I am s Slavist with a wide range of interests. My focus, however, is on matters Ukrainian, primarily in the field of language viewed through the multifaceted prism – Ukrainian in its relation to other Slavic languages, including the literary ones.

My goal is to promote Ukrainian in the world scholarly community. The language and its speakers deserve a qualified attention in various fields such as linguistic typology, Indo-European studies, grammaticalization theory where Ukrainian facts have been underrepresented or misconstrued.

In my research on the history of literary Ukrainian, I strive to refute obsolete concepts bequeathed from the past and revived in the present by some Slavists. I also try to debate politically or regionally biased approaches propagated by some scholarly zealots claiming the purity and regional primordiality of certain literary traditions in the Ukrainian-speaking territories. 

I want my students to view the Slavic world as a complex conglomerate of different cultures and languages united by their diversity and ever-lasting presence in the world civilization.

I am a versatile Slavist and an experienced translator into Ukrainian. I am one of the translators of George Y. Shevelov's monograph, A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language (Heidelber 1979). The Ukrainian-language translation was awarded the Grand-Prix for “The Best Book in Ukraine of the Year 2003” (Book Fair, L’viv, Ukraine, 2003). 

Docendo discimus

My teaching motto docendo discimus ‘we learn by teaching’ stems from my almost 30-year teaching experience in culturally diverse classes in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and for the last 10 years in the US. The whole of my teaching philosophy stems from my understanding of the interrelatedness of our world.

I want to offer in my language, literature, culture, and linguistics courses a transnational vantage point from which my students can perceive foreign cultures and traditions. Helping my students to discern the universal content in individual cultures through language expertise is one of the challenges of any teacher of foreign languages. In expanding the Russian and Slavic Studies Track (RSS) in the Modern Languages and Cultures (MOL) major, I plan to attract students to all things Slavic as an integral part of the globalized post-9/11 world.

I strongly believe that, to be able to effectively communicate in the globalized world, my students need to acquire knowledge in various disciplines that constitute the Modern Languages and Cultures curriculum and, in a broader sense, the liberal arts foundations including cross-cultural knowledge, creative and analytical thinking, communication skills, ability to synthesize new ideas and to cooperate with other peoples and races.

In view of the ongoing globalization of our world, I teach my students to analyze primary and secondary sources for information. Studying such sources can provide unbiased vision of the complex integrity of our world, thus helping our students to assess cultural, ethnic, and other differences objectively and without prejudices.

I strive for personal interaction with my students. I learn their names, habits, interests, and in some cases families. Familiarity with my students helps me to integrate them into the learning process aimed at gaining a wide range of analytical skills. As a result, the principle of fairness in assessing their academic achievements becomes pivotal and fosters eventually the sense of collegiality in the process of learning.

A deep personal interaction promotes a collegial atmosphere and a sense of collaborative environment. In my classes, I strive to provoke discussion of most sensitive issues, as well as to encourage an exchange of ideas. By sharing intellectual enterprise, my students are not passive players but active contributors in their own education. A friendly atmosphere is naturally conductive to achieving most difficult learning objectives, especially in advanced and interdisciplinary courses, which should be supported by an elaborate system of assignments and their fair and objective assessment.