"Life" mosaic on the buildings of the School Nr. 5, Donetsk

Online Courses in Digital Ukrainian Philology 2023

January - December 2023
"Life" mosaic on the buildings of the School Nr. 5, Donetsk
Image: Fototraveller via wikimedia commons

Online Courses in Digital Ukrainian Philology: Spring Semester and Autumn Semester 2023

  • The program is specifically designed for bachelor's and master's students from Ukrainian universities who have a keen interest in exploring applied aspects of linguistics and contemporary issues in literary studies.
  • Participants have the flexibility to choose 1-2 courses according to their preferences. To apply for participation, interested individuals are required to complete an application form, including a letter of motivation and a document verifying their student status (such as a student ID card). In the case of internally displaced persons from conflict zones who do not possess a student ID card, a certificate from the dean's office will be accepted.
  • Each course is evaluated based on the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). Upon successful completion of a course, participants will receive a certificate, which may serve as a basis for credit transfer at their respective universities.
  • It is important to note that the study plan does not include any scheduled breaks or vacations. However, participants have the option to drop one of the two selected courses during the first week of classes if needed.

Scholarships

  • The program offers a unique opportunity to secure one of 80 scholarships worth 800 euros each (40 scholarships per semester).
  • Priority for these scholarships will be given to students hailing from frontline areas, internally displaced persons, and individuals experiencing financial hardship due to the impact of war. To verify eligibility, applicants must provide a relevant document such as a certificate of internally displaced personExternal link any other supporting documentation that substantiates financial hardship resulting from factors like loss of housing due to hostilities, the passing of relatives, disability, and similar circumstances.
  • Please note that we reserve the right to request additional information or documentation as evidence of eligibility for the scholarship.
  • The scholarship will be disbursed in two installments, with the first payment issued midway through the course and the final payment distributed upon completion of all selected courses. In the event of unsatisfactory academic performance, the scholarship may be revoked. The funds will be transferred to a designated bank account, as cash payments are not available.

Important dates

  • The deadline for applications is August 19th, 2023
  • The announcement of cource admission and scholarship decisions will take place between September 1st and 5th,2023 

Appilcation form 

You can apply hereExternal link

 

Email for questions or comments

Autumn Semester 2023

  • Modern Ukrainian Literature

    The course "Modern Ukrainian Literature" offers a unique approach primarily focused on reading. Its main objective is to familiarize students with the prominent phenomena and trends in contemporary Ukrainian literature. However, its significance goes beyond that. The course provides an opportunity to engage in discussions about literature, its impact on the world, and its reflections, particularly within the tragic context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

    The educational course "Modern Ukrainian Literature" is designed to nurture and cultivate students' love for reading while enhancing their critical reading skills. It aims to deepen their understanding of literature, the world, and themselves. The course will be taught by experienced instructors, professional researchers, and literary critics, including Tetiana Trofymenko and Sofiia Filonenko, who were compelled to relocate from their respective areas due to the frontline situation in Kharkiv and temporary occupation in Berdyansk. Alongside teaching assistants, they will share their expertise, guide students through the vast sea of literature, and refine their literary taste.

    Among the texts we will explore and discuss, particular emphasis will be given to the most poignant and challenging works, including those composed during the ongoing struggle for Ukraine's freedom. Examples include "Zero Point" by Artem Chekh, "Docja" by Tamara Horikha Zernya, and "Internat" by Serhiy Zhadan, among others.

    This discipline is offered in the second semester of the bachelor's program, specifically during the first year of study in the spring. It will also be available in the following academic year, during the first semester of the bachelor's program for first-year students in the autumn.

    Active engagement in this course requires extensive reading and active participation in discussions.

    • Language of instruction: Ukrainian
    • Lecturers: Prof. Dr. Sofiia Filonenko (Berdyansk State Pedagogical University), Dr. Tetiana Trofymenko (Kharkiv), Dr. Ostap Slyvynskyi (Lviv)
    • The course is organized by the Ukrainian Catholic University
    • Course start date: September 4th, 2023
    • SyllabusExternal linkExternal linkExternal link

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 20 academic hours
    • Practicals: 24 academic hours
    • Self-study: 76 hours
    • ECTS credits: 4
  • Literary Lviv: Texts, Contexts, and Intercultural Interaction (19th to 21st century)

    Drawing from the literary history of Lviv, this course aims to delve into the broader and global issues surrounding cultural-national and modernist transformations spanning the 19th to 21st centuries. The exploration will encompass not only the creation of texts and the diverse contexts that either facilitated or hindered this process but also the act of reinterpreting and reimagining the city through the lens of collective memories. Emphasis will be placed on the works and biographies of Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish authors.

