On July 14, 2020, within the framework of cooperation with the Ukrainian Association in South Africa, the team of the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, met with Cobus Rademeyer, Head of the Department of Human and Social Sciences at Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley, South Africa, Stefan Shevchuk, Doctorate in the field of Historical Sciences at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, President of Polish Association of Siberian Deportees in South Africa, and Dzvinka Kachur, President of the Ukrainian Association in South Africa.
Oksana Piatkovska, Deputy Director of IECDR, Yurii Marusyk, Research Fellow, and Viktoriia Hoisan, Sociologist, also took part in the meeting.
Dzvinka Kachur, a partner of the Institute and the initiator of the meeting, noted that it is extremely important to address the issue of ethnic communities abroad at the scientific level, combining the efforts of scientists, experts and diaspora representatives to understand migration to other countries. That is why the purpose of the meeting was to get acquainted with each other’s activities and researches in order to establish potential cooperation and implement joint projects in the future.
At the meeting Oksana Piatkovska presented the audience researches conducted by the Institute’s team for the last years. Viktoriia Hoisan focused on the methodology and concepts of the study «Ukrainians of South Africa: identity, society and future».
Stefan Shevchuk and Cobus Rademeyer spoke about the study of the history of Polish migrants in Africa. The researchers noted that the main goal of the project is to collect historical memories of Poles deported from Siberia, as well as to preserve their heritage and identity in South Africa and on the African continent.
The joint meeting opened new prospects for cooperation not only with Ukrainian institutions outside Ukraine, but also with foreign institutions on various continents.
