About Us
Who Are We?
We are oral historians seeking to hear the stories of Edmontonians who came together to host newcomers — opening their homes to complete strangers — in the ongoing aftermath of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Our project is being organized as part of the graduate-level course "Oral History: Theory and Praxis" offered by the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta.
Our team of seven graduate students have spent months learning about how to plan and carry out oral history projects, as well as the benefits of this methodology for discovering and sharing stories which may be lost or ignored by traditional histories.
Our professor and project supervisor, Dr. Natalia Khanenko-Friesen, is director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) and leader of the ongoing oral history project Ukrainian Displaced Persons in Canada post-2022: Making Home in Times of Peace and War. We hope our research can provide a small contribution to the vital work being done with Ukrainian displaced persons to support newcomers, and offer insight into how individuals can come together and mobilize in response to crisis.
The Sharing Home Team
Margaret DeCoste
Margaret (Maggie) is a first-year MA student in Anthropology at the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on recipe sharing and community cookbooks in Saskatchewan.
Vlada Fatiushchenko
Vlada is a first-year MA student and a research assistant in Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. She holds a BA in English Philology from the V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Her research interests include language attitudes and language ideologies, bilingualism and language shift in Ukraine.
Dr. Natalia Khanenko-Friesen
Natalia Khanenko-Friesen is the Director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and Professor and Huculak Chair in Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography at the University of Alberta. She is an expert in the areas of oral history, ethnicity, migration, post-socialist transition, and Ukrainian, Eastern European, and Ukrainian Canadian cultures.
Victoria Kostyniuk
Victoria is a first-year PhD student in Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on how Ukrainian Church Halls have helped to preserve Ukrainian heritage in Alberta.
Kai Lin
Kai is a first-year PhD student in Translation Studies at the University of Alberta. He is interested in the topic of censorship in audiovisual translation.
Anna Morozova
Anna is a graduate student in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. She is also a Research Assistant at the Kule Folklore Centre.
Anna Olenenko
Anna serves as a Research Assistant in the Kule Folklore Center and is doing her PhD in the Media and Cultural Studies program at the University of Alberta. She holds mutiple degrees from Zaporizhzhia National University and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Her research interests include environmental history of the Ukrainian steppe and the reflection of nature transformation in the culture.
Zoe Wagner
Zoe is a first-year master's student in Material Culture at the University of Alberta Department of Human Ecology. She is a museum professional and holds an undergraduate degree from the U of A in textile science. Her thesis research addresses the study African of textiles and political narratives.