Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute

2024 HUSI students at Averbuch Exhibit

Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute 
HUSI 2026 | June 22 – August 7

The only program of its kind in North America, the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI) offers seven weeks of intensive, accredited university coursework in Ukrainian studies. The program includes academic courses at the Harvard Summer School (HSS), a weekly public lecture series featuring special guests and private events for HUSI students. HUSI students are encouraged to take full advantage of Harvard’s vast library, archive, and museum collections. Every summer since 1971, the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI) has brought together exceptional undergraduates, graduate students, scholars, and professionals from around the world. Participation in HUSI supports academic advancement, career development, and membership in a diverse, interdisciplinary community that spans six decades of HUSI cohorts.

Prospective Students!

Learn more about our current course offerings and faculty below. HUSI students may register for either 4 or 8 credits of coursework. Please visit the HUSI Enrollment page to join us this summer. 

The Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) awards a substantial amount of financial aid each year to support participation in the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI). Scholarships are highly competitive and need-based. Applications for a HUSI Scholarship are due on February 12, 2026.

Courses

Tradition and Modernity: Ukraine in the 19th and 20th Centuries

UKRN S-132, 4 credits

Dr. Serhiy Bilenky, historian and research associate at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), University of Alberta

The primary focus of this history course is on cities and the complex relationship between tradition and modernity in Ukraine, in a wider imperial and transnational context. The course introduces students to the most important social, political, and cultural issues facing modern Ukraine, from the imperial to Soviet and post-Soviet times, primarily in urban settings. We consider major cities such as Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro, as well as Jewish shtetls and monuments of Soviet industrial sublime, such as the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station. We explore topics such as the reactionary responses to modernity ranging from anti-semitism to religious conservatism; the central role of the city and urbanization; making and unmaking of nationalities; public hygiene and the limits of control; revolutionary culture and artistic avant-garde; the long-lasting effects of wars and extreme violence on society; the curse of resources; and the rise of mass culture and sport, among others. Students learn why studying Ukraine is essential to understanding the modern world

Meeting Times: Mondays and Wednesdays at 12:00 to 3:00 pm
Participation: On Campus (in-person)

Ukrainian for Reading Knowledge

UKRN S-G, 4 credits

Dr. Volodymyr Dibrova, writer, translator, literary critic, and research reporter at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI), Harvard University

This course provides students with essential knowledge of Ukrainian for reading and research purposes. It is primarily designed for graduate students in any discipline who wish to develop advanced reading ability. It is also intended to support professional development, for individuals who work, or hope to work, in international law, finance, diplomacy, politics, humanitarian aid, etc. Students work with texts from a wide range of fields, allowing them to learn about Ukrainian culture, history, society, and politics while developing a high level of reading ability. The instruction is proficiency-based and aimed primarily at developing reading skill. This is a mixed-level course for students with some background in a Slavic language, accommodating a wide range of levels.

Prerequisite: Working knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet and some previous background in Ukrainian, Russian, or another Slavic language. Contact the instructor with questions.   

Meeting Times: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at TBD
Participation: On Campus (in-person)

Ukrainian Politics and Society: From Independence to Invasion (and Beyond) 

UKRN S-120, 4 credits

Dr. Emma Mateo, social scientist and Mihaychuk Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI), Harvard University

To understand both the causes of Russia’s war on Ukraine and the drivers of Ukraine’s ongoing resistance, we must look beyond great-power politics and examine the changes in Ukrainian politics and society since independence in 1991. How did Ukraine become an (albeit imperfect) democracy? When and why did relations between Russia and Ukraine begin to break down? And how has Ukraine managed to withstand an all-out invasion by an apparently much stronger power? This course explores these questions by examining factors from both ‘above’ and ‘below’: considering not only elites and geopolitics, but also the role of Ukrainian society. It emphasizes that ordinary Ukrainians have not only been impacted by but have also influenced key moments in recent Ukrainian history. In particular, we will examine the factors that shaped key episodes, including Ukraine’s path to independence in 1991, the Orange Revolution of 2004, the Euromaidan protests and subsequent reforms, responses to the conflict in East Ukraine in 2014, and the Russian full-scale invasion of 2022. Drawing on insights and concepts from both Political Science and Sociology, students will cultivate a nuanced understanding of Ukrainian politics and society, which will help them better understand the current war and contextualize broader studies of Ukraine, past, present, and future.

