Kule Folklore Centre at the U of A

11/22/2025

Today, we pause to remember the millions of innocent Ukrainians who perished in the Holodomor—the man-made famine of 1932–33. The genocide of Ukrainian people by starvation was perpetrated by the Soviet Union under the helm of Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin.

The Holodomor was not only a tragedy of physical starvation but a deliberate act that sought to break the spirit of a people. We honour the memory of those who suffered, recognize the resilience of survivors and their descendants, and reaffirm our commitment to never forget and to see justice done.

11/20/2025

Join us on December 13 for a festive Ukrainian Christmas Carol Sing-Along!

Enjoy a warm, festive atmosphere and treat yourself to delicious Ukrainian-Canadian pastries served throughout the event. All are welcome!

🗓 December 13, 2025
🕙 1–3:00 p.m. MDT
📍 Strathcona Community League Hall
💳 Free admission, registration required

🔗 RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ukrainian-christmas-carol-sing-along-tickets-1936791237729?aff=oddtdtcreator

Spend an uplifting afternoon with our favourite vocalist and KuFC ethnomusicologist Olga Zaitseva-Herz, and share the spirit of Christmas by singing traditional Ukrainian carols together with friends and family.

11/17/2025

Oleksandr Pankieiev, director of the Kule Folklore Centre, together with Steven Brese of Legacy Films, screened their co-directed documentary “Horizons of Belonging” at the XXVIII Triennial Congress of Ukrainian Canadians in Toronto, held November 14–16, 2025. The screening was followed by an engaging Q&A session with the audience.

Horizons of Belonging explores what it means to be a Ukrainian newcomer in Alberta. A film crew followed four newly arrived Ukrainian families over the course of a year in Edmonton and Calgary as they navigated the challenges of rebuilding their lives after escaping Russia’s full-scale invasion. The documentary offers a deeply personal look at identity, displacement, and belonging, shedding light on what it means to be a modern Ukrainian and having to “start over” in a new country.

11/16/2025

We are pleased to announce that “The Timeline” report from the Disrupted Ukrainian Scholars & Students initiative is now live and available on the DUSS Advancement page.

The DUSS Initiative, launched at the University of Alberta in March 2022 as a rapid response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is a vital support network for Ukrainian scholars and students whose lives and studies have been upended by the war. The KuFC is proud to be a partner in the DUSS, working alongside the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, the Kule Institute for Advanced Study, and the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies. Together, we have provided direct financial assistance, research opportunities, and community integration for displaced scholars and students at the U of A.​

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, DUSS has delivered tuition relief, living cost support, and emergency funding for over 100 Ukrainian students and 50+ scholars since 2022. Community donations have enabled these students to continue their studies, pursue research, and find safety here at the U of A.

Here is how this support has helped the DUSS initiative since 2022:

🔗Read “The Timeline” here:
https://www.ualberta.ca/en/giving/media-library/projects/disrupted-ukrainian-scholars-students/duss-year-in-review-2024-225.pdf

🔗More about DUSS: https://www.ualberta.ca/en/giving/where-to-give/projects/disrupted-ukrainian-scholars-and-students.html

The University of Alberta is working to help applicants, students and scholars – in our community and beyond – whose lives are affected by Russia's escalated invasion of Ukraine.

11/14/2025

Nov 7 Folklore Lecture with Kyler Zeleny is now available on our YouTube channel!

This is a recording of the public lecture given by a photographer, educator, and writer Dr. Kyler Zeleny at Kaffa Roaster and Studio.In his work he traces a ...

11/13/2025

“Who brings presents to Ukrainian children?” To explore answers to this question, join us on December 12, 2025, for the next Kule Folklore Lecture, with folklorist Daria Antsybor.

The guest lecturer will explore the transformation of winter holiday traditions in Ukraine. It will trace the roles of magical gift-givers such as St. Nicholas (Mykolai) and Grandfather Frost (Did Moroz), examining their origins, the impact of the Soviet era, and their use as political symbols. In the context of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the talk will also reflect on how Ukrainian society is re-evaluating these figures in its pursuit of cultural decolonization and authentic expression.

Ukrainian Winter Celebrations: Who Brings Presents to Ukrainian Children?
🗓 December 12, 2025
🕙 10–11:30 a.m. MDT
📍 Zoom
💳Free admission (please register!)

🔗 RSVP here: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_acyZGnTeRz-g9jz-IkVQpQ #/registration

Daria Antsybor is a research fellow at the Center for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Kyiv, Ukraine. At the Institute of Philology in Kyiv Shevchenko National University, her dissertation was dedicated to genres of oneiric folklore. She specializes in wartime folklore, vernacular medicine, crisis humour and anthropology of dreams. Antsybor is a member of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore. She has created a Telegram channel about traditional and modern cultural practices, co-authored an anthropological podcast “Porobleno,” and written two non-fiction books, on holidays (2023) and on subcultures in Ukraine (2024). Currently she is examining the nature of crisis humour in Ukraine, vernacular healing practices in the Polissia region, and writing a new study of Halloween and its connection to Ukrainian culture.

