Shevchenko Scientific Society

Ukrainian Music Initiative. Consonance: Ukrainian Composers and the Western Canon
2026-02-19 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
The Shevchenko Scientific Society is thrilled to welcome Ukrainian Music Initiative as they launch their second season back to where it all started. You don’t want to miss contralto Vira Slywotzky, cellist Valeriya Sholokhova, pianist Pavlo Gintov and pianist Margarita Rovenskaya as they celebrate two centuries of musical dialogue and cultural exchange between Ukrainian composers and their counterparts further west in an all new program featuring works by Theodore Akimenko, Oleg Bezborodko, Dmytro Bortniansky, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Vladimir Dyck, Bohuslav Martinu, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Stefania Turkewich.
Ukrainian Music Initiative was created in 2025 to elevate Ukrainian classical music to its rightful place in the Western canon and to fill a significant gap in the US’ cultural and educational landscape. This is being accomplished by having skilled and knowledgeable musicians of Ukrainian heritage perform and educate about Ukrainian music and composers in accessible venues on a regular basis. Ukrainian Music Initiative also collects and makes available music scores and composer biographies through various media. Since its inaugural concert, Ukrainian Music Initiative has performed to standing room only audiences throughout the US. Come experience Ukrainian classical music at its finest at the iconic Shevchenko Scientific Society! This concert is presented by Vira + Friends in partnership with Shevchenko Scientific Society.
ArtWine wine-tasting reception to follow

Poetry Reading by Mykola Vorobiov
2026-02-28 17:00 - 19:00
Микола Воробйов народився 12 жовтня 1941 року на Черкащині. Один із фундаторів літературного угруповання “Київська школа”. Був замовчуваний і недрукований протягом 20 років після першої публікації в Черкаський газеті “Молодь”, 1962 р., з передмовою Василя Симоненка. Учасник Міжнародного літературного фестивалю у Торонто, Канада, 1992 р. Лауреат літературних премій: імені Павла Тичини (1992), “Благовіст” (1993), “Приятелів Руху”, США (1994), Національної премії України ім. Т. Г. Шевченка (2005). Автор багатьох поетичних збірок, найновіші – Затонулі персні та Сходження (обидві 2024). В 1989 році на Державній студії “Укркінохроніка” було знято фільм “Майстер”, який висвітлював творчий шлях Миколи Воробйова як поета-філософа та самобутнього маляра.
Модерує: Д-р Марія Ревакович
Mykola Vorobiov was born on October 12, 1941, in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine. He is one of the founders of the literary group known as the Kyiv School. His first publication appeared in 1962 in the Cherkasy newspaper Molod, with an introduction by Vasyl Symonenko. Soon thereafter, Vorobiov was silenced and remained unpublished for nearly twenty years. He participated in the International Literary Festival in Toronto, Canada, in 1992. Vorobiov is the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the Pavlo Tychyna Prize (1992), the Blahovist Prize (1993), the Friends of the RUKh Prize (USA, 1994), and the National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine (2005). He is the author of many poetry collections; his most recent books are Zatonuli persni and Skhodzennia (both 2024). In 1989, the documentary film Master was produced at the State Studio Ukrkinokhronika, highlighting Mykola Vorobiov’s creative path as a poet-philosopher and an original painter. A volume of his selected poetry in English translation by Maria Rewakowicz, Mountain and Flower, was published by the Lost Horse Press in 2020.
Moderator: Dr. Maria G. Rewakowicz
The poetry reading will be held in Ukrainian.
Registration is required. Suggested donation is $20
Watch the streamed event here

Читання відбудеться українською мовою.
Реєстрація обов’язкова. Рекомендована пожертва – 20 дол.
Подію дивитися тут

