Serhiy Bilenky is Research Associate at the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta and the Programs Director for Harvard’s Ukrainian Summer Institute. He received Candidate of Sciences degree from Kyiv Shevchenko National University (1997) and PhD (in History) from the University of Toronto (2007). Bilenky has also taught courses on Russian, Ukrainian, and East European histories at the University of Toronto, Columbia University, and Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute. He’s the author or editor of the following books: Mykhailo Maksymovych ta osvitni praktyky na Pravoberezhnii Ukraїni u pershii polovyni XIX stolittia (Kyiv, 1999) (coauthored with Viktor Korotkyi), 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). 

Vitaly Chernetsky is Professor of Slavic, German, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas, where he teaches courses on 20th and 21st century Russian literature and culture, Ukrainian literature and culture, literary theory, Soviet and post-Soviet film, and Russian and East European science fiction. His research interests include Russian literature and culture, Ukrainian literature and culture, East and Central European literatures and cultures, and more. A native of Odesa, Professor Chernetsky completed his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania (1996). He is a past president of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies (2009-2018) and the current Vice President and Scholarly Secretary of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the US.

Since his debut at the Kyiv Philharmonic Hall at the age of 12, pianist Pavlo Gintov has toured throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States, appearing at such stages as Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Teatro Verdi Nationale in Milan, the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, and Kioi Hall in Tokyo. A native of Ukraine, Gintov has won first prize in the Premiere Takamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, the 2010 Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, and first prize in the World Competition in 2013. Gintov graduated with honors from the Moscow State Conservatory, where he was a student of Lev Naumov and Daniil Kopylov; in addition, he holds a Doctor of Musical Art degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he studied with Nina Svetlanova.

As a Special Guest of the Dmytro Shtohryn International Ukrainian Studies Conference, Mr. Gintov will be performing a recital on Friday, October 6th, at 7:30 p.m., CDT, at Smith Recital Hall. This recital will be open to public; further details will be announced.