2022 Recipient

The Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize in Ukrainian Studies, established in 2019 and sponsored by the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, recognizes a distinguished book in the field of Ukrainian studies that was published in the previous calendar year. Omeljan Pritsak was an esteemed scholar of Ukrainian history and the primary founder of the Harvard Ukranian Research Institute.

Winner: Yuliya Ilchuk
Title: Nikolai Gogol: Performing Hybrid Identity (University of Toronto Press)

In Nikolai Gogol: Performing Hybrid Identity, Yuliya Ilchuk provides a detailed analysis on the perceptions of Nikolai Gogol’s national identity to argue that Gogol’s cultural identity became a “hybrid identity” through a series of “negotiations” between imperial influence and cultural values. Through her extensive knowledge of Gogol’s life and work, Ilchuk describes the assimilation of Ukrainians into the greater Russian Empire, emphasizing the role of Ukrainian intellectuals in developing Russia’s imperial culture. Most impressive, however, is Ilchuk’s theoretically rich approach to hybridity as a defining interpretive method and how she explores new fields of network analysis in order to incorporate translation studies, digital humanities, performance studies, and sociolinguistic modes of self-fashioning. In addition, her use of computer-assisted methods to analyze text is revolutionary in the field. Ilchuk’s innovative theoretical methods will likely be replicated to analyze the lives and works of other prolific writers from the region.

Honorable Mention: Olena Palko