    The course will examine key thematic areas, including Lviv as a text and Lviv in texts, the nuances of national revival, the experiences of modernization, the challenges faced by Galician writers in times of brief wars and prolonged totalitarianism, as well as the post-colonial voice of literary Lviv.

    Participation in this course will involve extensive reading and active engagement in discussions to explore these compelling topics.

    A video presentation of the courseExternal linkExternal linkExternal link

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 15 academic hours
    • Practicals: 15 academic hours
    • Self-study: 60 hours
    • ECTS credits: 3
  • Dialects in the Age of Computer Technology: Their Function, Study and Preservation

    The purpose of this course is to provide comprehensive knowledge about the dialectal variations within the modern Ukrainian language. It aims to analyze the fundamental dialectal phenomena across different structural levels and shed light on the role of dialects in the formation and functioning of the Ukrainian literary language. The course intends to cultivate an understanding of dialectal language as one of the forms of the national language, alongside literary language and colloquial speech. It aims to demonstrate the significance of dialect data in the fields of language history, ethnolinguistics, ethnography, and folklore. Moreover, it aims to familiarize students with dialectology methods, develop skills in transcribing dialectal texts, and identify and analyze dialectal phenomena.

    Additionally, this course seeks to broaden the concept of "dialect", not solely as a linguistic phenomenon based on language characteristics but also as an ethnolinguistic, cultural, and linguistic ethnographic concept. Within the course, students will learn modern principles and techniques for digitizing dialectal materials. They will also have the opportunity to contribute to or participate in the Corpus of Ukrainian Dialects project.

    It is specifically designed for philologists who have a foundational level of theoretical training, which includes prior study of subjects such as "Introduction to Linguistics", "Introduction to Phonetics", and/or "Introduction to Slavic Philology".

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 24 academic hours
    • Practicals: 16 academic hours
    • Self-study: 50 hours
    • ECTS credits: 3
  • Python for Phylologists

    Python is a versatile programming language renowned for its readability and comprehensibility. Its extensive collection of libraries, specifically designed for text analysis based on diverse criteria, enables automation and significantly enhances natural language processing. In this course, the focus will be on algorithmization techniques and problem-solving strategies in handling textual and numerical information, as well as principles and tools for representing data structures.

    By the end of the course, students will acquire practical skills in analyzing textual data using qualitative and quantitative methods, alongside a comprehensive understanding of various Python tools. Furthermore, students will have the opportunity to expand their text processing toolkit by exploring more specialized libraries such as NLTK, Spacy, and others.

    While the course has minimal prerequisites, including a solid understanding of the standard system of data typing in programming (knowledge of different data types and their distinctions), prior familiarity with algorithmization is beneficial. This entails comprehending algorithms, approaches to their formulation and description, and the ability to provide clear step-by-step instructions.

    Study Load:

    • Lecture: 30 academic hours
    • Practicals: 30 academic hours
    • Self-study: 60 hours
    • ECTS credits: 4
  • Computer Lexicography

    The course provides an in-depth exploration of various types of dictionaries and their role in modern computer systems for natural language processing, specifically in automatic grammatical and semantic text analysis. Students will delve into the transformations dictionaries undergo and the distinctive features that set computer dictionaries apart from traditional ones.

    A significant emphasis will be placed on the descriptive approach to dictionary compilation, utilizing large text corpora as a valuable source of objective language information. Students will gain hands-on experience in compiling different dictionary types based on the General Regionally Annotated Corpus of the Ukrainian Language (GRAK: uacorpus.org) and the corpus available on Sketch Engine. Additionally, they will create their own computer-based online dictionary using DWS (Dictionary Writing System). The practical work conducted by students during the course will be applied to the GRAK project.

