Ukraine is cool. Ukraine is mainstream. Against the backdrop of Russia's war against our state, the world began to be interested not only in the news from the military front but also in our culture, history, features and our national soul.
In collaboration with the Ukrainian Institute, the Ukrainian Scientific Institute at Harvard University created the educational portal Ukraïnica for those who want to discover Ukraine. The key mission of Ukraïnica is not only to satisfy the interest of foreigners but to create a database about Ukraine that can be introduced into the English-language educational process in higher schools around the world.
"This is a new digital product that I have been actively working on for the last 3 years and dreaming about for at least 10 years. The main idea of this platform is to help those who are outside the field of Ukrainian studies but would like to include the topics of Ukraine in their teaching. With the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, this became even more urgent because one of Putin's goals was to eradicate Ukraine and Ukrainians by destroying the country and killing people, erasing its history and culture. At the same time, due to aggression, interest in deep materials about Ukraine and the demand for them has increased unprecedentedly," project curator Oleh Kotsyuba.
The platform contains an archive with historical documents of Ukraine translated from Ukrainian into English, works of literature, examples of applied art, information about prominent Ukrainians, as well as tools for building curricula for non-Ukrainian students who want to study Ukrainian studies.
An interesting fact about the name Ukraïnica platform. The letter ï used in the platform's name is a unique letter of the Ukrainian alphabet, which is not found in any other language in the world, and distinguishes the Ukrainian alphabet from other Slavic ones. Ї is one of the uniqueness of Ukrainian palaeography, phonetics and culture. Ukrainians affectionately call this letter a "candle" and urge to take care of ï.
