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Ukrainian-Canadian Seminar “Conflict and Social Dimensions”

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Published on Friday, 15 May 2015 09:35

May 22, 2015

NAUKMA Center for Polish and European Studies

Ukrainian-Canadian Seminar “Conflict and Social Dimensions”

Major organizer: Department of Sociology, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”

Partners: School of Public Health, NaUKMA; MacEwan University (Canada); Ternopil State Medical University

Venue: National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, Center for Polish and European Studies, 10 Voloska St., building 6

NaUKMA campus map:  http://www.ukma.edu.ua/eng/index.php/ukma-contacts/campus

 metro station “Kontraktova Square”

PROGRAMME

Extra information about presenters:
 

Canada (4)

Dr. Roman Petryshyn holds both a Masters degree in clinical psychology and a PhD. in sociology of race and ethnic relations. He has been a Research Associate at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta for four years (1976-80) and then director of the Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre at MacEwan University for the past 28 years from which he is now retiring. Dr Petryshyn has edited the book Changing Realities: Social Changes Among Ukrainian Canadians , has published a variety of articles and book reviews and is now beginning a three-year study on the reform of the post-secondary system in Ukraine that is being led by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Lucille Mazo, PhD (cand.), Chair, Communication Studies Department, MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada

Conflict and the News Media as a Social Body. Given that the news media is positioned in society to report and communicate critical information about conflicts, how does the Ukrainian and Canadian news media as a social body report on the Ukraine conflict? This being said, why does it matter to Ukraine as a social body how the news media responsibly disseminates critical information about the Ukraine conflict? There is an indelible relationship between the Ukraine conflict and the role of the Ukrainian and Canadian news media as a social body, which is responsible for reporting this conflict through news sites. In January 2014, Lucille Mazo began research that involved the role of news media sites as a social body in order to determine how words and concepts in online news articles and social media provided understandings of the Ukraine conflict. For two weeks in March and in July, data were captured and recorded twice a day from the main articles and related tweets of four online news sites—Kiev Post and 2000.ua in Ukraine, and CBC and National Post in Canada. Using a text analysis program, data (over 60,000 words) that were gathered from these news sites were analyzed to identify primary keywords and concepts, and to generate frequencies of each word and concept that appeared in these news sites. The news sites were then critically reviewed for specific phrasing in English and Ukrainian to ascertain if there were similarities and dissimilarities: How often were the words Russia or Russian used? When was the term military included in the news sites? At what point did the word vote start appearing in the news sites? As such, the use or non-use of specific words and concepts in the news are factors that can affect understandings about the Ukraine conflict. As a social body, the news media plays an essential role in presenting clear messages about the Ukraine conflict. Some interesting findings include the fact that sometimes the words that are not used are just as revealing as those that are.

Dr. Lisa Adams has worked 23 years in health care delivery in various progressive management positions and has 3 university academic appointments in Canada. Lisa has a PhD in nursing from the University of Alberta where her research interests are in seniors, mental health, respectful workplaces and administration. She is a certified health executive of the Canadian College of Health Leaders, has CNA certification in psychiatric, mental health nursing, and is a research fellow with the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. Lisa does private consulting work on the topic of workplace bullying provincially, nationally and internationally and is an award winning author in the U.S. for her recently published book titled "Workplace mental health for nurse leaders". Lisa is actively involved in community agencies on a volunteer basis with the CMHA, the Seniors Resource Center and the Canadian Cancer Society.

Bullying in the Work Place: The Silent Epidemic. Abstract:

It is ironic how the premise of caring that initially strengthened the nursing profession is now threatened with annihilation. As the onus to provide caring behaviours lays with individual nurses in the extent to which they perform their nursing responsibilities in a caring manner, nurses still face many challenges of increased patient acuity, heavy workloads, staff shortages and repeated organizational structure changes. Workplace bullying is one behavior that has grown in recent years in nursing. Workplace bullying results in both physical and mental consequences for those involved: its effects are like a cancer and can permeate every corner of a nurse's life, mental health and overall well-being. While it prompts many to question the underpinning of caring in nursing, its triggers, presentation, symptomology and adverse effects insidiously destroy nurses and jeopardize patient care. Identifying workplace bullying, increasing awareness about it and dealing with it are all crucial if the profession and integrity of nursing is to survive.