Meeting Times: 12:00 to 3:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Participation: On Campus (in-person)

Faculty

Dr. Serhiy Bilenky

Serhiy Bilenky is a research associate at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta and, since 2023, Editor-In-Chief of East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies. He also has been Program Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI) since 2015. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Bilenky graduated from Kyiv National Shevchenko University, from which he also received his Candidate of Sciences degree in 1997. In 2007, he received his PhD in History from the University of Toronto. Bilenky has taught courses on Russian, Ukrainian, and east European history at the University of Toronto, Columbia University, and Harvard University. His monographs included Romantic Nationalism in Eastern Europe: Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian Political Imaginations (Stanford University Press, 2012) and Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands: Kyiv, 1800-1905 (University of Toronto Press, 2018). He is also the editor of the selected writings of the leading 19th-century Ukrainian intellectuals: Fashioning Modern Ukraine: Selected Writings of Mykola Kostomarov, Volodymyr Antonovych, and Mykhailo Drahomanov (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 2014). Bilenky's most recent book is Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine between Empire and Nation, 1772–1914 (McGill-Queen's University Press and CIUS, 2023) – a multidisciplinary history of Ukraine during the “long” 19th century.

Dr. Volodymyr Dibrova

Volodymyr Dibrova is a writer, translator, and literary critic. His recent publications include Творчі люди [Creative People], a collection of short stories (Chernivtsi: Books – XXI, 2023); Свіжим оком. Тарас Шевченко для сучасного читача [Taras Shevchenko. A Fresh Look], a collection of literary essays (Kyiv: Bilka, 2021), Куліш, П'єса [Kulish. A play] (Kyiv: Ukrajinsky priorytet, 2019), and a translation, with Lidia Dibrova, of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Бойня номер п'ять (Lviv: Old Lion, 2015). Dr. Dibrova was recognized in 1991 with the Mykola Lukash Prize for translating Samuel Beckett’s novel Watt into Ukrainian, the 1996 Sherban-Lapika Prize for his play, The Short Course, and the 2007 BBC Ukrainian Service Book of the Year Prize for the novel, Андріївський узвіз [Andrew’s Way]. Dr. Dibrova has taught at the Kyiv Linguistic University (Ukraine), Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine), Indiana University, Penn State University (Fulbright scholarship) and Harvard University. In addition to teaching the "Ukrainian for Reading Knowledge" course at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute, he is the Media Content Specialist and Research Reporter at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University. He has a PhD (Candidate of Sciences) degree from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and MA from the Kyiv Linguistic University.

Dr. Emma Mateo

Emma Mateo is a social scientist who studies protest, civil society, and political behavior, with regional expertise in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and Belarus. Emma’s postdoctoral work currently examines civilian responses to conflict in the case of the Russo-Ukrainian war. This research builds upon methods, knowledge, and theoretical approaches cultivated during Emma’s doctoral work at the University of Oxford, which explored subnational mobilisation and repression during mass protests in Ukraine and Belarus. Emma’s interest in the intersection of protest, civil society, media, and technology has led her to make innovative use of social media data, such as Telegram Messenger. Her work has been published in Post-Soviet Affairs and Social Media + Society, and featured at major conferences and expert workshops in the US, Canada, UK, and EU. Emma was previously a Petro Jacyk Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute (2022-2024), and Postdoctoral Researcher at New York University’s Jordan Center (2024-2025). She has also designed and taught courses at Columbia University and Kyiv School of Economics. Emma holds a PhD in Sociology (2022) and MPhil in Russian and East European Studies (2018) from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Modern Languages from the University of Cambridge. Emma is originally from the UK and speaks Ukrainian, French, and Russian.

Harvard Library Guide for HUSI Students

Created to give students of the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute a grounding in library research at Harvard, this guide may be useful for anyone new to researching Ukraine-related topics at Harvard.

HUSI Library Guide

HUSI News

Through Words and Images: Anna Remembers Dnipro
Born in Horlovska in the Donetsk region, Anna went to Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipro since 2016) for university when it first opened in 1987. The institution, back then known as Dnipropetrovsk State University in honor of the Russo-Ukrainian Union, now bears the...
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Alumni Testimonials

Learn about HUSI from former students:

Even though it was not my first time studying in the USA, I was astonished by Harvard University and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute in particular during this 7-week program.

HURI is the place where world-known intellectuals and scholars, along with students thirsty for knowledge, discuss the issues Ukraine is facing through the lenses of history, political science, economics, sociology, and other related disciplines.

Sviatoslav Hnizdovskyi, HUSI Class of 2019
Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv

Read more testimonials by HUSI alumni!

Questions?

Please contact Megan K. Duncan Smith, HURI Programs Manager and HUSI 2012 alumna.