking the Russian and Soviet Empires,” will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.  This course challenges the traditional Russian/Soviet historical interpretations of Ukrainian history and examines the most important political, social and cultural developments (from the ninth century to the present) in the history of various peoples who lived on the territory of what, since December 1991, is independent Ukraine. The main focus of the course is to explore how these developments shaped various cultural identities of the Ukrainian population, how they were used for the nationalist mobilization in formation of a modern nation in Ukraine and how they affect the geopolitical situation today.

Prof. Zhuk’s second course, “Rock-n-Roll, Western Films, and a Crisis of Soviet Identity: Problems of Cultural Consumption in Ukraine after Stalin,” will meet on Tuesdays at 4:10-6 p.m.   This seminar explores how consumption of Western cultural products, such as popular music, books and movies, contributed to the crisis of Soviet identity in Ukraine after Stalin. This seminar also offers a historical comparison of the popular cultural consumption in the West and Soviet Ukraine during the Cold War (between 1953 and 1991), showing a process of indigenization of Western popular culture in the Ukrainian context.

Another course to be offered in spring 2016 is Ambassador Valeriy Kuchynskyi’s “Today’s Ukraine: Power, Politics and Diplomacy.”  Ambassador Kuchynskyi is the former permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, a career diplomat who has been actively involved in the implementation of Ukraine’s foreign policy for many years. His course, to be held on Tuesdays at 2:10-4 p.m., provides historical perspectives on the development of today’s Ukraine and analyzes the evolution of its politics since Independence. While giving an assessment of political, social and economic transformations, the course examines major causes of ongoing turmoil in the country and analyzes the military conflict unleashed by the Russian Federation.

Dr. Mark Andryczyk will teach the course “Brand New: Creating Identity in Contemporary Ukrainian Culture” on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:10-2:25 p.m. This course presents and examines post-Soviet Ukrainian culture.  Students will learn about the significant achievements, names, events, scandals and polemics in contemporary Ukrainian culture and will see how these have contributed to Ukraine’s post-Soviet identity.  Centered on the most important successes in literature, the course will also explore the key developments in music and visual art of this period.

On Wednesdays, at 12:10-2 p.m., Prof. Alexander Motyl will once again teach his course “Post-Sovietological Debates: Contentious Issues and Non-Issues in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies.”  This is an interdisciplinary course that examines some of the major controversies and “non-controversies” in the study of the Soviet Union and its successor states – including East Central Europe – and thereby traces the evolution of post-Soviet studies in general and Ukrainian studies in particular in light of actual political, historical and artistic developments within the region. In particular, the course explores how scholarly disciplines, academic discourses, political controversies and normative predispositions affect academic debates, as well as how scholarship and the objects of scholarly study interact to affect conceptual, methodological, theoretical and empirical understandings.

Three levels of Ukrainian language instruction will continue to be taught by Dr. Yuri Shevchuk in the spring: Elementary on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:40-9:55 a.m.; Intermediate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10:10-11:25 a.m.; and Advanced on Mondays and Wednesdays at 1:10-2:25 p.m.

Two events have already been scheduled for the spring  semester with more to come.

On April 13, writer Serhiy Zhadan will be presenting the English-language translation of his award-winning novel “Voroshylovhrad.”  On April 17, Valentyna Kharkhun, associate professor of Ukrainian Literature at Mykola Hohol State University of Nizhyn, will give a lecture titled “Museums of Communism in Ukraine within the Context of Political Memory.” Both of these events will be free and open to the public.

Dr. Shevchuk, who is also director of the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University, will continue to provide fans of film with consistent programming featuring Ukrainian cinema both on and off campus this fall.

Courses at Columbia are open to students from other universities in the New York metropolitan area seeking credit.  Please contact the university at which you are enrolled to determine whether it participates in this manner with Columbia University.  Some courses are also open to outside individuals interested in non-credit continuing studies. Additionally, through the Lifelong Learners program, individuals over age 65 who are interested in auditing courses may enroll at a discount rate as Lifelong Learners. Visit the Columbia University School of Professional Studies (http://sps.columbia.edu/auditing) for more details.

January 19 is the first day of classes and January 29 is the final day to register for a class. For more information about courses or the Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University, readers may contact Dr. Andryczyk at [email protected] or 212-854-4697.

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