Category: 2022

Lisa Shymko holds an M.A. in Political Science (University of Toronto) and a Four-year Honours B.A. with a Specialist in Canadian constitutional law and Soviet history and a Double Minor in Economics and Slavic Studies (University of St. Michael’s College – University of Toronto).

Ms. Shymko brings unique insight into all aspects of communications, having spent decades in the media, nongovernmental, and financial services sectors.

Her news articles and opinion pieces on global security issues have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The American Spectator, Maclean’s magazine, and Ukraine’s daily newspaper, The Day (Hazeta Den’).

Ms. Shymko served as a media advisor to Ukraine’s first ambassador to Canada— former Soviet dissident Levko Lukianenko — writing several editorials for the ambassador, including a 1993 op-ed for the Globe and Mail.

Lisa Shymko was appointed by the City of Toronto to serve on the Toronto Public Library Board, and was later elected Chair of its Services, Planning and Capital Committee. She has managed two international book exhibitions in the House of Commons in Ottawa and the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine in Kyiv.

Ms. Shymko managed several international development projects, including the Ukraine-Canada Journalists Exchange Program for the International Renaissance Foundation of the Soros Foundations Network.

She was the founding Director of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Resource Centre at the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine in Kyiv, established by Canadian Friends of Ukraine in cooperation with the Government of Canada.

At the invitation of the Government of Canada, she has testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and collaborated on the drafting of historic Canadian legislation recognizing Ukraine’s Stalin-era famine as genocide, for which her efforts were officially acknowledged in the House of Commons in 2008. Between 2010–2015, she was part of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s delegation on three official visits to Ukraine.

As Director of Corporate Communications for BCU Financial Group, she spearheaded the creation of Forum TV — a community-based television program supported by BCU Foundation and broadcast nationally on Rogers-OMNI, where she served as Supervising Director (2012–2017).

Ms. Shymko has chaired and held various board positions in several nongovernmental organizations, including the Ukraine Support Fund, BCU Foundation, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. In 2024, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the NATO Association of Canada.

As a member of the Canada Ukraine Foundation’s advisory committee for the Holodomor National Awareness Tour, she chaired the Canadian film premiere of Hunger for Truth: The Rhea Clyman Story (2018) and edited the French translation of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory’s publication, entitled L’Holodomor: Génocide du Peuple Ukrainien, produced by the Canada Ukraine Foundation (2020).

Ms. Shymko is past Chair of Guardian Angels Ukraine, a veteran’s rehabilitation project which operated in Ukraine under the auspices of the LUCW, in cooperation with NATO’s Medical Rehabilitation Trust Fund (2014–2017).

She is a frequent speaker at international conferences, including the 2021 Virtual NGO Forum of the 65th Session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women and the NATO Association of Canada conference, Crisis Response: Is Canada Prepared? — Unrest on NATO’s Eastern Flank: Ukraine, Baltic States, Russia (2017).

Lisa Shymko is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including: The Presidential Order of Merit (2009, Ukraine); Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012, Canada); The Medal of Honour of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (2017).

Jurij Darewych is a founding member and Past President of Canadian Friends of Ukraine, Past President of the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre (UCRDC), past Chair of the Human Rights Commission of the Ukrainian World Congress, and a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

He was part of the research and creative team that spearheaded the production of the Ukrainian diaspora’s most successful historical documentary — the award-winning film, “Harvest of Despair”, the first documentary focusing on Stalin’s state-sponsored famine of the Ukrainian people.

Jurij Darewych also served as member of the Canadian-based script-writing committee for the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre’s World War Two documentary, “Between Hitler and Stalin: Ukraine in World War II— The Untold Story”.  

In 2014, Jurij Darewych was chosen by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress to convene and direct a special Advisory and Coordinating Committee to provide advice and support to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights on academic research on Ukrainian issues.

Jurij Darewych has served as director of numerous non-governmental organizations, including the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation in support of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.

Jurij Darewych is currently President of COSBILD, a Ukrainian-Canadian non-profit that supports historically significant publications and academic scholarship programs considered important to the global Ukrainian community.  

Jurij Darewych is also the recipient of the 2013 Ukrainian Canadian Congress’ Shevchenko Medal Award for Community Development. 

Jurij Darewych studied physics and mathematics at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. He obtained an M. Sc. in physics from the University of Manitoba and a Ph. D. from the University of Alberta.  In 1967 he obtained a position of professor in the Department of Physics at York University in Toronto, where he taught physics and mathematics and conducted research in theoretical physics.  Professor Darewych is the recipient of several awards, including the President’s University-Wide Teaching Award at York University, honoring those who, through innovation and commitment, have significantly enhanced the quality of learning.

