Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Serhii Plokhii visits Alma Mater

Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, one of the most respected Ukrainian historians, Serhii Plokhii, visited Oles Honchar Dnipro National University while he was in Ukraine.

In our university Serhii Plokhii received his degree in history and developed as a scholar and researcher of the history of Ukraine of the 17th and 18th centuries. During the meeting with Rector of DNU Prof. Sergiy Okovytyy and Associate Professor of World History Albert Wenger, the famous scholar warmly recalled his mentors, Professor Hanna Shvydko, Doctor of Historical Sciences, and Mykola Kovalsky, a founder of the Dnipro School of Source Studies, under whose tutelage he grew and developed professionally.

Even today, Serhii Plokhii is interested in the life of DNU and follows the current research work of his colleague-historians. Sergiy Okovytyy told the guest about the development of the university during the war years and the work for the prospect of post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. In particular, the rector noted the dynamics of enrollment of freshmen at DNU in recent years and the preliminary results of enrollment in the bachelor's program during this year's admission campaign.

- We have managed to restore DNU's leadership position in the region and for the second year in a row we have demonstrated an increase in enrollment. Responding to the challenges of time, we have launched 9 new educational programs that we consider perspective, including Computer Engineering of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Complexes; Digital Media; Chemistry of Medicinal Substances; Polish Language and Literature and others.

It is also worth noting the active involvement in international projects with European universities. In particular, teams of scientists from the Faculties of Economics, History, Ukrainian and Foreign Philology and Art History have won grants under the Erasmus+ program.

Serhii Mykolaiovych spoke in detail about the research and publishing activities of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, which he has headed since 2013. In particular, he introduced several of the main projects he is working on.

- We were very proud to launch the first digital humanities project in Ukrainian studies called "MAPA" It is presented as a digital atlas that consists of several modules, starting with the Holodomor. It is an interactive map with databases that you can download to build layers of information for research on a particular topic. Nowadays the most developed project is modern Ukraine. The newest module is dedicated to the study of the social impact of the Chernobyl accident.

The rector invited Serhii Plokhii to present the project to scholars and students of the humanities, including the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Systems and Mass Communication. The "MAPA" project consists of two modules: «Atlas of Modern Ukraine» (dedicated to the Revolution of Dignity, sociological aspects of the status and the use of the Ukrainian language, and the issues of national identity) and «Historical Atlas» (materials related to the study of the Holodomor of 1932-1933, cartography of Podillia in the 14th and 15th centuries, genealogy of Kievan Rus’). Also, by prior arrangement, it is planned to hold several online lectures by Serhii Plokhii for students at DNU.

Інформаційно-аналітичне агентство
Дніпровського національного університету