Alex Macpherson, 4^th year Journalism Major, Bachelor of Communication Studies Program, MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada

Club Organization and Communication during the Ukraine Conflict:

How do the Euromaidan and Antimaidan clubs recruit, communicate, and organize during the Ukraine conflict? This research study focuses on gaining a better understanding of club formation as a social body and the communication approaches they use as they relate to the Ukraine conflict. Alex Macpherson, journalism student researcher, conducted preliminary research on the members of the Oplot club in Donetsk and Moscow and how their club as a social body has recruited members in support of activities relating to the Antimaidan. As a comparison, he researched clubs that provide support for the Euromaidan and the Ukraine conflict. Alex seeks to conduct further research when in Kyiv to obtain additional information about club organizations in order to map their internal and external communication strategies and processes, as well as to observe how these groups are organized online.

NaUKMA (3)

Oleh Ivanov, Candidate of sciences in Sociology, PhD in Mass Communication.​ ​Senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology, National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”,  analyst at ​ Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and the Presidential Administration, Ukraine. In 2012 defended “summa cum laude” PhD thesis “Representation of People’s Foreign Policy Orientations in the Public Communication of Power Elites”. ​Scholar interests cover political sociology, sociology of mass communication, content-analytical methodology.

“Social background of the military conflict in Ukraine: regional cleavages and geopolitical orientations”. ​Annotation​: Military conflict in South-Eastern Ukraine is an example of “hybrid warfare” in which “war for minds” is one of the key elements. Differences of Ukrainian people geopolitical orientations often explained with region of residence, ethnic identity and native language. Previous research on the problem has three types of limitations: scale, dependent variable (orientations) and regional structures. This study is an attempt to challenge on-surface view of residence place as the key predictor of geopolitical attitudes in Ukraine. The author used excessive amount of data (2005-2015 period surveys with almost 400,000 cases total sample) and several combinations of dependent variables to test the effects of attitude types, changing political situation and social environment in the regions. The results of regression modeling shows that regional structure is more powerful in explaining general attitude to Russia than integration intentions. Regional differences proved to be partially explained with the level of lingual-ethnic heterogeneity. In general it seems that language environment has more influence than ethnic. Religious identification also remains very powerful and significant. It is claimed that cultural domain of social environment is the key to explain regional structure of geopolitical orientations in Ukraine.

Tetyana Semigina (PhD and Dr. habil, MSW), Secretary of the International Association of Schools of Social Work; Professor, Academy of Labour, Social Relations and Tourism (Ukraine); Associate Professor, National University ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’ (Ukraine). Dr. Semigina is an co-editor of the International Journal ‘Social Policy and Social Work in Transition’ (UK), she was involved as an expert and consultant in the various international projects aimed at strengthening social policy and social services in Ukraine. She is an author of more than 200 publications. Research interest areas are: social and health policy, community development, HIV/AIDS, disability studies.

Natalia Gusak (PhD, MSW), Head of Social Work Master Programme and an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work, National University of ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’ (Ukraine). She was involved as an expert and consultant in the various international projects aimed at strengthening social services in Ukraine. She is an author of more than 40 publications. Research interest areas are: social services, social rehabilitation, human trafficking, methodology of social work researches, and disability studies.

Topic: Military сonflict in Ukraine and social work response to it

Due to military conflict in Ukraine, a new group of people who need help is appeared — internally displaced persons (IDPs). The aim of the prezentation is to identify the key characteristics of social work with IDPs. Specific consideration is given to social work strategies in different phases of displacement: (a) initial displacement; (b) protracted displacement; and (c) resettlement/return. It also looks on issues of stigma, polarization of society and ambivalent attitudes toward IDPs.

Iryna Kindratyshyn. Master’s Program of Social Work, NaUKMA, 2015; Areas of interests – social work, public health, psychological support; Bachelor’s program thesis topic: “The Role of Social Workers in Palliative Sphere: Ukrainian Context”; Project Manager at Charitable Foundation “Patients of Ukraine”

The study highlights volunteering experience during Euromaidan at the example of Psychological Crisis Service of Maidan. Reveals questions about volunteer’s motives, requests received, methods of work, resources, difficulties faced, lack of specialists needed, professional burnout and posttraumatic stress disorder, strengths and limitations of Psychological Service of Maidan, the impact and importance of such experience for volunteers. It also discusses exclusion of social services and social workers in work with populations in emergency situations and inaction on the part of government agencies responsible for this area.

