You're reading: Harvard University explores for potential research center in Kyiv

Harvard University is scouting opportunities to open a research center in Kyiv as an extension of its Ukrainian Research Institute, the prestigious educational institute’s website announced recently. 

“I’m happy to confirm that the Ukrainian
Research Institute at Harvard
has received a seed grant
and is exploring the possibility of establishing a research center in Kyiv,”
George Grabowicz, professor of Ukrainian literature at Harvard’s department of
Slavic languages and literatures, told the Kyiv Post in an email. 

Using money from the Sustainable Ukraine
Foundation, the university said the research center would “pursue excellence in
research and education in the area of Ukrainian Studies, to identify and
utilize both academic and research resources, and to foster scholarly
involvement of both faculty and students in Ukraine.” 

Currently in an exploratory phase,
Mykhailo Minakov, an associate professor of philosophy at the Kyiv Mohyla
Academy who has taught at Harvard, said that $4 million needs to be raised in
Ukraine’s business and philanthropic community to get the project started.  Minakov is leading the charge. 

As a volunteer working in tandem with
Natalia Sheiko, Minakov is currently identifying potential donors who would be
willing to commit funds that support the programming and operation of such a
center. 

“It’s still a question of ‘if’, but
we’re at the critical point where the business community can have a say in the
support of cultural exchange and science,” said Minakov. “It’s about ‘brain
gain,’ the import of brains rather than their export.” 

He said he believes the nation’s
business and philanthropic communities are “ripe enough to support the
endeavor,” whose scope will include the study and research of social and
political sciences, unlike the HURI’s focus on studying Ukrainian language,
literature and culture in the U.S. 

“Our big vision is to (also) cooperate
with regional universities, but we would like to first start with Kyiv-based
archives and programs; we’re definitely looking forward to working with
universities in Kharkiv, Simferpol, everywhere,” added Minakov. 

He explained that the Harvard project
would benefit Ukraine’s political class who he says “don’t know what’s going on
in their own country” in terms of social and cultural processes which largely
remain unstudied. 

“Ukraine’s scholarly community would
greatly benefit from cooperation with leading world scholars,” said Minakov. 

Like all Harvard offices outside the
U.S., the proposed HURI research center in Kyiv will need review by the
university’s Committee on International Projects and Sites and approval by the
Provost. 

According to its website, HURI was
founded in 1973 and serves as a “focal point for
graduate and undergraduate students, fellows, and associates pursuing research
in Ukrainian language, literature, and history as well as in anthropology,
archaeology, art history, economics, political science, sociology, theology,
and other disciplines.”  

It is located in Cambridge, Mass. 

Kyiv
Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at
[email protected]