Volodymyr Kulyk is a specialist in Ukrainian national identity, language policy and language attitudes, ethnopolitics and media discourse. Dr. Kulyk is a head research fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where he received his C.Sc. (1999) and D.Sc. (2010) degrees in political science. He has also taught at Columbia and Stanford Universities, Kyiv Mohyla Academy and Ukrainian Catholic University as well as having research fellowships at Harvard, Stanford, University College London, University of Alberta, Woodrow Wilson Center and other Western scholarly institutions. His research fields include the politics of language, memory and identity in contemporary Ukraine, language ideologies, nationalism and media discourse, on which he has widely published in Ukrainian and Western journals and collected volumes. Dr. Kulyk is the author of three books, the latest being Dyskurs ukraїnskykh medii: identychnosti, ideolohiї, vladni stosunky (The Ukrainian Media Discourse: Identities, Ideologies, Power Relations; Kyiv, 2010). He also guest edited a special issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language on the topic ‘Languages and Language Ideologies in Ukraine’ (2010). Since 2013, he has been serving as Ukraine’s representative in the European Commission against Racism and Inequality.
Focus in the project:
Volodymyr is exploring the following topics: preferences of various groups of the population regarding legal statuses of Ukrainian, Russian and languages of other minorities and their function in certain public domains in different parts of Ukraine; public discourse on the language issue after the demise of Yanukovych; and changes in national identity due to Euromaidan and the Russian aggression. He is also interested in studying and engaging other scholars to explore questions of the national minorities’ responses to the recent upsurge of separatism and ensuing tension in the east and south of Ukraine, as well as the use of language and minority issues in the post-Maidan election campaigns and reform programs.
Within the project, Volodymyr also plans to deliver seminars on changes in people’s attitudes and perspectives on the language situation in Ukraine following the Maidan, specifically: “Language Practices and Attitudes in Post-Maidan Ukraine: Will a Stronger National Identity Lead to Increased Use of Ukrainian?”; and “Language Policies in Ukraine after the Demise of Yanukovych: Are They in Agreement with Popular Preferences?”.
Relevant publications in English
Languages and Language Ideologies in Ukraine, special issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language [no. 201], Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2010 (editor).
“The age factor in language practices and attitudes: continuity and change in Ukraine’s bilingualism”, Nationalities Papers, vol. 43, no. 2, 2015, pp. 283-301.
“Soviet nationalities policies and the discrepancy between ethnocultural identification and language practice in Ukraine”, in Mark Beissinger and Stephen Kotkin (eds.), The Historical Legacies of Communism, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 202-221.
“What is Russian in Ukraine? Popular beliefs regarding the social roles of the language”, in Lara Ryazanova-Clarke (ed.), The Russian Language Outside the Nation: Speakers and Identities, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014, pp. 117-140.
“Language policy in the Ukrainian media: authorities, producers, consumers”, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 65, no. 7, 2013, pp. 1417-1443.
“Language and identity in post-Soviet Ukraine: Transformation of an unbroken bond”, Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 2013, pp. 14-23.
“Language policy in Ukraine: What people want the state to do”, East European Politics and Societies, vol. 27, no. 2, 2013, pp. 279-306.
“Beliefs about language status and corpus in focus group discussions on the Ukrainian language policy”, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, no. 212, 2011, pp. 69-89.
“Language identity, linguistic diversity, and political cleavages: evidence from Ukraine”, Nations and Nationalism, vol. 17, no. 3, 2011, pp. 627-648.
“Ideologies of language use in post-Soviet Ukrainian media”, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, no. 201, 2010, pp. 79-104.
“Language policies and language attitudes in post-Orange Ukraine”, in Juliane Besters-Dilger (ed.), Language Policy and Language Situation in Ukraine: Analysis and Recommendations, Frankfurt et al.: Peter Lang, 2009, pp. 15-55.
“The demography of language practices and attitudes in Ukraine”, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, vol. 29, no 1-4, 2007, pp. 295-326.
“Constructing common sense: language and ethnicity in Ukrainian public discourse”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 29, no. 2, 2006, pp. 281-314.
“Normalisation of ambiguity: Policies and discourses on language issues in post-Soviet Ukraine”, in Barbara Törnquist-Plewa (ed): History, Language and Society in the Borderlands of Europe. Ukraine and Belarus in Focus, Malmö: Sekel Bokförlag, 2006, pp. 117-140.
