Mychailo Wynnyckyj

Title of Research

Institutionalizing “Dignity” and “Fairness” in Post-revolutionary Ukraine

Abstract

The aim of this project is to investigate how the concepts of “dignity” and “fairness” have been instantiated in the social, political and judicial structures of modern democracies (particularly in the US example), and how these experiences may be applied to Ukrainian post-revolutionary institutional design. The aim is to link ideas with institutions within a personalist philosophical approach, thereby advancing this (often eclectic) body of ethical thought as to the essence of the human condition, namely of individuality within a social context. On a practical level, the project aims to define an intellectual (discursive) foundation for post-revolutionary institutional design in Ukraine: applying the uniquely Ukrainian sense of "hidnist" and "spravedlyvist" in a social-individual (rather than strictly individualistic) "personalist" context to judicial reform and judiciary branch design more broadly.

Biography

Mychailo Wynnyckyj is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” Sociology Dep’t) and Adjunct Professor of the Lviv Business School at Ukrainian Catholic University. He has served as Advisor to Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science and in 2019 was appointed Head of the Secretariat of Ukraine’s National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance. Wynnyckyj was awarded a PhD in Economic Sociology in 2004 from the University of Cambridge (U.K.). In 2008-2013 he served as Director of the Doctoral School at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy where he oversaw a project aimed at reforming the traditional Ukrainian “aspirantura” system into a European-styled Doctorate. These activities led to his direct involvement in educational reform, and in Ukrainian politics more generally. During the Revolution of Dignity, Wynnyckyj was a regular commentator for English-language media outlets, and provided analysis on current events in his "Thoughts from Kyiv" blog. Originally from Canada, he has lived permanently in Kyiv with his wife and four children since 2003. Mychailo’s book Ukraine’s Maidan, Russia’s War: A Chronicle and Analysis of the Revolution of Dignity (with a foreword by Serhii Plokhy) was published by Ibidem Verlag in 2019, and is distributed by Columbia University Press. The Ukrainian translation was published by Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva in 2021.