Myrna Kostash is an acclaimed writer of literary and creative nonfiction who makes her home in Edmonton when she is not travelling in pursuit of her varied literary interests and passions. These have taken her from school halls in Vancouver, BC, to Ukrainian weddings in Two Hills, Alberta; from the site of the mass grave of Cree warriors in Battleford, Saskatchewan, to a fishers’ meeting in Digby, Nova Scotia; from the British Library in London, UK, to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. She is inspired in her work by her childhood in the Ukrainian-Canadian community of Edmonton, her rites of passage through the Sixties in the US, Canada and Europe, by her discovery of the New Journalism and feminism in the 1970s, by her rediscovery of her western Canadian roots in the 1980s, and most recently, by her return to her spiritual sources in Byzantium and the Eastern Christian (Orthodox) Church.

Sheena Rossiter is an Assistant Professor and the Head of Media Production in the Department of Communication at MacEwan University. She has 20 years of experience working as a journalist, podcaster, and documentary filmmaker. Her work has been broadcasted on The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the BBC, Monocle Radio, and other outlets. Her written work has appeared in many outlets like The Walrus, and USA Today. She has covered mega sporting events such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the 2015 Copa America, and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, among others. She recently was the editor and post-production supervisor on the award-winning documentary feature Pride Vs. Prejudice: The Delwin Vriend Story. And she is currently producing a documentary feature entitled The Perfect Match.

Hi! I’m Anthony “Andy” Goertz. Filmmaker, crew mate, and new dad who calls Amiskwacîwâskahikan home. I’ve worked on productions big and small, from intimate post-apocalyptic dramas to grand horse-racing docuseries. I love working on every part of it, from writing and prep, filming, post, through ushering our little works of art into the world in the hopes of enlightening the place a tad.

I’ve been a writer, producer, director, editor, composer, actor, extra, AD, grip, production manager, and probably 1 more by the time you’re reading this. I’m a long-serving board member of the Documentary Organization of Canada, and I believe in the power of art, story, and truth-telling to improve the world. It is my pleasure to be with Myrna, one of my favourite artists, and all of you.

Jen Budney

Jen Budney is the Executive Director & CEO of the Ukrainian Museum of Canada. She has more than 20 years of experience working in museums and the arts, with a background spanning curation, public policy, and cultural leadership. Jen holds a PhD in Public Policy, with research focused on the public value of museums and cultural institutions. Since joining the Ukrainian Museum of Canada in 2022, she has led a period of renewal, expanding exhibitions, programming, partnerships, and national visibility. Her work centres on cultural memory, community engagement, and the role of museums in democracy and social resilience.

Jars Balan

Jars Balan is the current coordinator of the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, which he has been involved with in various capacities almost from its founding fifty years ago. A life-long activist in the Ukrainian community, he has visited Ukrainian settlements across Canada, Europe, the United States and Australia, and has also travelled extensively in Ukraine beginning in 1969. Among his areas of expertise in Ukrainian Studies is the history of Ukrainians in Canada, with a particular interest in Ukrainian Canadian literature and Ukrainian theatre in Canada, especially in the Ukrainian language. 

Maryna Chernyavska

Maryna Chernyavska is the Digital Archivist at the University of Alberta Archives and co-coordinator of the Indigenous Ukrainian Relationship Initiative alongside Larysa Hayduk. She is currently pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD in Media & Cultural Studies and Library & Information Studies at the University of Alberta.

Originally from Chernivtsi, Bukovyna, Ukraine, Maryna’s research explores traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions within archival contexts. Her work focuses on community archives, Indigenous–Ukrainian relational initiatives, and innovative, non-traditional archival practices that challenge and expand conventional archival frameworks.

Oleksandr Pankiev

Dr. Oleksandr Pankieiev is Director of the Kule Folklore Centre and Associate Professor and Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on ethnography, the history of Steppe (Southern) Ukraine, Ukrainian Canadian diaspora studies, media studies, and propaganda.

