Mr. Oleksandr Melnyk

Professional Background

Mr. Oleksandr Melnyk is currently a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Toronto, Canada. He also holds a Master’s degree in history from the University of Alberta and bachelor’s degree in English from Kherson State University (Ukraine). His doctoral dissertation title is, “In Search of the 20th Century Modern: Power, Knowledge, and the Second World War in Stalinist and post-Stalinist Ukraine.”

Mr. Melnyk’s published articles include, “Archives, Repression and the Politics of Historical Knowledge in Ukraine, 1942-1944,” forthcoming in “World War II and the (Re)-Creation of Historical Memory in Contemporary Ukraine,” Conference proceedings volume; “Zhnyva istoriografii: monografiia Karela Berkhofa i problemy interpretatsii dzherel z istorii okupovanoi natsystamy Ukrainy,” (“Harvest of Historiography: Karel Berkhoff and the Problem of Intepreting Sources from the History of Ukraine under Nazi Rule”), Ukraina Moderna 13 (2), Summer 2008: 266-289; and “Political Identity Under Invasion: Kherson Oblast’ in Summer 1941 ,” Journal of Ukrainian Studies, 30 (1), Summer 2005:47-73.

Mr. Melnyk also has presented the following conference papers: “Stalinist Justice as a Site of Memory: anti-Jewish Violence in Kyiv’s Podil district in September 1941 through the Prism of of Soviet Investigative Documents,” Annual George Danyliw Research Seminar, University of Ottawa, 22 October 2011; “Reckoning with War Criminality: NKVD, NKGB, and Smersh in Ukraine, 1942-1945,” Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Los Angeles, November 19, 2010; “Rural Administrations in Ukraine and the Great Famine of 1932-1933,” Yahad-in Unum Workshop; “Soviet Rural Administration,” Paris, 14-15 June 2010; “Archives, Repression, and the Politics of Historical Knowledge in Ukraine, 1942-1944,” International Conference “World War II and the (Re)-Creation of Historical Memory in Contemporary Ukraine,” Kiev September 25, 2009; and “And You, Bastards, Are Calling Yourself Partisans?!” Negotiating Political Identity in Stalinist Ukraine,” Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Boston, November 15, 2009.

Fellowship Research

For his Charles Revson Fellowship, Mr. Melnyk researched “In Search of the 20th Century Modern: Power, Knowledge, and the Second World War in Stalinist and post-Stalinist Ukraine.”

Mr. Melnyk was in residence at the Center from September 1, 2012 to May 30, 2013.