Dr. Darewych is the author of over 120 refereed papers on physics in Canadian, US and European journals of physics, and was a visiting professor at the Universities of Florida, Paris, Rome and London (UK), as well as various Physics Research Institutes in the US and Europe. He has supervised 14 M. Sc. and 12 Ph. D. students in physics and 7 Postdoctoral Fellows at York University where he is currently a Professor Emeritus.

Nadia Gereliouk holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto. Nadia’s interests complement the variety of perspectives shared by the jury vis-à-vis new publications on Ukrainian themes.

Her research interests include contemporary feminist Ukrainian literature, autobiography studies, the politics of memory, the diaspora experience, and migration studies.

She has taught Ukrainian language courses at several Canadian institutions, including the Slavic Languages Department at the University of Toronto. In 2022, her list of books for readers who seek a better understanding of Ukraine, beyond the headlines, was published by The Globe and Mail.

In addition to serving on the board of BCU Foundation, Nadia also serves on the boards of several other non-governmental organizations, including the Toronto Ukrainian School Board, contributing to its ongoing curriculum development, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Toronto Branch, the League of Ukrainian Canadians, and the Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada.

Among the charitable projects where Nadia serves as a board member is the Saskatoon-based non-for-profit Stream of Hopes Aid for Ukraine Inc., whose activities help disadvantaged children in Ukraine

Marko Robert Stech is a writer, literary scholar, and specialist in the history of culture.

He holds a PhD in Slavic Studies and a MASc in Engineering from the University of Toronto.

He holds several positions at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) of the University of Alberta and University of Toronto: director of CIUS Press and Scholarly Publications, overseeing the Press, the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies and Ukraina Moderna; and project manager of the Hrushevsky Translation Project.

His novel, The Voice («Голос»), won the 2009 Mykola Gogol International Prize for Literature. He is the author of  Essays in Search of Sources («Есеїстика у пошуках джерел»), the experimental novel The Undying («Невмирущі»), and numerous other essays.

He is the compiler of the literary legacies of Ihor Kostetsky, Iurii Kosach, and Emma Andiievska; and a compiler and editor of an anthology of Ukrainian short prose in Czech translations.

He has written and produced over 100 episodes of the «Очима культури» TV series on Kontakt TV (OMNI TV, Canada). His writings have received several awards of recognition. He was awarded the Koshelivets International Literary Prize in 2008 (Israel), the Gogol International Literary Prize in 2009 (Ukraine), and the ‘Hlodoskyi skarb’ International Prize in 2014 (Ukraine).

Frank Sysyn graduated from Princeton University (1968), the University of London (1969), and Harvard University (PH D, 1976), taught at Harvard University (1976–1985), and served as Associate Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (1985–1988).

He is a professor in the Department of History, Classics, and Religious Studies at the University of Alberta.

Frank Sysyn was appointed the first Director of the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research in 1989 at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), the University of Alberta.

He has served as editor-in-chief of the Hrushevsky Translation Project, which published the English-language translation of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s monumental 10-volume history of Ukraine — Istoriia Ukraïny-Rusy (History of Ukraine-Rus’).

He served as Acting Director of the CIUS in 1991–93 and currently oversees the Toronto office of the Institute. He serves as the head of the executive committee of the Holodomor Research and Educational Consortium. He has also been actively engaged in the development of the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University in New York.

A specialist on early modern and modern Ukraine, Sysyn has published Between Poland and the Ukraine: The Dilemma of Adam Kysil, 1600–1653 (1985), Mykhailo Hrushevsky: Historian and National Awakener (2001), and numerous articles about the Khmelnytsky Uprising, early-modern Ukrainian historiography, Ukrainian religious history, and the Stalin-era forced famine in Ukraine, the Holodomor.

Frank Sysyn was one of the editors of the three-volume edition of the collected works of Mykhailo Zubrytsky, Zibrani tvory i materialy (Collected Works and Materials).

A Festschrift, titled Tentorium Honororum, was published in Frank Sysyn’s honor in 2010.

