Wednesday, July 15, 2026
2026 ASEEES Distinguished Contributions Award Announced
2026 ASEEES DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTIONS HONOREE
Frank E. Sysyn
ASEEES is pleased to announce that the 2025 ASEEES Distinguished Contributions Award is presented to Frank E. Sysyn, Professor of History and Classics and Director of the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Studies at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta.
A distinguished and innovative historian of early modern and modern Ukraine, a dedicated builder of institutions, a generous mentor, and a tireless advocate for Ukrainian studies, Dr. Frank E. Sysyn exemplifies the spirit of the ASEEES Distinguished Contributions Award. Over the course of a remarkable career, he has transformed the study of Ukrainian history through pathbreaking scholarship, sustained intellectual leadership, and an extraordinary commitment to building the scholarly communities and institutional structures that allow the field to flourish.
Dr. Sysyn’s scholarship has fundamentally reshaped the study of Ukraine and East Central Europe. His landmark monograph, Between Poland and the Ukraine: The Dilemma of Adam Kysil, 1600–1653 (Harvard University Press, 1985), remains a foundational work in the field, offering a nuanced interpretation of political culture and confessional conflict in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In his numerous articles on topics ranging from the Khmelnytsky Uprising and the Cossack chronicles to religious culture and the concept of nationhood, Dr. Sysyn has developed new ways of understanding the relationships among social conflict, religion, elite culture, and state formation. His work anticipated and helped define the comparative history of East Central Europe, invoking contested identities and regional complexity, and deconstructing simplified national narratives.
Just as significant has been Dr. Sysyn’s role in creating the institutional foundations of the field. From his early involvement with the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University to his decades of leadership at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research, he has been central to the emergence of Ukrainian studies as a rigorous, internationally recognized academic field. As editor-in-chief of the English-language edition of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s History of Ukraine-Rus’, he led one of the most ambitious collaborative projects in the field, coordinating scholars, translators, and editors across institutions and countries to make this cornerstone of Ukrainian historiography accessible to a global audience. His later work on the writings of Mykhailo Zubrytsky further demonstrated his gift for recovering neglected figures and opening new avenues for research on Ukraine’s intellectual, religious, and social history.
Dr. Sysyn’s contributions encompass his role in mentoring generations of scholars who consistently describe his mentorship as generous, demanding, and transformative. His teaching and advising have encouraged scholars to place Ukrainian history in broader comparative frameworks and to simultaneously engage Polish, Jewish, Russian, Hungarian, Armenian, and other histories. His influence is visible in the work of the many scholars and institutions he has helped shape across North America, Europe, Australia, and Ukraine. His public-facing work has been equally consequential. Through his leadership in Holodomor studies, especially with the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium, he has helped move the field toward broader comparative and interdisciplinary conversations on famine, empire, colonialism, and genocide, while also strengthening public and educational engagement.
ASEEES is proud to honor Frank E. Sysyn, whose scholarship has changed the field, whose leadership has built it, whose mentoring continues to renew it, and whose public engagement has extended its reach and relevance.
Established in 1970, the Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Award honors eminent members of the profession who have made major contributions to the field through scholarship of the highest quality, mentoring, leadership, and/or service. The prize is intended to recognize diverse contributions across Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.