Ukrainian Studies at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland)

Abstract

To the 30th anniversary of Institute of Slavic Philology, СUL The essay offers an attempt to summarise the thirty years of Ukrainian studies within the Institute of Slavic Philology of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. The beginnings of Slavic studies at the Catholic University of Lublin are related to the activities of the Interfaculty Department of Research on Byzantine-Slavic Culture, founded in 1981 thanks to the efforts of professor Ryszard Łużny, a philologist-Slavicist from the Jagiellonian University. The main purpose of this unit was to initiate research on ‘Ruthenian’ culture, derived from the Byzantine-Slavic root. The idea implemented by professor Łużny was innovative not only due to its profi led research program but also due to the curriculum, which offered students a wide range of knowledge on Eastern Slavs. From the very beginning of the unit’s functioning, its didactic structure was based on the three philologies: Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian, and the academics pursued their research interests within the departments of Byzantine-Slavic Culture, Slavic Languages, and Slavic Literatures. Ukrainian studies at the Catholic University of Lublin have been shaped throughout this time by many eminent fi gures who determined the character of the unit by pointing out research directions to the next generations of linguists and historians of Ukrainian literature. These are professor Stefan Kozak, professor Stefaniia Andrusiv (literary studies), professor Michał Łesiуw, professor Dmytro Buchko, and professor Oleh Tyshchenko (linguistics). The essay discusses research and educational activities of the Institute of Slavic Philology. A series of regular research conferences, nationwide and international, focused on the issues of the Eastern Slavs, were organized during these thirty years. The author points out the most important academic publications and periodicals. Another direction of the Institute’s activity consisted in projects popularizing knowledge about the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, Ukrainian culture and language, with a special focus on the language spoken by the inhabitants of the Lublin region.