Seven faculty teams of collaborators from the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana, USA) and Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv, Ukraine) have received grants from Notre Dame Global and Notre Dame Research to pursue research on pertinent issues in Ukraine. The grants provide support for projects related to ethical infrastructure and leadership for resilient democracies, data science for the common good, religious freedom, collective trauma and collective healing, the mental health of veterans, and the moral and religious dimension of security in the war-stricken country. Many of the projects, in addition to bringing together colleagues from both universities, span multiple departments within each university.

The research partnerships enabled by this grant program strengthen the relationship between these two Catholic institutions, a bond established more than two decades ago. In 2004, just after the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) was founded as the first Catholic university on territory of the former Soviet Union, the Catholic Universities Partnership was formed under the leadership of Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies, bringing together nine European institutions including UCU for research, leadership and visiting scholars programs.

Just months after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., then-president of Notre Dame, and Metropolitan-Archbishop Borys Gudziak, organizer and president of Ukrainian Catholic University, agreed to expand the existing partnership between Notre Dame and UCU. Part of the expansion is the distribution of grants for faculty at both universities to pursue joint research projects and nurture ongoing collaboration.

“At a critical moment in Ukraine’s history, the commitment between our two universities is a testament to our Catholic mission and identity,” said Michael Pippenger, Notre Dame vice president & associate provost for internationalization. “These research collaborations advance our mutual research priorities for the common good, bringing together our faculty and students, which is a great investment in our shared future.”

"This collaboration between our universities offers a unique opportunity to jointly address some of the most pressing challenges of our time," said Yaroslav Prytula, Ukrainian Catholic University provost. "It is not only an act of solidarity but a shared mission to shape ethical leadership, rebuild democratic resilience, and contribute to the common good."

The 2025 awardees of the ND - UCU Faculty Collaboration Grant are described below.

Yury P. Avvakumov and Oleh Turiy will lead a study titled “Religious Freedom in Contemporary Ukraine: Historical Transformations and the Challenges of War.” Avvakumov, an associate professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Theology, will be joined by Sean Griffin, an associate professor of Slavic, and Eurasian Studies. Turiy, head of the Institute of Church History at UCU, will work with associate professor Svitlana Hurkina and Myroslav Marynovych, president of UCU’s Institute of Religion and Society. The researchers will examine the re-emergence of the Greek Catholic Church and new religious denominations established in Ukraine during the late Soviet period, drawing on official state documents and government records, as well as newspapers, personal letters, interviews and photographs. The research team is especially interested in the interactions between Christian denominations, and the relationship between church and state situated within the changing social and political landscape of the late 20th century.

E. Mark Cummings and Oleksandr Avramchuk will lead a study titled “The adaptation and pilot testing of the Promoting a Positive Family Future (PPFF) intervention for veteran families in Ukraine.” Cummings, the William J. Shaw Family Professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Psychology and director of the Family Studies Lab, will be joined by Kathleen N. Bergman, psychology research assistant professor, Sarah (Hoegler) Dennis, postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Anthropology, and Reyhaneh Sadat Razavi, psychology graduate student. Avramchuk, head of UCU’s Department of Clinical Psychology - Faculty of Health Science, will be joined by Oksana Senyk, lecturer in the Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, and Kristina Obluchynska-Shabazova, lecturer in the Department of Clinical Psychology at UCU. The researchers will explore how psychological trauma affects the family dynamic of Ukrainian veterans when they return to civilian life after war. The initial phase will consist of focus groups and interviews with veterans and their families to analyze mental states and family dynamics. With the goal of collective healing in mind, the project ultimately aims to adapt the psychosocial intervention program Promoting Positive Family Futures (PPFF) for Ukrainian families.

Alan Huebner, teaching professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, will collaborate with Tetiana Zakharchenko, program director of computer science in UCU’s Faculty of Applied Sciences, to head a study titled “Lost Knowledge: A Data-Driven Study of K-12 Math Learning in Ukraine.” Rostyslav Hryniv, chair of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at UCU, and Inha Kozlova, associate professor in the UCU Department of Sociology, will serve as co-principal investigators. The researchers will investigate learning outcomes in math among K-12 Ukrainian students during recent years with the hope of providing guidance for educational recovery. The team will implement two approaches: quantitative analysis of multiple assessment results and interviews with students and math teachers to assess the qualitative impact of uncertainty on teaching and learning. The ultimate goal of the study is to advise schools on curriculum adjustments and supports to raise student performance in moving forward.

