Ivan Franko International Prize granted at the Great Kamenyar’s birthplace

On Tuesday, August 27, on the 163rd birth anniversary of Ivan Franko, Drohobych hosted an event, which brought together scientists from Ukraine, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, well-known Franko scholars, public representatives, the Great Kamenyar’s family and esteemed guests  — the fourth ceremony of awarding the laureates of the Ivan Franko International Prize. The Prize is awarded to scientists for research, achievements and discoveries in the field of Ukrainian studies and social and humanitarian sciences.

27 research papers submitted for the award in 2019 in two nominations. The monograph “Know thyself. Neoplatonic sources in the works of H.S. Skovoroda” authored by Doctor of Philology at the University of Milan Maria Gracia Bartolini was recognized as the best in the nomination “For significant achievements in the field of Ukrainian studies.” In another nomination, the Prize was not awarded, as none of the monographs submitted had received the required number of points.

 

Member of the international jury Yevhen Bystrytskyy (Doctor of Philosophy) presented the laureate’s work to the general public, and Peter Stoeger (Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences) from Austria, as well as Simone Bellezza (Doctor of History) from Italy specified the criteria, according to which the research papers had been assessed, presented the information about the contenders for the Prize in the nomination “For significant achievements in the field of social and humanitarian sciences” and emphasized the importance of the Prize in the development of the humanities and Ukrainian studies in particular. 

In his welcome address, Director of the Ivan Franko International Fund Ihor Kurus noted that the Foundation’s activities and mission were supported by Ukrainian and foreign scientists, including those from Canada and Europe. Thus, in four years 70 scholars and 6 writing teams from Ukraine, Austria, Italy, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Finland, Spain, Georgia, Israel, Poland and Serbia aspired to the prize.

 

Ihor Kurus also thanked the philanthropists who had contributed to the Ivan Franko International Prize fund (UAH 200,000), and thereby had supported a sustainable development of an important Ukrainian cause in the world.

The ceremony ended with the performance of the National Anthem of Ukraine, after which all participants took part in laying flowers to the monument to Ivan Franko.

The meeting was organized by the Ivan Franko International Fund with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.

We will recall you that the Ivan Franko International Prize was founded by his grandson, Roland Franko, in 2015. The main objective of the Prize is to promote a comprehensive study of Ivan Franko’s creative, scientific, social activities, to encourage scholars from around the world to carry out research in the field of social and humanitarian sciences and Ukrainian studies. The prize is annually awarded on August 27 – Ivan Franko’s birthday. The winners of the Prize are awarded with a monetary prize and a golden lapel pin of the laureate.

Prize winners include: In 2016 – Lubomyr Husar, Major Archbishop emeritus of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Cardinal of the Catholic Church. In 2017, Michael Moser – professor at the University of Vienna, president of the International Association of Ukrainian Studies – won in the nomination “for significant advances (achievements) in the field of Ukrainian studies”, and in the nomination “for significant advances (achievements) in the field of social and human sciences”, the award was given to Oleh Shabliy – academician and honorary professor of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. In 2018, Yaroslava Melnyk – professor of the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv) and Ukrainian Free University (Munich) – became a laureate in the nomination “for significant advances (achievements) in the field of Ukrainian studies”, and in the nomination “for significant advances (achievements) in the field of social and human sciences”, the award was given to Yohannes Remy – assistant professor at Columbia University (USA).



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