Timothy Snyder to lead new international research project on Ukrainian history

Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University, Serhii Plokhii, Professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, Yaroslav Hrytsak, History Professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, and Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Viktor Pinchuk launched a new international research project called Ukrainian History Global Initiative during an event at the British Museum in London on 27 November.

During his opening remarks, Snyder stressed that the main goal of this research initiative is to take Ukrainian history outside of the periphery of Russian history and to put it at the centre of world history.

Snyder said that understanding the history of Ukraine might help researchers revise and enrich standard historical narratives.

Plokhii said that modern historical research has to be interdisciplinary and highly technological in order to get researchers from different disciplines – including, for example, climate change researchers – involved.

More than 90 researchers have already joined the initiative, which will focus on independent research projects stretching back to the prehistory of Ukrainian lands and reaching to the events of today. Researchers will study early settlements, the spread of Indo-European languages, international relations throughout history, and contemporary issues around nation building and imperialism.

Ukrainian History Global Initiative is a charitable foundation that will be overseen by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. It will be governed by the Board of Directors, which includes Swedish politician and diplomat Carl Bildt, Pulitzer Prize winning historian Anne Applebaum, Borys Hudziak, Metropolitan Archbishop of Philadelphia of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and President of Ukrainian Catholic University, poet Serhii Zhadan and Viktor Pinchuk, the businessman who founded the initiative.

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