11/12/2025

On November 7, the KuFC hosted a captivating lecture by Canadian photographer and educator Kyler Zeleny, titled “A Photographic Prairie Trilogy: Collective Identity, Personal Memory, and Arriving at the Ukrainian-Canadian Homeplace.”

Zeleny’s work uniquely blends evocative landscapes, candid environmental portraits, and found photography to tell timeless stories of resilience, heritage, and local identity. His photography and storytelling serve as a vital visual testimony to prairie life, fostering a deeper understanding of the region’s people, places, and histories.

During his presentation, Zeleny shared selections from his photographic projects that document the evolving history of rural communities across Western Canada. He spoke in particular about his hometown of Mundare, Alberta, a community with a significant Ukrainian population, reflecting on how personal memory and collective identity intersect in shaping a sense of “homeplace.”

11/07/2025

Articles from the newest issue of the Journal of American Folklore include "Cursed Russians and Armed Saints: 'Angry Folklore' and the Ethics of Precarity in Response to the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine," co-authored by Robert Glenn Howard and KuFC alumna Mariya Lesiv

The authors analyze how folklore infused with rage and hostility raises ethical questions for researchers and audiences alike. The authors argue that such expressions must be understood in context, especially when they come from communities experiencing extreme physical precarity.

Read the article here: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/wordpress/journal-of-american-folklore-pre-conference-reading/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNUJ-pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHkWOztWuh6twryZBNrRr1PdSfPGaQ9zrSOCwN56P7IHHX623LGbRiZjO9Fos_aem_LPzD07PHxorhtqr9wsdUVQ

Mariya Lesiv presented the preliminary findings of this article in the Kule Folklore Centre’s 2024 Annual Bohdan Medwidsky Memorial Lecture, whose recording is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f9Iza0kUzw

11/01/2025

The Kule Folklore Centre is proud to share that Dr. Olga Zaitseva-Herz, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre, participated in the University of Ottawa’s 2025 Danyliw Seminar on Contemporary Ukraine.

Her presentation, “Songs at War: Ukrainian Popular Music, AI, and the Digital Front,” explored how Ukrainian musicians and digital creators are shaping cultural resilience and identity during wartime through sound, storytelling, and technology. Bringing together perspectives from folklore studies, digital humanities, and cultural analysis, Dr. Zaitseva-Herz examined how AI and online spaces influence the evolution of wartime musical expression.

Learn more: https://www.danyliwseminar.com/olgaza-itseva-herz

📷cr: Irène de Grave

10/27/2025

Today, the Kule Folklore Centre is pleased to unveil its redesigned homepage on the University of Alberta website!

https://www.ualberta.ca/en/kule-folklore-centre/index.html

The new design preserves the key features of the previous KuFC page while introducing a refreshed visual identity and a modernized layout. We hope that the Centre’s friends, community users and contributors, research associates, and supporters will enjoy interacting with our relevant and up-to-date content.

10/27/2025

Recording of folklore lecture with Ievgen Klopotenko is now available on our YouTube channel!

0:07 - Introduction & Welcome3:27 - Start of the Interview5:55 - Yevhen's first dish6:48 - Food as National Identity10:38 - Misconceptions about Ukrainian fo...

10/24/2025

On September 26–28, BMUFA Archivist Coordinator Nataliia Yesypenko represented the Kule Folklore Centre and Bohdan Medwidsky Archives at the 2025 Conference of the Ukrainian Heritage Consortium of North America.

Hosted by the Ukrainian Museum of Canada’s National headquarters branch in Saskatoon, staff, volunteers, independent researchers, and community representatives gathered to discuss sustainability, strategies for stability in Ukrainian heritage organizations, and, of course, to build connections and collaboration. Yesypenko was excited to participate in four days of intense and productive discussions, presentations, and cultural programming.

“It was a joy to meet colleagues from across Canada and beyond, including Ukraine. This was also my very first visit to Saskatoon, and I’m glad it happened in such a meaningful way—through visiting significant Ukrainian and Indigenous heritage sites. The conference allowed me to step back from daily work at the Kule Folklore Centre and reflect on our situation—our strengths as well as challenges,” Nataliia shares.

The conversations also shed light on the common challenges faced by Ukrainian heritage organizations in North America. While many institutions have their own premises with priceless archives and artifacts, very often they rely on volunteers and operate on limited (sometimes very limited) budgets. As a result, many museums and archives are only open a few hours a week—or are still dreaming of opening in the future. Yet despite these difficulties, participants spoke passionately about their active work—presentations, exhibitions, community events, and research projects—that give hope and inspiration.

We thank the UMC’s Jen Budney for bringing us together, and all the organizers and sponsors who made this conference possible.