On August 27, the 169th anniversary of Ivan Franko’s birth, the 9th solemn award ceremony of the Ivan Franko International Prize, one of the most prestigious Ukrainian awards in the field of the humanities, was held in Drohobych.

The award went to Ukrainian-American philologist, Candidate of Philology, Doctor of Philosophy, and Professor at the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at Pace University (New York), Andriy Danylenko.

Pursuant to the resolution of 12 members of the international jury from Austria, Slovakia, and Ukraine, the prize was awarded for his monograph “From the Bible to Shakespeare: Panteleymon Kulish and the Formation of the Ukrainian Literary Language.”

In 2025, 13 monographs by scholars from three countries (Poland, the United States, and Ukraine) competed for the Ivan Franko International Prize. The shortlist also included:

During the ceremony, the Director of the Ivan Franko International Fund, Ihor Kurus, noted that on top of a monetary award of 275,000 UAH, the laureate received a medal and a diploma.

Background: The Ivan Franko International Prize was founded by the grandson of the Great Ukrainian, Roland Franko. The highest prize in the field of the humanities has been awarded annually since 2016.

Among previous laureates are Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Professor Michael Moser (Vienna), Academician Oleh Shabliy (Lviv), Professor Yaroslava Melnyk (Lviv), Associate Professor Johannes Remy (Helsinki), Professor Maria Grazia Bartolini (Milan), Professor Ihor Serdiuk (Poltava), Professor Leonid Tymoshenko (Drohobych), Franko scholar Mykola Lehkyi (Lviv), and historian Oleksiy Sokyrko (Kyiv).