Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize in Ukrainian Studies

2024 Recipient

Serhiy Bilenky

Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine between Empire and Nation, 1772–1914

The Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize in Ukrainian Studies, established in 2019 and sponsored by the Harvard 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 Ukrainian Research Institute. 

Winner: Serhiy Bilenky, Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine between Empire and Nation, 1772–1914 (McGill-Queen’s University Press and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 2023)

The Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize Committee has unanimously selected Serhiy Bilenky’s Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine between Empire and Nation, 1772–1914 as the winner of the 2024 prize. Bilenky’s book is a unique and timely study of Ukraine’s emergence as a modern nation during the long nineteenth century—an emergence that took place while its territory was divided and involved multiple negotiations and engagements as part of its relationship with two major imperial forces, the Russian and the Habsburg Empires. As the first account of modern Ukraine presented through the prism of global history, Laboratory of Modernity shows how in this geopolitically and ethnically complex situation, Ukraine managed to develop its pluralistic society and culture together with its modern socio-economic institutions. The plethora of historical sources—accounts of cultural developments, historical demographics and statistics, and geographic maps—make Bilenky’s book a valuable resource for a wide audience interested in the history of Ukraine as a global agent. 

Honorable Mention: John R. Staples

Prize Committee: Margarita Balmaceda (chair), Yuliya Ilchuk, and Sarah Philips