Members of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa have now been working with colleagues from Mariupol State University for at least five years. This activity included a major research project and linking students from Ottawa with students from MSU for language practice and exchange of information. We are especially proud of the seminar on Language and Literature in Cross-Cultural Perspective, which has brought together scholars from Canada, France, Poland, Czechia, and England with Ukrainian colleagues to exchange on a variety of themes, including the Holocaust, poetry, and theatre. This series of seminars began in early February 2022, and has continued ever since. It is an example of the opportunity offered by new technologies for the exchange of ideas between scholars from around the world.
We very much hope that the current hostilities will end soon, and that our universities can continue to collaborate, at least on an individual basis. The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Ottawa offers students courses in a number of languages – such as Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Irish Gaelic, and Welsh. Additionally, the University of Ottawa, because of its bilingual status, has Departments of English and French, as well as the Institute of Language Learning, which teaches intensive courses in both official languages – English and French. A post-war Ukraine will need to integrate more fully into the Western world. This will require skills in the languages that are taught at the University of Ottawa. We have been exploring how best to offer on an individual basis the possibility for Ukrainian students of taking courses online. Since our university is itself recovering from the impact of the COVID pandemic and is also dealing with limited government support for post-secondary education, there does not seem to be any possibility of a formal exchange agreement between institutions at this time. Such agreements have, however, been enriching for both partners in the past, and it is to be hoped that one will eventually be reached to the mutual benefit of both parties.