50 years of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies: Why it matters for Ukraine

In July 2021, Vladimir Putin published an essay on the "historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians," effectively denying Ukraine the right to its own history and national identity. Seven months later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The connection between historical narratives and military aggression is no coincidence. Russia's war against Ukraine is being fought not only over territory, but also over Ukrainians' right to exist as a distinct nation, to have their own state, and to determine their own future.

The intellectual struggle for Ukraine's right to define itself began long before the country regained its independence in 1991. Nor did it end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The world's understanding of Ukraine did not change overnight, after centuries in which the country had been overshadowed by the Russian Empire and the USSR.

This year, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta celebrates its 50th anniversary. Founded in 1976, the Institute emerged at a time when an independent Ukrainian state did not yet exist and historical scholarship in the Soviet Union was constrained by ideological restrictions.

Over the past half-century, CIUS has become part of a broad international intellectual network dedicated to ensuring that Ukraine has a voice of its own in global academia.

To understand why the Institute was established in Canada, we need to look at the country's own history. For much of its existence, Canadian identity was shaped around two major linguistic and cultural communities: English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians. Immigration, however, gradually transformed Canadian society.

Ukrainians were among the communities that actively advocated for recognition of Canada's multicultural character. The first waves of Ukrainian immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries settled primarily in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

After the Second World War, another wave of Ukrainian immigrants arrived in Canada, including many scholars, journalists, and community leaders. By the 1970s, Ukrainian Canadians were seeking not only to preserve their ancestral culture but also to become full participants in shaping the Canadian nation.

When Pierre Trudeau's government introduced its official multiculturalism policy in 1971, the Ukrainian community was among the active participants in the public debate that helped shape a new understanding of Canadian identity.

In many ways, we Ukrainians helped Canada reimagine itself as a multicultural country while simultaneously redefining our own place within it.

It was in this environment that Ukrainian studies could move beyond community initiatives and become firmly established within the university system.

There is a widespread perception that the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies was created by the Ukrainian diaspora alone. In reality, it emerged through a partnership among three key stakeholders.

The Ukrainian community contributed the vision, intellectual resources, and financial support. The University of Alberta provided the academic infrastructure and institutional backing. The Government of Alberta ensured long-term public support.

Historian and political thinker Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky played an important role in establishing the Institute. Manoly Lupul became its first director, while Peter Savaryn, an influential leader of the Ukrainian Canadian community, also made a significant contribution.

Yet the greatest achievement was the partnership model itself. It transformed a community initiative into a sustainable academic institution capable of operating independently of political cycles.

Institutions do not emerge out of nowhere. They are built through decades of accumulated human, intellectual, and financial resources.

Ukraine's Decolonization Began Long Before Independence

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Soviet propaganda exerted considerable influence over how the world understood Eastern European history. Ukraine was often viewed through a Russian historical lens rather than recognized as a historical actor in its own right.

Our scholars examined Ukrainian statehood, language, culture, and history in the broader context of European developments, including Polish-Ukrainian, Jewish-Ukrainian, and other intercultural relations.

We wanted Ukraine to be represented in international scholarship not as a Russian periphery, but as an integral and distinct part of European history.

This work has two dimensions: helping Ukrainians understand their own past independently of Russian intellectual influence, and changing the way the world perceives Ukraine.

One of the Institute's most important projects has been the English-language Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Its origins can be traced to the Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies, developed by Ukrainian scholars abroad under the leadership of Volodymyr Kubiyovych.

Later, with the involvement of CIUS scholars, including Danylo Husar Struk, a five-volume English-language edition was produced. It subsequently became the foundation for the digital Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

Today, our encyclopedia attracts millions of views each year. It is used by researchers, journalists, students, and educators. Its content also enters the broader information ecosystem from which artificial intelligence systems draw knowledge.

At a time when Russia is investing enormous resources in international disinformation, the importance of projects like this continues to grow.

An encyclopedia cannot be created in just a few years, nor can it be sustained through short-term grant cycles. It requires decades of work, stable funding, and the dedication of successive generations of scholars.

We do not produce knowledge simply for its own sake. We produce it to transform the world's understanding of Ukraine.

Eleven Centres and Programs Advancing Ukrainian Studies

Today, CIUS is much more than a university department. It is an entire research ecosystem comprising 11 centres and programs. Our research encompasses the Holodomor, medieval and early modern Ukrainian history, contemporary Ukraine, the Ukrainian language, and the experiences of Ukrainian communities around the world.

The Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research, led by Frank Sysyn, has spent decades advancing fundamental research into Ukrainian history. Its areas of study include the Hetmanate, Cossack statehood, political institutions, and Ukraine's diplomatic relations.

Crimean Tatar studies hold a particularly important place in our work. Over the past two years alone, we have committed more than half a million Canadian dollars in institutional and externally raised funds to developing this field.

For us, it is a matter of principle that the history of Crimea should be studied not only through the lens of Russian imperial narratives, but also through the history of the peninsula's Indigenous people.

Our Institute has also supported research into Baturyn, the former capital of the Cossack Hetmanate, for many years, contributing to the preservation of its historical heritage and the publication of scholarly works.

Another example is the Centre for East Ukrainian Studies, originally established at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Its research covered Ukraine's eastern, central, and southern regions, whose historical and cultural identities Russia is now attempting to deny.

We support Ukrainian researchers, their publications, and international academic exchange. In this way, investments in Ukrainian studies in Canada find their way back to Ukraine through research, books, academic partnerships, and new knowledge about ourselves.

Over the course of its existence, the Institute has awarded at least 1,742 academic awards, grants, and scholarships. Of these, 883, or approximately 51%, have been directed to Ukrainian scholars and institutions.

Why Investing in Ukraine's History Matters for Its Future

Today, our Institute has approximately 85 endowed funds established through donations from Ukrainian Canadians and other benefactors.

One of the most prominent philanthropists was Canadian entrepreneur Peter Jacyk. He understood that supporting Ukrainian scholarship was an investment in Ukraine's future and in international recognition of its history.

I often reflect on why entrepreneurs are willing to devote substantial resources to studying medieval Ukraine or Cossack statehood.

To me, the answer is clear. They understand the relationship between how a nation understands itself and how the world perceives it.

Investment in foundational research does not produce immediate results. But ten or twenty years later, it influences university curricula, international publications, public debates, and the historical memory of future generations.

Fifty years ago, Ukraine did not have an independent state, yet Ukrainian Canadians were already building the institutions and resources needed to establish its intellectual presence in the world.

Today, Ukraine is independent, but its very right to exist is once again being challenged by force.

That is precisely why our work is far from finished.

Ukraine must invest not only in international information campaigns but also in long-term intellectual infrastructure: university programs, research centres, foundational scholarship, translations, encyclopedias, and international academic partnerships.

After all, the world's perceptions do not change overnight. Transforming them requires decades of consistent, sustained effort.

It is precisely this work that enables Ukraine not only to tell its own story to the world, but also to be recognized as the rightful author of that story.

Natalia Khanenko-Friesen, Director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and Professor at the University of Alberta

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, the international symposium Recentring the Humanities: Ukraine and the World will take place in Edmonton on October 28–30, 2026.

Online participation is free with advance registration.

The symposium program and registration details are available here.