His recent publications include the edited volume Narratives of the Russo-Ukrainian War: A Look Within and Without (ibidem Press). A Spanish-language translation of this book—Ecos de Guerra: Perspectivas Académicas sobre la Invasión Rusa a Ucrania—was recently published in Argentina.

Lindy Ledohowski 

Lindy Ledohowski defended her PhD in English at the University of Toronto before completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa and taking up a post as a professor at the University of Waterloo where she taught contemporary Canadian and postcolonial literatures. She co-edited the Kobzar Book Award-winning collection Unbound: Ukrainian Canadians Writing Home, and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles on Ukrainian Canadian literature in English. She left her job as a professor to co-found and lead an EdTech company in the academic writing space, until its acquisition, when she joined the acquiring company as COO before leaving to join RBCx, the tech arm of RBC as a VP in tech banking. She also served two terms on the Board of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and she is currently serving her second term on the Board of the Shevchenko Foundation.

Peter Melnycky

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba where he graduated with a Master’s degree in the Social Sciences and Humanities from the University of Manitoba. His thesis, A Political History of the Ukrainian Community in Manitoba, 1899-1922 was awarded the Margaret McWilliams medal by the Manitoba Historical Society. He was employed for over four decades as a Historian with the Alberta Historic Sites Service / Heritage Division of Alberta Culture in Edmonton, where he researched and interpreted the history of Alberta. His publications focus on the early fur trade of Western Canada, the history of Ukrainians in Canada and internment operations during the First World War. 

Olha Poliukhovych

Olha Poliukhovych, literary critic and researcher, holds a PhD degree in philosophy of literature from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (2015). She is an associate professor at The Volodymyr Morenets Department of Literature at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Since September 2023 she has worked as a Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 2017–2018 she was a Fulbright Fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University. Since a full-scale Russia-Ukraine war, she has been featured on LitHub podcasts and has published essays in Los Angeles Review of Books, Agni, Consequence forum, Prospect Magazine, and Irish Pages.

Jeffrey Stepnisky

Dr. Jeffrey Stepnisky is an associate professor of sociology and Kule Chair of Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre. His research focuses on sociological theory, selfhood, space, identity, and collective memory. He leads an SSHRC-funded project on the construction of Ukrainian memory at the Maidan Museum in Kyiv and has examined the relationship between civil society and memory in Ukraine. With colleagues in Ukraine and Canada, he also studies the history of sociological theory in Ukraine and sites of memory within Edmonton’s Ukrainian community. Dr. Stepnisky additionally contributes to SSHRC-funded research on the resilience of Ukrainian youth in Canada under the CUAET program.

Theodora Harasymiw

Theodora Harasymiw is a visual artist working across mosaic, painting, and ceramics to create works rooted in community and culture. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta with a major in Painting and minor in Classics that continues to influence her passion for history, myth, and storytelling. Since 2010, she has focused primarily on mosaic, studying in the United States and Italy. Over the past three decades, Harasymiw has collaborated with more than 85 schools, communities, and institutions, creating public murals and mosaics that honour shared histories, cultural values, and place based memory. Her practice emphasizes collaboration, collective storytelling and vibrancy.

Kalyna Somchynsky

Kalyna Somchynsky is a historian of art and visual culture, researcher, and library worker based in Edmonton, Alberta, on Treaty 6 Territory. She earned her MA in the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture from the University of Alberta in 2020 and has since worked on educational, editorial, and community-based projects. Her research explores gender and politics in the Ukrainian Canadian community, artistic engagements with the body, labour, and conflict, and everyday aesthetic experiences. Kalyna is committed to interviewing and conversation as research methods, first developed through her thesis on contemporary feminist art in Ukraine. She later led the oral history project Local Narratives at MacEwan University’s Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre and co-produced three short documentaries in collaboration with the Alberta Local and International Education Association (ALIEA).

Natalia Khanenko-Friesen

Natalia Khanenko-Friesen is an oral historian and cultural anthropologist, Director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and Huculak Chair in Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography at the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on oral history, vernacular culture, diaspora and ethnic identities, migration, and immigrant letter writing. She has authored and co-edited several books on Ukrainian diaspora and oral history. She is the founding editor of the Engaged Scholar Journal. Her current project, Decollectivized, explores testimonies of the last generation of Soviet farmers. Since February 24, 2022, she has led scholarly initiatives on war testimony research, including the institute “Witnessing the War in Ukraine.”