Webinar. XLV Annual Taras Shevchenko Scholarly Conference
2026-03-07 12:00 - 14:00
The Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh-A) and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI)
Opening remarks
Vitaly Chernetsky (President of the Shevchenko Scientific Society/University of Kansas)
Speakers:
Shevchenko in Vilnius: Catalyst of Formation
Rory Finnin (University of Cambridge, UK)
Rory Finnin is Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. He launched the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme in 2008. His recent book is Blood of Others: Stalin’s Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity (2022). He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Слідчі справи кирило-мефодіївців як джерело Шевченкової текстології
Михайло Назаренко (Київський національний університет ім. Т. Г. Шевченка)
Михайло Назаренко – літературознавець, кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри східнослов’янської філології та інформаційно-прикладних студій Навчально-наукового інституту філології Київського національного університету імені Тараса Шевченка. Основні книжкові публікації: Поховання на могилі (Шевченкова біографія у фольклорі та фейклорі) (2006, доп. і випр. видання — 2017), Крім «Кобзаря». Антологія української літератури. 1792–1883 (2021, Національна премія імені Тараса Шевченка), Тілько істинна правда. З українських повір’їв (2025). Разом із Олександром Боронем упорядкував і прокоментував видання «Тарас Шевченко в критиці» (т. І–ІІ, 2013–2016), «Тарас Шевченко у спогадах» (т. І, 2023).
Testaments to Memory: Examining the Re-Formations of Taras’ Hill
Grace Mahoney (University of Michigan)
Grace Mahoney is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan. She studies Ukraine through the lenses of literary studies, cultural history, memory studies, translation, and feminist theory. Recently she has assumed leadership of Lost Horse Press, an independent literary press known for its Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry Series.
Discussant
George G. Grabowicz (Shevchenko Scientific Society/ Harvard University)
Registration Required – https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ch8rV0GRScqdhFaOH6IUMw

“Kyivan Christianity”: The New Concept of Early Modern Religious History of Central and Eastern Europe
2026-03-14 17:00 - 19:00
Ivan Almes (Ukrainian Catholic University)
The presentation focuses on the concept and publishing series Kyivan Christianity, which aims to reconceptualize the religious history (and broader cultural history) of Central and Eastern Europe from Kyiv’s perspective. During the event, the historian from Lviv will present the research project implemented at UCU since 2012, which has resulted in a 40-volume series published by UCU Press and aims to release 100 volumes. At the very heart of such research stands Kyiv as a religious center, not Rome, Constantinople, or Moscow. From Kyiv, the culture was spread to the north (up to the territory of Courland – modern Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia), to the south (Slavo-Vlachia – modern Moldova and Northern Romania), to the west (Peremyshl and Mukachevo eparchies), and to the East (for example, the Bilhorod eparchy). This tradition or culture has been preserved not only in visible forms such as St. Sophia Cathedral, but also in narratives, images, songs, architecture, etc, investigated by researchers from the perspective of Kyiv.

Ivan Almes is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the Ukrainian Catholic University, where he also serves as Director of the Ihor Skochylias Center for Religious Culture and Coordinator of the research program Kyivan Christianity. He is the editor-in-chief of the Kyivan Christianity publishing series, issued by UCU Press. Almes has co-organized several international scholar conferences in Rome: in 2021 on the Zamość Sobor; in 2023 on St Josaphat Kuntsevych; and in 2024 on Kyivan Metropolitan Yosyf Veliamyn Rutsky. His most recent volume is In Search of Centres: Early Modern Kyivan Christianities (co-edited with Svitlana Potapenko, Oksana Prokopyuk, Vitalii Tkachuk, and Valerii Zema; Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, 2026). Currently, he is a visiting scholar at the Nanovic Institute of European History at the University of Notre Dame, IN.
Registration is required. Suggested donation is $20

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Dr. Konstantin Frank, Unlikely (Viti)cultural Hero? The Legacy of Ukrainian Agriculture Science that Transformed American Winemaking
2026-03-28 17:00 - 19:00
Daniel J. Epstein (Harvard University)
Dr. Konstantin Frank, born in Odessa in 1900, became a path-breaking agricultural scientist of wine-making against difficult obstacles in Soviet-dominated Ukraine. He pioneered technologies to grow true European wine grapes (vinifera) in continental climate zones with cold winters, previously thought impossible. He fled Ukraine at the end of World War II and eventually came to upstate New York with a large family and no English, but eventually founded his own winery (still flourishing on Keuka Lake today). He taught Americans how to cultivate vinifera in any region (previously it had only been grown in California). Through his indomitable devotion, Ukrainian agricultural scientific practices were adapted to spawn wine-growing industries in almost every state in America, from upstate New York to Virginia to Texas to the Pacific Northwest. Could he be a new cultural hero for Ukraine in America?
Daniel J. Epstein did his undergraduate degree in Slavic Studies at Harvard University, and later continued on to receive his PhD in Government, also from Harvard University. His early work focused on political parties and elections in the wake of regime change in Eastern Europe and Latin America. He has taught political science at the University of Rochester, Colgate University and Texas Tech University, and also served as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011. Since 2021, he has been a Lecturer on Government at Harvard University. His research focus has shifted to nationalism and identity in times of war (he has traveled three times to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion. He currently works at Harvard University’s Davis Center as Assistant Director for Scholars Without Borders, an initiative to support scholars affected by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Registration is required. Suggested donation is $20