Relevant publications in Ukrainian and other languages
Dyskurs ukrains’kykh medii: identychnosti, ideolohii, vladni stosunky [The Ukrainian Media Discourse: Identities, Ideologies, Power Relations], Kyiv: Krytyka, 2010.
“Rol’ ukraїns’koї movy v natsionalnii identychnosti hromadian postradians’koї Ukraїny” [The role of the Ukrainian language in the national identity of citizens of post-Soviet Ukraine], Naukovi zapysky Instytuty politychnykh i etnonatsional’nykh doslidzhen im. I.F. Kurasa NAN Ukraїny [Transactions of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies], no. 72-73, 2014, pp. 156-171.
“Einheit und Identität: Sprachenpolitik nach dem Majdan” [Unity and identity: Language policy after the Maidan], Osteuropa, No. 5-6, 2014, pp. 227-238.
“Vplyv viku na movni praktyky i uiavlennia hromadian Ukraїny” [The impact of age on language practices and attitudes of Ukrainian citizens], Naukovi zapysky Instytuty politychnykh i etnonatsional’nykh doslidzhen im. I.F. Kurasa NAN Ukraїny [Transactions of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies], no. 64, 2013, pp. 242-258.
“Struktura ta dynamika hromads’koї dumky shchodo statusu rosiis’koї movy v Ukraїni [The structure and dynamics of public opinion regarding the status of the Russian language in Ukraine], Naukovi zapysky Instytuty politychnykh i etnonatsional’nykh doslidzhen im. I.F. Kurasa NAN Ukraїny [Transactions of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies], no. 58, 2012, pp. 27-44.
“Po toi bik liubovi: uiavlennia hromadian pro korpus i status ukraїnskoї movy” [Beyond love: citizens’ beliefs regarding the corpus and the status of the Ukrainian language]. In O. Hnatiuk, O. and L. Finberg (eds.), Obriї osobystosti. Knyha na poshanu Ivana Dziuby [Horizons of personality. Festschrift for Ivan Dziuba], Kyiv: Dukh i litera, 2011, pp. 373-386.
“Orthographe et identité: le rôle des médias dans l’échec de la réforme orthographique de l’ukrainien de 2001” [Orthography and identity: the role of the media in the failure of the Ukrainian orthography reform in 2001], in Juliete Cadiot, Dominique Arel and Larissa Zakharova (eds.), Cacophonies d’empire” Le gouvernement des langues dans l’Empire russe et l’Union soviétique [Cacophonies of the empire: The government of languages in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union], Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2010, pp. 257-277.
“Rodnoi iazyk i iazyk obshcheniia: na chto dolzhna orientirovat’sia iazykovaia politika” [Native language and language of communication: What should language policy be guided by?], Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniia, no. 3, 2010, pp. 75-86.
“Gespaltene Zungen: Sprache und Sprachenpolitik in der Ukraine” [Split tongues: Language and language politics in Ukraine], Osteuropa, vol. 60, no. 2-4, 2010, pp. 391-402.
“Zakordonnyi dosvid rozv’iazannia movnykh problem ta mozhlyvist’ ioho zastosuvannia v Ukraïni” [Foreign experience of resolving language problems and its applicability to Ukraine], in O. Mayboroda et al, eds., Movna sytuatsiia v Ukraini: mizh konfliktom i konsensusom [Language situation in Ukraine: Between conflict and consensus], Kyiv: Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2008, pp. 299-334.
“Movni ideolohiï v ukrains’komu mediinomu dyskursi” [Language ideologies in Ukrainian media discourse], in Natsional’na akademiia nauk Ukraïny, Instytut politychnykh i etnonatsional’nykh doslidzhen’ im. I.F. Kurasa NAN Ukraїny, Naukovi zapysky [Transactions of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies], no. 33, Kyiv, 2007, pp. 321-338.
“Iazykovye ideologii v ukrainskom politicheskom i intellektual’nom diskursakh“ [Language ideologies in Ukrainian political and intellectual discourses], Otechestvennye zapiski, no. 1 2007, pp. 296-316.
“Mova pro movu: normalizatsiia ambivalentnosty” [Discourse on language: The normalization of ambivalence], pt. I, Krytyka, no. 5 (2004), pp. 19-24; pt. II, Ibid., no. 6 (2004), pp. 4-11.