Natalie Kononenko Launching Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies (In Person + Streaming)
Wednesday Sep 06 2023 7:00 pm, Saskatoon, Travel Alcove & YouTube
Join Natalie Kononenko for the Saskatoon launch of her book Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies: Growing a Ukrainian Canadian Identity (McGill-Queen's University Press).
The event will be hosted live in the Travel Alcove, and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream. The video will remain available for viewing thereafter. Before arriving, please review details of how to attend physical events here at the store.
Canada is home to one of the largest Ukrainian diasporas in the world, yet little is known about the life and culture of Ukrainians living in the country’s rural areas and their impact on Canadian traditions. Kononenko’s book Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies: Growing a Ukrainian Canadian Identity draws on more than 10 years of fieldwork and interviews to give voice to rural Ukrainian Canadians and their accounts of family rituals, those of marriage, birth, and death, and rituals connected to the calendar, namely Christmas and Easter. Kononenko highlights the creative accomplishments of these people in developing a culture that is both Ukrainian and Canadian. She gives voice to a group of everyday people who are too often overlooked.
Natalie Kononenko received her PhD from Harvard University. Her dissertation was based on her fieldwork in Turkey. She has also done work in Ukraine, Canada, and Kazakhstan. Her book Ukrainian Minstrels: And the Blind Shall Sing won the Kovaliv Prize and the best book award of the American Association of Ukrainian Studies. Her Ukrainian Epic and Historical Song: Folklore in Context received the Barbara Heldt Award for best translation. She has also authored other books and numerous articles. She was an award-winning teacher and is a pioneer in digital humanities, creating both popular and scholarly websites, including one with all of the interviews conducted in Canada.
See:
Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies
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Hardcover
$44.95
Reader Reward Price: $40.46
While Canada is home to one of the largest Ukrainian diasporas in the world, little is known about the life and culture of Ukrainians living in the country's rural areas and their impact on Canadian traditions. Drawing on more than ten years of interviews and fieldwork, Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies describes the culture of Ukrainian Canadians living in the Prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Despite powerful pressure to assimilate, these Ukrainians have managed both to preserve their sense of themselves as Ukrainian and to develop a culture sensitive to the realities of Prairie life, creating their own uniquely Ukrainian Canadian traditions. The Ukrainian church, an iconic though now rapidly disappearing feature of the Prairie landscape, takes centre stage as an instrument for the retention of Ukrainian identity and the development of a new culture. Natalie Kononenko explores the cultural elements of Ukrainian Canadian ritual practice, with an emphasis on family traditions surrounding marriage, birth, death, and religious holidays. Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies gives voice to a group of everyday people who are too often overlooked, highlighting their accomplishments and their contributions to Canadian life.