Debra Javeline, professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Political Science, and Pavlo Khud, lecturer in the UCU Department of Management and Organizational Development, will pursue a project titled “Network Leadership for Democratic Resilience in Ukraine.” The pair will join Andriy Rozhdestvensky, executive director of the Center for Leadership at UCU. Spanning policy advocacy, civic engagement, and organizational leadership, the team will study and evaluate social networks among leaders of non-governmental organizations that have played a critical role in sustaining Ukraine’s democratic values. By examining these leadership structures, researchers aim to identify best practices for strengthening democratic governance.

Rahul Oka, associate research professor in Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and the Department of Anthropology, and Iryna Semkiv, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy at UCU, will co-lead a project titled “Exploring the Built Environment to Understand Collective Trauma and the Potential of Community-Based Collective Healing in Ukraine.” They will join co-principal investigators Marianne Cusato, professor of the practice in the School of Architecture, Lee Gettler, the Rev. John A. O'Brien College Professor of Anthropology and chair of the department, professor Roman Kechur and assistant professor Tetyana Zavada of UCU’s Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, and Dmytro Myronovych, associate professor in the UCU Department of Sociology. This interdisciplinary team will investigate the connection between the use of public and private spaces and the psychosocial processes that affect physical and mental health. The project is particularly concerned with how the built environment may mitigate the trauma experienced by veterans and civilians by forging social bonds. More broadly, the project will aim to deliver policy recommendations to local officials and architects with adaptable best practices for rebuilding damaged Ukrainian communities with trauma recovery in mind.

Clemens Sedmak, director of Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies, will work with Volodymyr Turchynovskyy, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and director of the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues at UCU, to advance a collaborative historical and ethical study titled “The Moral Biography of Ukraine.” They will be joined by John Deak, associate professor in the Department of History, A. James McAdams, emeritus faculty in the Department of Political Science, Anatolii Babynskyi, professor in the Institute of Church History, and Nataliya Yakymets, deputy director of research at UCU’s International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues. The team plans to survey the systems that safeguard moral values in Ukraine by researching key moments in the nation’s history. These systems, together called ethical infrastructure, are crucial for upholding democracy and require continuous effort to maintain. The researchers will examine 15 episodes in the moral history of Ukraine since 1989 to identify where this ethical infrastructure has succeeded and failed to sustain human dignity and the common good.

Suzanne Shanahan and Rev. Yuriy Shchurko will head a project titled “Bringing a Just Peace to Ukraine.” Shanahan, Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director and professor of the practice at Notre Dame’s Institute for Social Concerns, will be joined by colleagues Daniel Philpott, a professor in the Department of Political Science, and Gerard Powers, director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the Kroc Institute. Rev. Yuriy Martynyuk, senior professor of Theology, and Dmytro Tsolin, professor in the Department of Biblical Studies, will work alongside Shchurko, dean of the Theology-Philosophy Faculty at UCU. The project aims to establish a Center for Just Peace at UCU. The founding of the Center will follow a first phase of preliminary scholarship examining the Catholic theological approaches to peace, reconciliation after war, and the ideologies that power totalitarian governance. At the Center, the researchers envision continued research on building just peace in Ukraine, platforms for dialogue, and the development of educational programs for people in positions of power.

“The research enabled by this initiative will help to advance the safety, security, and well-being of those most impacted by the war in Ukraine, and pave avenues for the physical and cultural recovery of the nation,” said Jeffrey F. Rhoads, John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research and Professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. “Notre Dame Research is pleased to honor the University’s commitment to our Ukrainian colleagues through these important research collaborations.”

To learn more about the Notre Dame-Ukrainian Catholic University Faculty Collaboration Grant Program, please visit https://global.nd.edu/faculty-research/grants-and-funding/university-of-notre-dame-ukrainian-catholic-university-faculty-collaboration-grant-program/.

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The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.