Update from the Kule Chair
June 2023
RESEARCH FOCUS
As the Kule Chair in Ukrainian Ethnography, my current research focus is on the visualization of cultural identity in the context of print and digital media expressions. Two ongoing projects include the development of The Maydanyk Digital Archives (a website dedicated to the cartoonist Jacob Maydanyk 1891-1984) and the Ukrainian Voice Legacy Mosaic (a digitally interactive public installation created from the original printing blocks used in the printing of the newspaper Український голос/Ukrainian Voice and other Ukrainian Canadian periodicals between 1910 and 2018). In addition, I will be presenting at the Canadian Association of Slavists Annual Conference in May on the topic of Visualizing Solidarity: Wearing Propaganda - Tracing the materiality of identity and ideology from the letterpress to silkscreened imagery on t-shirts and festival paraphernalia. This paper will focus on visual aspects of promotion/propaganda using examples from Eastern European and North American print culture that have inspired Ukrainians to mobilize and express solidarity, nationalism, and resistance.
FOLKLORE STUDIES - WINTER 2023
The Kule Chair in Ukrainian Ethnography is dedicated to teaching folklore and media courses in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies.
Courses offered in the WINTER 2023 term included FOLK 205 - History of Folklore Studies and SLAV 204 - Slavic Mythology and Folklore. There were approximately 50 students enrolled in each course. The focus of FOLK 205 is on the historical evolution of how we study verbal, material, and performative folklore expressions. Examples are drawn from European and North American communities. The course culminates in student presentations based on folk genres of personal interest explored through the lens of one of the theories or research methods covered in class. SLAV 205 introduces students to Slavic Folklore and Mythology, referencing examples of verbal, material, and performative folk genres of Ukrainian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Romanian, Russian, Belarusian, and Slovak origin. Each student is expected to summarize the course content in a multimedia presentation focusing on a topic of personal interest drawn from the course content.
Thank you to the graduate and undergraduate students who assisted as Research and Teaching Assistants during the 2022/23 school year. Dominika Tabor - FOLK204/205; Victoria Kostyniuk - SLAV 399 and Ceramics Research; Wenzhu Li - SLAV 204; Sylvie Ellis (BFA Printmaking practicum & Mosaics assistant) and Eli Young (BFA - Printmaking practicum).
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