TSMU (4)

            Olha Denefil, PhD, Professor of Pathological Physiology Department. The scope of her scientific studies is the influence of stress (both acute and chronic) on the organism of pregnant women, children and teen-agers. She is an author and co-author of more than 200 scientific papers.

Proneness to Interpersonal Conflicts in Individuals with Posttraumatic Stress Disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSDs) are reported to be among the most prevalent and unfavourable mental disorders in the individuals who have gone through life-threatening situations. For a long time, a good many of soldiers have been reported to reveal anxiety-phobic and behavioural disorders, as well as the signs of organic cerebral lesion. Some of them occur during combat operations, whereas the most of symptoms develop and aggravate 1-2 years after coming home. The complex treatment and rehabilitation system for PTSD is supposed to include active therapy, stabilizing therapy and preventive therapy.

Nataliya Volkova, PhD, Associate Professor, Head of Medical Bioethics and Deontology Department. The field of scientific interests is the physiology of higher nervous activity and medical bioethics. Subject doctoral dissertation: “Effect of low atmospheric pressure on the brain blood supply and the central autonomic regulation of heart rate, when performing cognitive activity”.

Appropriate organization of educational process as a way of prevention of conflicts in the students’ environment. Nowadays, high standards of education quality require paying thorough attention to the development of student’s individuality as well as creating favorable conditions for their professional self-realization and encouraging self-improvement and development of self-education skills. From the point of view of their age, young people entering the universities, approach the stage of psychosocial development, when a person accepts the common rules of social behavior and moral values such as justice, dignity and equality. The purpose of the given investigation was to analyze new approaches to educational process organization at the medical university that improve students’ academic performance and socio-environmental adaptation, promote the formation of future doctor’s professional identity and individuality on the basis of the principles of professional code of ethics.

Olga Lutsiv, PhD, Teacher of Philosophy and Social Studies Department. Her research interests relate to the philosophy of the economy, the problems of modern society in Ukraine and in the world. She has a number of publications on educational and economic subjects in national and international journals. S. Podolynskyi Regional Prize-Winner for scientific and theoretical research in economics and marketing.

The Humanities Training as a Component Element of Personality Development of a Future Doctor. Presented article outlines the features of the humanities training of future doctors. A student, having entered higher medical educational establishment, is primarily committed to get professional knowledge and skills. Only a small amount of future doctors are fluent in constructive communication, they can accurately and accessibly express their professional opinion and social position. The humanities are defined as a factor of the future doctor’s competitiveness formation. In fact, such points as the culture of communication, critical thinking, creativity, the ability to understand future possibilities in addition to professional medical training are able to develop a doctor.To do this, in the process of the humanities training, classical scheme of interaction between students and teachers should differ from natural science training. This will allow to show medical students’ creativity, it will contribute to a better understanding of the material studied.

Olga Khrystenko, PhD, Teacher of Philosophy and Social Studies Department. Her scientific interests include gender education, Christian upbringing, problems of development of modern society in Ukraine and in the world (Political Studies aspect). The author of research on the history of educational activities of women's organizations in Ukraine.

The Conflict in Political Studies (to the question of Global Problems of Humanity). The research represents two Global problems of humanity: intercivilizational contradictions and pandemic of abortion as serious conflicts which solution depends on state politics. Consequently, the relevance of presenting to students the model of state politics aimed to prevent conflicts between civilizations as well as pandemic of abortion was confirmed. The politics should include: information politics (promotion of idea that the person's life is the highest value, and also human relationships are based on tolerance); educational politics (upbringing of the youth the culture of the interpersonal relationships based on respectability and responsibility); social politics (creation of appropriate material living conditions for young or unprovided families); politics in health care (ensuring a high level of medical services, maternity and childhood protection); politics in the sphere of legislation (adoption of laws that will protect the lives of unborn children).