    This course is specifically designed for students who possess a foundational understanding of linguistics, having completed courses such as "Introduction to Linguistics" or "Introduction to Applied Linguistics". Additionally, a basic familiarity with Excel is required to fully engage with the course material.

    A video presentation of the lexicographic projectExternal linkExternal linkExternal link

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 14 academic hours
    • Practicals: 14 academic hours
    • Labs: 14 academic hours
    • Self-study: 48 hours
    • ECTS credits: 3
  • Fundamentals of Applied Linguistics

    The concept of "applied linguistics" within the field of linguistics can vary across countries, traditions, time periods, and philosophical paradigms. This variation can often lead students to become confused. To prevent such confusion, this course offers a structured and concise overview of modern directions within applied linguistics in a broad sense. It provides clear definitions of these directions and logically connects them with the functions of language.

    The course pays particular attention to several widely used directions in humanitarian studies. These include statistical linguistics, which involves applying quantitative methods to analyze language and speech; sociolinguistics, which explores key concepts and tasks related to language, such as language situations, language policies, and native, inherited, and mixed languages (including Surzhik); and linguistic didactics, which focuses on the theory and practice of teaching native and foreign languages, especially in situations where forced migrants from Ukraine find themselves in foreign-language environments.

    Practical classes within the course incorporate the use of corpus technologies, using GRAK as an example. Students will also engage in academic discussions, teamwork, sociolinguistic experiments, and quantitative analyses of language and speech. These practical components, along with a final essay, will determine the success of the students' work.

    The course is primarily designed for first-year philology students who have a basic theoretical knowledge of linguistics.

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 16 academic hours
    • Practicals: 32 academic hours
    • Self-study: 42 hours
    • ECTS credits: 3

Spring Semester 2023

  • Modern Ukrainian Literature

    The course "Modern Ukrainian Literature" offers a unique approach primarily focused on reading. Its main objective is to familiarize students with the prominent phenomena and trends in contemporary Ukrainian literature. However, its significance goes beyond that. The course provides an opportunity to engage in discussions about literature, its impact on the world, and its reflections, particularly within the tragic context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

    The educational course "Modern Ukrainian Literature" is designed to nurture and cultivate students' love for reading while enhancing their critical reading skills. It aims to deepen their understanding of literature, the world, and themselves. The course will be taught by experienced instructors, professional researchers, and literary critics, including Tetiana Trofymenko and Sofiia Filonenko, who were compelled to relocate from their respective areas due to the frontline situation in Kharkiv and temporary occupation in Berdyansk. Alongside teaching assistants, they will share their expertise, guide students through the vast sea of literature, and refine their literary taste.

    Among the texts we will explore and discuss, particular emphasis will be given to the most poignant and challenging works, including those composed during the ongoing struggle for Ukraine's freedom. Examples include "Zero Point" by Artem Chekh, "Docja" by Tamara Horikha Zernya, and "Internat" by Serhiy Zhadan, among others.

    The course is offered during the second semester of the bachelor's program, specifically in the first year of study during the spring semester. Additionally, it is also taught in the following academic year during the first semester of the bachelor's program, which corresponds to the autumn semester of the first year of study.

    • Language of instruction: Ukrainian
    • Lecturers: Prof. Dr. Sofiia Filonenko (Berdjansk State Pedagogical University) & Dr. Tetiana Trofymenko (Kharkiv)
    • The course is organized by the Ukrainian Catholic University
    • Course start date: February 6th, 2023
    • SyllabusExternal linkExternal linkExternal link

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 20 academic hours
    • Practicals: 24 academic hours
    • Self-study: 76 hours
    • ECTS credits: 4
  • Dialects in the Age of Computer Technology: Their Function, Study and Preservation

    The purpose of this course is to provide comprehensive knowledge about the dialectal variations within the modern Ukrainian language. It aims to analyze the fundamental dialectal phenomena across different structural levels and shed light on the role of dialects in the formation and functioning of the Ukrainian literary language. The course intends to cultivate an understanding of dialectal language as one of the forms of the national language, alongside literary language and colloquial speech. It aims to demonstrate the significance of dialect data in the fields of language history, ethnolinguistics, ethnography, and folklore. Moreover, it aims to familiarize students with dialectology methods, develop skills in transcribing dialectal texts, and identify and analyze dialectal phenomena.

