UKRAINIAN RESOURCE and DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
Kule Chair
Promoting Ukraine as an academic subject, supporting faculty who have internationally recognized scholarly activity, advancing research that focuses on Ukrainian-Canadian issues—the responsibilities of the Peter and Doris Kule Chair in Ukrainian Community and International Development are many and varied.
The position, more commonly referred to as the Kule Chair, was established in 2004 through the generous $1,000,000 gift to MacEwan University from Drs. Peter and Doris Kule. The first Kule chair, Dr. Roman Petryshyn, was also the founding director of the Ukrainian Resource Development Centre.
Meet Dr. Jeff Stepnisky
In 2013, Dr. Jeff Stepnisky joined a working group organized through MacEwan’s Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre which examined the Ukrainian Maidan revolution as it unfolded in real-time. That project led to a research paper on the Maidan revolution and inspired an ongoing interest in research related to Ukraine.
With Dr. Danylo Sudyn from Ukrainian Catholic University, Dr. Stepnisky is currently conducting research on the history of sociological theory in Ukraine. He is also in the early stages of a project studying the commemoration of the Maidan revolution in Ukraine. To tie in with this project, Dr. Stepnisky is teaching a seminar on the topic of collective memory and society in the Winter 2022 term.
You can contact Dr. Stepnisky directly to learn more about his work.
In this Q&A, Kule Chair Dr. Jeffrey Stepnisky talks about his projects, upcoming challenges and how he hopes to make connections.
Dr. Roman Petryshyn, who served as the first Kule Chair from 2004 to 2015, was also the founding director of the Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre. A published author, academic and community visionary, he has contributed to numerous collaborative international teams across Canada and with Ukraine. For his tireless commitment to multiculturalism and Ukrainian community development, he has received numerous awards. In 2015, he received the MacEwan Medallion in recognition of his collaborative work on international projects in all four faculties and for putting MacEwan University "on the map" throughout Ukraine and within the Ukrainian Canadian community.