Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on April 8, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute for The George Shevelov Memorial Lecture in Ukrainian Studies, delivered by Maxim Tarnawsky (University of Toronto).
Valerian Pidmohylnyi’s 1928 novel has aged very well. It is still a wonderful exploration of the challenges facing a young Ukrainian village boy who comes to the city in the years immediately following the revolution that brought the communists to power in the former Russian empire. It is also a deeply philosophical exposition of the human condition that puts us all between the physical demands of the world around us and the cognitive imperative of reason. But a century later, the elements that make up Pidmohylnyi’s novel and argument are not universally perceived as they were then. This lecture will explore the then and now of understanding Stepan Radchenko.
Reception to follow.
Maxim Tarnawsky is a professor in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at the University of Toronto. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. He is the author of books on Valerian Pidmohylnyi and Ivan Nechui Levytskyi. He is also the editor of the journal Ukrainian Literature: A Journal of Translations in which the translation of Pidmohylnyi’s novel, The City first appeared in 2014 and 2018.
George Shevelov (1908-2002), the eminent Slavic linguist, philologist, essayist, literary historian and critic, taught at Columbia University for over three decades. His scholarly and literary activities were closely tied to New York City: to Columbia, the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the US, the Shevchenko Scientific Society, the journal Suchasnist and other institutions. The George Shevelov Memorial Lecture in Ukrainian Studies is presented in his honor.
Please email disability@columbia.edu to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
