DAY 68 July 28, 2008

Today I completed the Macenko divine liturgy sheet music scanning and began to experiment with the formatting of the photo albums on the Macenko wiki. 

One frustration so far is that it seems impossible to control the order of the sheets in the Wetpaint Wiki photo albums. Previously when moving selection-by-selection I was able to keep the pages in order by working in reverse. Now however, there seems to be some new formatting on the web site that aims to keep photos in order, but there is some kind of glitch in the way from making that a reality. Pages 36-18 go in reverse order, but then it switches to the correct order from 17-1, so it goes from 19 to 17, then 18, and the rest come in almost randomly. Perhaps if I upload the photos again in a specific order I can fix this problem.

Meeting with Dr. Hlynka August 12th, from 12-4pm. 

By this time the Macenko wiki will be posted and the contents of my session-end report can be discussed.

DAY 66 July 24, 2008

Still scanning Divine Liturgy sheet music and working, scanning and working. I will provide an update when it is ready to be posted on the Macenko wiki in full.

DAY 60 July 16, 2008

• Began reading articles from Dr. Klymasz.
• Examined features of Microsoft Office online - no student copy yet.

DAY 59 July 15, 2008

• Received Ukrainian Canadian articles in the mail from Dr. Klymasz

DAY 58 July 14, 2008

• Posted Selection#2 of divine liturgy sheet music onto Macenko wiki.

DAY 57 July 10, 2008

• Second piece of Macenko divine liturgy sheet music ready for wiki. I'll put it up sheet-by-sheet on Monday.
  

DAY 56 July 9, 2008

• Spoke with Dr. Klymasz about the project and had some new thoughts about format and the difference between Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian Canadian culture.
  

DAY 55 July 8, 2008

The Macenko sheet music did not scan any better with the adjustments that I made. The quality is still less than desirable. I am experimenting with the second selection before posting it on the Macenko wiki.

DAY 54 July 7, 2008

Today: busy work.

• Scanning Macenko sheet music selection.
  
• Thinking about the Ukrainian Festivals of Canada wiki potential.

DAY 53 July 4, 2008

Ukrainian Canadian Identity & the Mohyla Lecture Series

As promised, more details about my findings in the reading I have been doing related to Ukrainian Canadian identity via the Heritage Press Mohyla lecture series publications. Yesterday I read Janice Julyk-Keefer (No.2 in series), and today I read Myrna Kostash's All of Baba's Great Grandchildren: Ethnic Identity in the Next Canada (No. 1 in the series). Both of these women have interesting things to say about the nature of the Ukrainian Canadian hyphen, the Ukrainian Canadian woman, and the nature of addressing oneself as an "ethnic" other in Canadian society. I will focus on Kostash for the moment, while it is fresh.

Kostash argues that the hyphen is ambivalent, confrontational, and restlessly exploratory. The possibility that Ukrainian Canadians aim to find belonging in a place which is in the process of being redefined is highly theoretical, and at times very abstract. Kostash also discusses the mission of the Ukrainian diaspora: to remember. The "captured" Ukraine is uprooted and transformed by the diaspora, and Kostash weighs the importance of this ancestral link with the reality of its inability to contribute to the creation of national life... if "ethnic" self-expression can ever be integrated into a national life. Kostash posits that the hyphen is potentially a hinge between two equally compelling identities, and weighs the value of articulating cultural difference.

Kostash quotes Mary Anne Charney, who spoke in relation to a piece about pysanka and the compartmentalization and stereotypification of Ukrainian culture in Canada:

" Far from the urban reality of the aboriginal, multi-racial and multiethnic populations of Canadian cities where most of us live and work, the festival space is a temporary space [...] it is a suspended reality where we indulge in the fantasy of a coherent Ukrainian place."

Which brings me to the next development in my task list: The Ukrainian Canadian Festivals Wiki. Check it out. It's a pilot, very basic, but it's a start. 

DAY 52 July 3, 2008

I had a chance to do some interesting reading on Ukrainian Canadian identity today, as well as explore some "Ukrainian Canadian" blogs. 

Reading

The reading I did was an essay published by St. Thomas More College's Heritage Press at the University of Saskatchewan. The article is one of the more recent publications of the Prairie Centre for Ukrainian Heritage (PCUH) Heritage Press lecture series by Janice Kulyk-Keefer, entitled Dark Ghost in the Corner: Imagining Ukrainian-Canadian Identity (2005). Kulyk-Keefer moved me in a lot of ways with the intensity and insights within her work, and I very much appreciated her perspective on the Ukrainian Canadian as the upholder of cultural myths about contemporary Ukraine. More on this when I have the publication in front of me. There are a few sentiments conveyed that I would like to extract and examine in my blog within the context of direct quotations, and I will do this tomorrow.

Blogging

Onto the Ukrainian Canadian blogs, here is a list of the blogs easily searchable under "Ukrainian Canadian" on Google, hyphenated and unhyphenated:

• Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies Blog - University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
• Nash Holos blog - Vancouver
• Ukrainian Canadian Rare Books blog - Ebay
• Ukrainian Canadian School Board Forum blog - Toronto
• Ukrainian Canadians blog section - International
• Ukrainian Community Websites (some are blogs, some are not) - Quebec

Nothing strong stands out in purpose or supervision outside of the CUCS blog, and I'm not just saying that! There is overall a lack of purpose, focus, and academic or objective perspective in many of these projects. I will refer my readership (!) to our discussions in the past about the shortcomings of blogs in this way, and to their ephemeral nature if no one participates. 

DAY 51 July 2, 2008

My goal for July is to attend to the objectives introduced by Dr. Yereniuk at our meeting by the end of the month. In August the longer projects - projects in progress until the end of my internship as advised by Dr. Hlynka - will take me until the end of my term at the end of August.

Here is an outline of my activities and research for July:

1. Explore Ukrainian Canadian blogs.
2. Make sure all sources used to date have been cited properly.
3. Read top 50 Canadians list - Stephen Juba and Leo Mol.
4. Get Dr. Yereniuk's piece on President Yushchenko's visit on the CUCS blog.
5. Create a Ukrainian Canadian Festivals Blog (Dauphin, Toronto, etc.)
6. Research this year's Canadian Heritage Fair winners/finalists.
7. Get CUCS course outlines and a new bibliography on the CUCS blog.

Long term, I will also be:

1. Purchasing a student copy of Microsoft Office from the bookstore to experiment with 'Notebook' and student reading level evaluations.
2. Scanning Macenko Divine Liturgy sheet music.
3. Working with Googlepages and WebQuests.