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Book Launch: War in My Home: When Conflict Becomes Everyday Life
2026-04-04 17:00 - 19:00
Paweł Pieniążek
Experienced reporter, journalist, and war correspondent
“War in My Home” by Paweł Pieniążek describes the horrific, unending reality of conflict, often focusing on the Donbas region in Ukraine, where war becomes a normalized part of daily life, affecting civilians profoundly, with Pieniążek sharing raw, ground-level perspectives on survival, disillusionment, and the struggle to find meaning amidst continuous struggle, showcasing how ordinary people endure extraordinary circumstances.
Paweł Pieniążek is a journalist and non-fiction writer. He studies Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia at Harvard University. Pieniążek has reported from Afghanistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine, capturing the human cost of conflict with rare empathy and precision. He is the author of several books, including War in My Home: When Conflict Becomes Everyday Life (Znak Literanova, 2025). His work has been nominated for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage, and in 2019, he received the MediaTory Award for excellence in journalism. In 2015, he was a Poynter Fellow in Journalism at Yale University.
Moderator: Dr. Vitaly Chernetsky (President of the Shevchenko Scientific Society)
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Chornobyl as a Gateway to the Uncanny: Representing the Disaster First World Documentaries
2026-04-25 17:00 - 19:00
Tetyana Dzyadevych (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
One of the most significant global consequences of the Russian war against Ukraine is the threat of ecological catastrophe posed by nuclear disaster. In February 2022, as Russian military troops crossed the Ukrainian border from Belarus and occupied the Chornobyl nuclear power station, the haunting memories of the 1986 disaster resurfaced. In that year, the world learned that atomic energy, which was once viewed as a peaceful alternative, could be just as dangerous as nuclear weapons. With the occupation of both the Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear sites— the latter being the largest in Europe and among the ten biggest atomic stations in the world—fears of a global nuclear catastrophe emerged from a repressed collective memory.
Tetyana Dzyadevych is a researcher, commentator, and analyst of modern Ukrainian and Russian culture and literature. She was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. Tetyana received her education in Europe and the USA. Dr. Dzyadevych holds two PhD degrees: one from Maria Curie-Sklodowska University of Lublin in Poland, and the other from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Dzyadevych has multiple publications on Slavic romanticism, modernism, and late Soviet and post-Soviet literature and culture. Her most current publication is Nostalgia, Anxiety, Politics: Media and Performing Arts, from Egypt to Central-Eastern Europe, Including Russia (2025). She is currently working on her monograph, “Voices of Political Revival in Post-Soviet Russian and Ukrainian Cultural Field.” In the US, she worked at UIC, New College of Florida, and Grinnell College and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University’s Davis Center. In the fall of 2024, she joined the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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Book Launch: Both Sides Face East/Durable Words (Academic Studies Press, 2025). Edited by Julia Sushytska, Alisa Slaughter and ariel rosé.
2026-05-09 17:00 - 19:00
A multilingual anthology of various authors responding to the war in Ukraine in their respective languages, along with translations to Ukrainian and English. The book is a fruit of an international projectunder the auspices of Marci Shore, with the support of Fondation Jan Michalski and the International Renaissance Institute. A Ukrainian journalist ends each day “scorched by another person’s grief.” A schoolgirl in Croatia cherishes her Barbie and learns to dread air raid sirens more than her geometry homework. A poet imagines the spiritual life of a fish who escapes the hook. An exiled artist recreates her homeland in the shape of a bird. The writers assembled in this volume dream and document and remember, they translate one another’s work and meditate on fragility and resilience in the face of nihilism and obliteration. The collection gathers poems, essays, and stories written and translated in nine languages, reflecting an ongoing effort to communicate and understand across cultures. Both Sides FaceEast – Durable Words began as a response to the invasion of Ukraine, but stakes a wider claim on behalf of human value and integrity.

ariel rosé–poet, essayist, illustrator, author of the books morze nocą jest mięśniem serca, PIW2022 (the sea at night is a muscle of the heart) and Północ Przypowieści, Znak 2019 (North:Parables), and forthcoming: “Ukraine–A Polyphony” and “ways of swimming”; co-editor ofBoth Sides Face East/Durable Words (Academic Studies Press 2025), Borders De Todos Lados /Fronteras from all Directions (ibidem 2026). ariel is a member of PEN Berlin and CircoloScandinavo in Rome. Twice a year they have been inviting poets from underrepresentedcountries to Oslo for a reading–the fruit of which is an anthology to be issued by HOF, Norway2026. ariel is originally from Poland, a resident of Norway, living as a nomad between languagesand countries.
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Suggested donation is $20
