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From an academic perspective, what are the parameters of Ukrainian Canadian studies? This list of university graduate dissertations helps answer this question. After all, by its very nature, every graduate dissertation constitutes a unique kind of scholarly marker: each represents a demanding experience involving an advanced student, one or more qualified mentors, considerable commitments of time, energy and resources, the submission of a properly researched and decently written document, an oral "defense", and a final public endorsement in the form of a graduate degree. Moreover, since the dissertation attempts to push forward the frontiers of learning by entering new territory and/or offering new insights (many dissertations are subsequently published in book form) this makes the graduate student's dissertation an extraordinarily valid tool in any effort to capture the essence of Ukrainian Canadian studies.

This listing of well over one hundred graduate-level university / college dissertations represents work done from1925 to 2005 at many universities -- most, but not all, of them Canadian. It reflects the evolution of scholarship in this area and points to certain centres as hubs of relevant activity. A similar assertion was voiced over a quarter of a century ago by Frances Swyripa when she published the last comprehensive listing in 1978: "Bibliographies such as this not only indicate the scope and evolution of university research on Ukrainian Canadians, but also keep those interested abreast of current directions and activity." (Frances Swyripa, "Theses and Dissertations on Ukrainian Canadians: An Annotated Bibliography," Journal of Ukrainian Gradate Studies, 3/1 (spring 1978), p.92).

Besides offering a updated overview, the present listing has two practical purposes: it seeks (1) to help avoid redundancy (for example, three dissertations investigate aspects of Ukrainian winter customs in Canada, but none focus on Ukrainian customs associated with other seasons in Canada); and (2) to suggest future developments at the graduate level of student research in Ukrainian Canadian studies -- especially in areas that remain neglected or poorly covered.

The present compilation has no limitation regarding provenance or language used -- in Canada, for instance, besides English, some dissertations have been written in French or Ukrainian. Nonetheless, we sense that this list is not exhaustive largely due to our inability, at this time, to verify properly the existence of relevant dissertations written outside North America as well as the unreliability of extant data bases. As such, however, the listing spans a production-period of seven decades and shows that certain trends have dominated the concerns of those who have engaged themselves in the dissertation process outlined above. Somewhat expectedly, sociological, historical, pedagogical and literary topics are in the forefront. This profile expands somewhat towards the end of the 20th century to include music and the visual arts.

The list is arranged alphabetically by author. This is followed by the title of the dissertation, the name of the institution that accepted the dissertation, and the year of completion / submission / formal acceptance. These details are followed by an indication of the graduate degree in attainment of which the dissertation (or "thesis") was prepared, submitted, and approved - an "M.A." for Master of Arts, an "M.Ed." for Master of Education, "M.S.W." for Master of Social Work, a "Ph.D." for Doctor of Philosophy, and so on. In some cases, brief annotations are added at the end of the entry.

Cyrillic titles are transliterated according to the system employed by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

Some dissertation titles are tagged with "F.S." and point to a critical and /or descriptive annotation for the work provided by Frances Swyripa in her guide noted above.

It is important to note that our list bypasses several dissertations where phenomena linked to the Ukrainian experience in Canada appeared to be treated in a secondary, marginal or incidental manner. Along with this proviso, it should be noted that this listing focuses only on the Ukrainian experience in Canada: it can be argued that Canadian dissertations that focus on Ukraine and / or the Ukrainian experience in other countries (such as the United States) constitute an important part of a larger configuration of scholarly production - nonetheless, these latter works are not included here. As mentioned above, in the course of compiling our data, it became painfully evident that all currently available, related data-bases (electronic or other) have limitations and are subject to "human error." At least one dissertation has reportedly disappeared, and others were discovered by scouring a variety of works (footnotes and bibliographies were especially helpful). Ephemeral in nature and often difficult to obtain, few dissertations were actually inspected for our listing here.

For providing some of the more obscure, earlier dissertation-titles we need to acknowledge especially A. Malycky's pioneering survey, "University Research on Ukrainian Canadians: A Preliminary Check List of Dissertations and Theses", Canadian Ethnic Studies I:1 (1969), 72-76 followed by two separate supplements published in the same periodical (II:1 [June 1970], 193-194, and V:1/2 [1973], 271-273). In addition to the listings published by Malycky in 1969 to 1973, I wish also to credit Frances Swyripa's her guide to "Theses and Dissertations on Ukrainian Canadians: An Annotated Bibliography" in Journal of Ukrainian Graduate Studies 3:1 (spring 1978), pp. 91-110 (mentioned cited above), Swyripa's other list of theses in Ukrainian Canadians: a Survey of Their Portrayal in English-Language Works (Emonton, Alberta, 1978), pp. 164-166, and Andrij Makuch's more recent electronically circulated listings in Field Notes from Ukrainian Canada, I: 2-3 (spring and summer 1995). The published works of others (notably Orest Martynowych) were also useful. In some instances, we noted minor discrepancies among these earlier listings regarding specific details for identical works.

For help in navigating the intricacies of the so-called "information highway" I am especially indebted to James Kominowski, Slavic librarian and archivist, with the University of Manitoba Library in Winnipeg. For technical assistance, I wish to thank my daughters, Lara and Andrea, whose talents were not only helpful but also, at times, indispensable for the completion of this project.

Due to technical difficulties, diacritic marks for words in French and German are absent. We also apologize for any errors and glaring omissions.

And finally, we wish to mention that this project was funded by the University of Manitoba's Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies with monies from the Centre's Mimka Endowment Fund.

November 22, 2005

Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies
Room 203, 29 Dysart Road
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg MB
R3T 2N2
Canada

Phone: (204) 474-8906
Fax: (204) 474-7624
Email: cucs@cc.umanitoba.ca
Website: umanitoba.ca/centres/ukrainian_canadian