The meeting took the form of an open day addressed to high school students from Lodz and the Łódź region. The programme was designed to be engaging both for young people from Poland and Ukraine, while also creating a space for shared exploration of the culture, language and traditions of a neighbouring country. As part of the event, a presentation for high school students entitled “Słowiańskie DNA: ukraińska opowieść między mitologią a popkulturą” [Slavic DNA: A Ukrainian Story Between Mythology and Pop Culture] was delivered by Dr Ełona Curkan-Dróżka and mgr Piotr Baleja (Institute of East European Studies, University of Lodz). The programme was complemented by language classes entitled “Świat słów i wyobraźni” [The World of Words and Imagination] for children from Ukrainian Children’s Homes in Lodz, conducted by students: Klaudia Szpocińska, Klaudia Kowalczyk, Mikołaj Barczak and Igor Wudel.
In the next part of the event, graduates of the "Studies on Poland with English" study programme shared their experiences of studying at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Lodz during a meeting entitled "Nasze doświadczenia. Twoje możliwości. Nasza historia bez ściemy” [Our Experiences. Your Opportunities. Our Honest Story]. It was an opportunity to discuss the choice of studies, everyday academic life and development opportunities at the University of Lodz.
The artistic part of the event featured a concert by the “Namysto” choir, a Ukrainian ensemble operating in Łódź, as well as an exhibition of works by Oleksandra Korniiets from the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts Łódź, a graduate of the University of Lodz.
Ukrainian Culture Day was organised by the Institute of East European Studies of the University of Lodz and the Department of Applied and Cultural Linguistics at the Institute of Polish Philology and Logopaedics of the University of Lodz.
Text: Institute of East European Studies, University of Lodz
Photos: Angelina Kusowska