    Additionally, this course seeks to broaden the concept of "dialect", not solely as a linguistic phenomenon based on language characteristics but also as an ethnolinguistic, cultural, and linguistic ethnographic concept. Within the course, students will learn modern principles and techniques for digitizing dialectal materials. They will also have the opportunity to contribute to or participate in the Corpus of Ukrainian Dialects project.

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 24 academic hours
    • Practicals: 16 academic hours
    • Self-study: 50 hours
    • ECTS credits: 
  • Corpus Linguistics

    The course provides students with an introduction to the field of corpus linguistics, which is a modern branch of applied linguistics focused on the creation and utilization of linguistic corpora. In today's academic landscape, corpora have become invaluable language resources that are extensively utilized across various fields of philology. They play a significant role in lexicography, grammar, lexicology, stylistics, translation studies, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, linguistic variation, literary studies, and language teaching and learning.

    The primary objective of this course is to familiarize students with the fundamental concepts, research principles, and methodologies of corpus linguistics. It aims to develop students' competence in applying modern corpus technologies to address practical and research-oriented tasks. Throughout the course, students will gain knowledge about corpora in modern European languages and learn how to utilize corpus functionality to solve specific research questions. They will also work with commonly used corpus tools, create industry-specific corpora, and engage in their own corpus-based projects, tackling issues related to usage, semantics, grammar, and lexical composition of language units, as well as searching for translational equivalents.

    To successfully navigate the course, students are expected to possess a solid understanding of basic concepts in lexical and grammatical semantics. Additionally, a minimum English proficiency level of B1+ is required.

    • Language of instruction is primarily Ukrainian, with some materials being presented in English
    • Lecturers: Dr. Victoriia Zhukovska (Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University), Dr. Nataliia Cheilytko (Friedrich Schiller University Jena), Dr. Serhii Fokin (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv)
    • Course start date: February 13th, 2023
    • SyllabusExternal linkExternal linkExternal link

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 28 academic hours
    • Labs: 28 academic hours
    • Self-study: 34 hours
    • ECTS credits: 3
  • Fundamentals of Applied Linguistics

    The concept of "applied linguistics" within the field of linguistics can vary across countries, traditions, time periods, and philosophical paradigms. This variation can often lead students to become confused. To prevent such confusion, this course offers a structured and concise overview of modern directions within applied linguistics in a broad sense. It provides clear definitions of these directions and logically connects them with the functions of language.

    The course pays particular attention to several widely used directions in humanitarian studies. These include statistical linguistics, which involves applying quantitative methods to analyze language and speech; sociolinguistics, which explores key concepts and tasks related to language, such as language situations, language policies, and native, inherited, and mixed languages (including Surzhik); and linguistic didactics, which focuses on the theory and practice of teaching native and foreign languages, especially in situations where forced migrants from Ukraine find themselves in foreign-language environments.

    Practical classes within the course incorporate the use of corpus technologies, using GRAK as an example. Students will also engage in academic discussions, teamwork, sociolinguistic experiments, and quantitative analyses of language and speech. These practical components, along with a final essay, will determine the success of the students' work.

    Study Load:

    • Lectures: 16 academic hours
    • Practicals: 32 academic hours
    • Self-study: 42 hours
    • ECTS credits: 3
  • Python for Phylologists

    The course aims to provide students with a strong foundation in a high-level programming language and to develop their understanding of key concepts in structural programming, including data structures, operations, variables, branching in program code, loops, and functions.

    Python, a versatile programming language, will be taught in the course, enabling students to write code that is both readable and easily understandable. The course will also emphasize the use of libraries specifically designed for analyzing textual information based on different criteria, facilitating the automation and acceleration of natural language processing.

    A major focus of the course will be on algorithmization techniques and problem-solving related to processing both textual and numerical information. Students will learn about the principles and tools used to represent data structures effectively. Upon completion of the course, students will have practical skills in analyzing textual data using qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as a range of Python tools. Furthermore, students will be encouraged to explore specialized libraries like NLTK and Spacy to further enhance their text processing capabilities using Python.

    Study Load:

    • Lecture: 30 academic hours
    • Practicals: 30 academic hours
    • Self-study: 60 hours
    • ECTS credits: 4

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