90 years of the ER ISHS: 2017–2024

29.3.2024

The Educational and Research Institute of Social and Humanitarian Sciences  is 90 years old.

During the first years of relocation, the Institute was able to reorient itself to new requirements, which made it possible to conduct successful admissions campaigns, significantly increase the number of students, implement numerous scientific and cultural projects, and begin the restoration of the material base.

In 2017, Leonid Vakhovsky, who headed the History Faculty since 2001, was appointed Vice-Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work. Anton Bader became the new director, since 2014 – Deputy Director for Social and Humanitarian Work. In this position, he was replaced by Ihor Zhurba, a graduate of the Ihor Zhurba in 2017. Yulia Nuzhna has been responsible for the educational work of the institute since 2014. Her tireless work is rarely in the news, but it is difficult to overestimate it.

Since 2017, the work of archaeological expeditions has been resumed, including on the basis of the National Historical and Archaeological Museum “Olvia” (led by Oleksandr Naboka and Yevgenia Shevtsova). Since 2019, a partnership was also established with the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine represented by SerhiI Telizhenko, together with him, the Serhii Loktiushev Archaeological Squad created at the institute conducted excavations in the city of Starobilsk.

Another tradition has been revived, which has its roots in the movement of the cheerful and clever – to participate in the “League of Laughter” university festival, the team “What? Why not?”, which in 2019 won an indisputable victory in the very first season of the festival.

An important event was the creation of an initiative group in 2015, and then of the public organization “Inventors” headed by Kateryna Kotelenets. The members of the group are almost two dozen active and creative students who aim to involve young people in active public life. In October 2019, the grand opening of the “Inventors” youth hub took place. During the existence of the group, the participants managed to implement more than 30 projects, including “Charity Closet”, “Pysanka Yednannia”, “STB Beach”, “Youth Evenings” and others.

At the beginning of 2020, the Institute like all educational institutions, faced the challenge of forced quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Having experience in learning using distance technologies since 2014, the university quickly adapted to the new realities, which since then, with the exception of a few brief periods of returning to the classroom, have become routine. Not only training was transferred to the virtual space – scientific and festive events, exams and dissertation defenses, industrial meetings and career guidance events were successfully held online.

Despite quarantine restrictions and foreign policy tension, the Institute welcomed the new year 2022 with optimism. Back in 2020, the Department of Political Science and Law established a Laboratory of Applied Research, and on its basis, the work of the political and legal club “Analityka” was intensified. In the fall of 2021, the volunteer center “SOVA”, headed by Kateryna Ignatenko, resumed work. The project of the “IDENT” historical and local history laboratory was being prepared for implementation, the first lecture of which took place on February 23, 2022.

The Russian full-scale invasion forced to adjust these plans. During its first weeks, most of the teachers and part of the students left Luhansk region, the university officially moved to Poltava region. The material and technical base was lost, which with the help of international partners managed to be restored after 2014. But despite everything, the online educational process was started already on March 11.

The two years that have passed since the start of the full-scale invasion have once again proven that the History Faculty can overcome any adversity.

Two successful recruitments of first-year students were carried out, and excellent students from Poltava became “History Faculty” students along with Luhansk students. The geography of studentship has become wide: thanks to the use of digital learning, future historians, political scientists, sociologists, internationalists and social workers living in the free territory of Ukraine, in the occupation, and abroad can meet at classes and events of their native institute. Teachers use new opportunities for academic mobility and professional development. Despite everything, scientific research continues, conferences are held, articles and monographs are published.

On December 1, 2023, the institute received a new name – Educational and Research Institute of Social and Humanitarian Sciences. The Departments of History and Archeology (head – Oleksandr Naboka) and the Department of Political Science and International Relations (head – Svitlana Vovk) were created instead of the liquidated departments of world history and international relations, departments of political science and law, and departments of history of Ukraine. In connection with the introduction of new approaches to the formation of a list of fields of knowledge and specialties for which higher education candidates are trained, the Department of Social Work was removed from the Institute, which was included in the Educational and Research Institute of Health Care and Sports.

However, no changes can affect the feeling that is familiar at the end of March to every graduate of History Faculty, regardless of its name: the need to remember their best student years and the people who were close to them then. This year, History Faculty is 90. Behind us is the generation of students of the History Faculty from whom we received it. We would like to preserve it and pass it on to future generations, who will celebrate the Intern Day in a free and peaceful Ukraine for many years.

Educational and Research of Social and Humanitarian Sciences