Mariya Shymchyshyn

Mariya Shymchyshyn is Professor and Chair of the Department of Literary Theory and World Literature at Kyiv National Linguistics University, and currently a Visiting Professor and Research Affiliate at the University of Manitoba. She holds a PhD in World Literature and Literary Theory and an MA in Comparative Literature. A Fulbright Scholar and Volkswagen Foundation fellow, she has conducted research in the United States and Germany. She is the author of three monographs and co-editor of several scholarly volumes. Her research focuses on identity, Ukrainian Canadian literature, migration and refugee fiction, spatial literary studies, and metamodernism. 

Naomi McIlwraith

A delighted member of IURI (Indigenous Ukrainian Relationship Initiative), Naomi is grateful to Myrna Kostash, Larysa (URDC Director), and Maryna for their friendship and many kindnesses. A Metis writer from Edmonton, Naomi has wandered near and far but always finds her way back home to Treaty 6 lands. She writes to honour her parents, her family, her ancestors, and her relatives, even those with fangs, fins, fur, and foliage. Naomi's lifelong journey exploring her Indigenous and European roots includes a canoe trip from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta to Thunder Bay, Ontario, a bicycle trip clear across Canada, lots of time in university to figure things out, and a deep commitment to peacemaking in all her endeavours.

Larysa Hayduk

Larysa Hayduk is Director of the Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre (URDC) at MacEwan University. She leads interdisciplinary, community-engaged initiatives that foster cross-cultural collaboration through relationship-building, experiential learning, and reciprocity. Under her leadership, URDC has expanded and launched initiatives such as the Canada-Ukraine Model United Nations, the Gene Zwozdesky Artist in Residence program, and a Visiting Scholar program. She has co-developed an international service-learning program, co-taught Indigenous land-based courses with kihêw waciston Indigenous Centre, and co-founded MacEwan’s Interdisciplinary Dialogue Project. Her research focuses on Indigenous-settler relations and the lived experiences of Ukrainian mothers displaced by war. She has received provincial and community recognition awards.

Laurie Graham

Laurie D. Graham grew up east of amiskwacîwâskahikan/Edmonton, and she now lives in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough, Ontario, where she is a poet, an editor, and the publisher of Brick magazine. Her maternal families immigrated from Halychyna in the early 1900s and homesteaded near Derwent, Alberta.

Her first book of poetry, Rove, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book of poetry in Canada. Her second and third books, Settler Education and Fast Commute, were both nominated for Ontario’s Trillium Award for Poetry. Her fourth book, Calling It Back to Me, will be out with McClelland & Stewart in March 2026.

George Melnyk

George Melnyk is Professor Emeritus of Communication, Media and Film at the University of Calgary. A distinguished cultural historian, critic, and scholar, he is the author and editor of more than thirty books, with a particular focus on Canadian cinema, cultural studies, and Alberta’s literary history. 

Melnyk has long been an influential figure in Canada’s independent publishing community. In the 1970s, he founded NeWest Review and NeWest Press, contributing to the growth of prairie writing and fostering new literary voices. He has been a friend and contemporary of Myrna Kostash since that time, sharing a commitment to chronicling Western Canadian cultural life. He currently resides in Calgary, where he continues to engage with Canada’s cultural landscape.

Chrystia Chomiak

Born in a displaced persons camp after the Second World War, Chrystia Chomiak immigrated to Canada in 1948 and settled in Edmonton. She studied Education and Drama at the University of Alberta and Slavic and Art History at the University of Toronto, with additional coursework in creative writing, historiography, and Ukrainian vernacular architecture. A longtime feminist and Ukrainian Canadian activist, she was involved in progressive organizations and supported multicultural policy development and Ukrainian dissidents in the 1970s–80s. She has lectured on Ukrainian Canadian art, feminism, and bilingual education, and authored reports on vernacular architecture and several short stories.