Franko Memorial
Annual Lecture
Bohdan Kordan Delivers 2017 Franko Lecture on World War I Internment of “Enemy Aliens”, Mostly Ukrainian Canadians
(March 22, 2017)
Bohdan Kordan
The Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa helds its 31st Annual Ivan Franko Memorial Lecture on March 22, 2017 with a presentation by Bohdan Kordan in conjunction with his new book No Free Man: Canada, the Great War and the Enemy Alien Experience (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016).
The lecture addressed the internment of about 8,000 Canadian civilians originally from Austria, Germany and other states at war with the British Commonwealth. A great many of them were Ukrainians from areas then part of Habsburg Austria. While lesser known than the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II, the 1914 internments played a crucial role in shaping debates about Canadian citizenship, diversity, and loyalty.
Bohdan Kordan is Professor of Political Studies and Director of the Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage at St Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan. He previously authored Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War: Internment in Canada during the Great War.
The Franko Lecture is co-sponsored by the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association (Ottawa Chapter, www.ucpba.ottawa.ca). The Kordan lecture, part of a book tour, was co-sponsored by McGill-Queen’s University Press and the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Recognition Fund.
Since 1985, the Ivan Franko Memorial Annual Lecture has helped to raise the profile of Ukrainian studies, and raise awareness of Ukrainian matters in Canada’s capital. For the first ten years, the UCPBA and Carleton University presented the series. With the inauguration of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa in 1995, the Franko Lecture moved to the University of Ottawa. Recent Franko Lecture speakers include Volodomyr Kravchenko (2016), Frank Sysyn (2015), Sofia Dyak (2014), Alexandra Hrycak (2013), Timothy Snyder (2012), Charles King (2011)
and Lubomyr Luciuk (2010).