John-Paul Himka

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Galician Villagers and the Ukrainian National Movement in the Nineteenth Century by John-Paul Himka, published by Palgrave Macmillan

John-Paul Himka (born May 18, 1949 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American-Canadian historian and retired professor of history of the University of Alberta in Edmonton.[1] Himka received his BA in Byzantine-Slavonic Studies and Ph.D. in History from University of Michigan in 1971 and 1977 respectively.[2] The title of his Ph.D. dissertation was "Polish and Ukrainian Socialism: Austria, 1867-1890". As a historian Himka was a Marxist in the 1970s-80s, but became influenced by the postmodernism in the 1990s. In 2012 he defined his methodology in history as "eclectic".[3]

Life

Himka is of mixed ethnic background, Ukrainian (on father's side) and Italian (on mother's). Initially he wanted to become a Greek Catholic priest and studied at St. Basil Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut. However, due to the radicalization of his political views to the left by the end of the 1960s he did not pursue that vocation.[3]

Since 1977 he taught at University of Alberta, Department of History and Classics. He became full Professor in 1992 and retired from the university in 2014.[4]

In his academic interests Himka focused on history of Greek Catholic Church and socialism in Habsburg Galicia, sacred culture of the Eastern Slavs (on iconography in particular) and the Holocaust in Ukraine. Since the late 1990s his contention with what he calls Ukrainian "nationalist historical myths" became subject of increasing, sometimes heated, debates both in Ukraine and Ukrainian Diaspora (especially in North America). Himka challenged the interpretation of Holodomor as a genocide and the view that Ukrainian nationalism and nationalists played none or almost to none role in the Holocaust in Ukraine. He also opposed official glorification of such nationalistic heroes as Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera in Ukraine during presidency of Viktor Yushchenko.[3]

Awards

Bibliography

Books
  • Socialism in Galicia: The Emergence of Polish Social Democracy and Ukrainian Radicalism (1860-1890) (1983)
  • Galician Villagers and the Ukrainian National Movement in the Nineteenth Century, Palgrave Macmillan (1988)
  • Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine: The Greek Catholic Church and the Ruthenian National Movement in Galicia, 1867-1900 (1999)
  • Last Judgment Iconography in the Carpathians (2009)
Edited and co-edited volumes
  • (Assistant editor.) Rethinking Ukrainian History (1981)
  • (Editor, translator and author of introduction.) Rosdolsky, Roman. Engels and the "Nonhistoric" Peoples: The National Question in the Revolution of 1848 (1986)
  • Galicia and Bukovina: A Research Handbook about Western Ukraine, Late 19th and 20th Centuries (1990)
  • Co-editor (with Hans-Joachim Torke). German-Ukrainian Relations in Historical Perspective (1994)
  • Co-editor (with Andriy Zayarnyuk). Letters from Heaven: Popular Religion in Russia and Ukraine (2006)
  • Co-editor (with Joanna Beata Michlic). Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Post-Communist Europe (2013)
Notable articles
  • "Krakivski visti and the Jews, 1943: A Contribution to the History of Ukrainian-Jewish Relations during the Second World War." Journal of Ukrainian Studies 21, no. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 1996): 81-95.
  • "Ukrainian Collaboration in the Extermination of the Jews during the Second World War: Sorting Out the Long-Term and Conjunctural Factors." Studies in Contemporary Jewry 13 (1997): 170-89.
  • "A Central European Diaspora under the Shadow of World War II: The Galician Ukrainians in North America." Austrian History Yearbook 37 (2006): 17-31.
  • “Obstacles to the Integration of the Holocaust into Post-communist East European Historical Narratives.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 50, nos. 3-4 (September–December 2008): 359-72.
  • “The Importance of the Situational Element in East Central European Fascism.” East Central Europe 37 (2010): 353-58.
  • “Debates in Ukraine over Nationalist Involvement in the Holocaust, 2004-2008.” Nationalities Papers 39, no. 3 (May 2011): 353-70.
  • “The Lviv Pogrom of 1941: The Germans, Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Carnival Crowd.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 53, no. 2-3-4 (June–September-December 2011): 209-43.
  • "My Past and Identities." Journal of Ukrainian Studies no. 35-36 (2010-2011): 1-4.
  • “Interventions: Challenging the Myths of Twentieth-Century Ukrainian History.” In The Convolutions of Historical Politics, edited by Alexei Miller and Maria Lipman, 211-38. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2012.
  • “Ukrainian Memories of the Holocaust: The Destruction of Jews as Reflected in Memoirs Collected in 1947.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 54, no. 3-4 (September–December 2012): 427-42.

References

  1. ↑ CV of John-Paul Himka
  2. ↑ CV of John-Paul Himka
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Іван-Павло Химка: «Я пережив багато методологічних мод» Historians.in.ua, Інтернет-мережа гуманітаріїв в Україні і світі. 2 April 2012.
  4. ↑ CV of John-Paul Himka

External links

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