2022 Peterson Literary Prize finalist

Ukraine, the Middle East, and the West

Author: Thomas M. Prymak
Publisher: McGill-Queen’s University Press
Country: Canada
Language: English 

Prior to the Soviet period, Ukraine enjoyed diverse contacts with its Islamic neighbours: the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire and, likewise, with its central and western European neighbours, especially Poland and France. This book reintroduces Ukraine’s long-overlooked connections beyond Eastern Europe and smashes old stereotypes about Ukrainian isolation. The author provides insight into Ukrainian travellers in the Middle East, from pilgrims to the Holy Land to political exiles in Turkey and Iran; Tatar slave raiding in Ukraine; the poetry of Taras Shevchenko and the Russian war against Imam Shamil in the High Caucasus. The book explores Ukrainian themes in relation to French writers Honoré de Balzac and Prosper Mérimée, as well as Rembrandt’s mysterious painting The Polish Rider; and Ilya Repin’s legendary work depicting Zaporozhian Cossacks writing their satirical letter to the Turkish sultan.

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2022 Peterson Literary Prize finalist

Світлий Шлях. Історія одного концтабору
[The Torture Camp on Paradise Street] 

Author: Stanislav Aseyev
Publisher: Видавництво Старого Лева [The Old Lion Publishing House]
Country: Ukraine
Language: Ukrainian 

Abducted by Russian security forces in 2017, journalist Stanislav Aseyev survived the hell of imprisonment in a concentration camp operated by Russia’s military proxies in eastern Ukraine. This intense book recounts the author’s mental and physical struggle to survive imprisonment in a camp where horrific torture was employed to destroy countless lives. There are no laws behind the prison fence. Here, life consists of humiliation, unending fear, and agony— where wounds from electrical shocks and broken bones destroy a man’s desire to live and distort one’s ability to distinguish between faith, forgiveness, and hatred. By recounting his struggle to remain human in the most inhuman conditions, we come to understand how the darkness of his captivity forever altered the author’s outlook on life.

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2022 Peterson Literary Prize finalist

Лицарі голодного Ренесансу [Knights of the Hungry Renaissance] 

Author: Dmytro Horbachov
Publisher: Дух і Літера [Spirit and Letter Publishing House]
Country: Ukraine
Language: Ukrainian 

One of Ukraine’s leading art historians examines the phenomenon of the “Ukrainian avant-garde” art movement, which the Western art world discovered relatively late, thanks to the 1973 exhibit in London known as “Tatlin’s Dream.” The art of the Ukrainian avant-garde was exceptional since it was produced during a relatively short period of profound historic turmoil — World War I, followed by the Bolshevik Revolution, the collapse of the Russian Tsarist empire, the birth of the Ukrainian Republic, revolutionary war, the destruction of religious institutions, brief Ukrainianization, followed by a forced famine and Stalinist political repression. The book profiles the leading artistic figures of the Ukrainian avant-garde and notes its profound influence on the nonconformists of the 1960’s, including the Ukrainian cultural and political anti Soviet dissident movement of the sixties.

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2022 Peterson Literary Prize finalist

Єврейсько-Українські відносини. ХХ сторіччя. [Jewish-Ukrainian Relations. The Twentieth Century] 

Author: Alik Gomelsky
Publisher: Український Пріоритет [Ukrainian Priority]
Country: Ukraine
Language: Ukrainian 

The book’s Jewish Ukrainian author analyzes the most painful events in the history of the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples and focuses on the systematic efforts of Russia’s tsarist and Soviet empires to sow interethnic conflict, employing disinformation and historical fabrications to create hatred and disfunction. Relying on recently declassified KGB archives from the Security Service of Ukraine (СБУ), as well as CIA and OUN archives, the author seeks to uncover buried facts about several 20th-century Ukrainian and Jewish historic figures, some of whom are connected to the most contentious moments in the history of Ukraine and Israel. The author views the common aspirations of the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples to preserve their own identity and fight for their independence — the will to survive — as the mutual bond that ties both nations together.

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2022 Peterson Literary Prize finalist

Детокс [Detox] 

Editor-in-chief: Larysa Ivshyna
Publisher: День. Українська прес-група [The Day. Ukraine Press Group]
Country: Ukraine
Language: Ukrainian

This volume of articles, edited by the Kyiv-based Editor-in-Chief of Ukraine’s newspaper Den (The Day), strives to shatter the image of the Ukrainian people as chronic victims. The book traces the thread of Russian chauvinism from the Romanovs to Putin’s Russia, as it presents the unknown stories behind an array of vastly different historical figures, including Ivan Mazepa, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mykola Skrypnyk, General Petro Grigorenko, and Mikhail Gorbachev. As alluded to by the book’s title, readers are challenged to detoxify themselves from the imperialist myths imposed on the Ukrainian psyche by centuries of toxic Russian authoritarianism and destructive colonialist policies.

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