John-Paul Himka

John-Paul Himka (born May 18, 1949 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American-Canadian historian and retired professor of history of the University of Alberta in Edmonton.[1] Himka received his BA in Byzantine-Slavonic Studies and Ph.D. in History from University of Michigan in 1971 and 1977 respectively.[1] The title of his Ph.D. dissertation was "Polish and Ukrainian Socialism: Austria, 1867-1890". As a historian Himka was a Marxist in the 1970s-80s, but became influenced by the postmodernism in the 1990s. In 2012 he defined his methodology in history as "eclectic".[2]

Life

Himka is of mixed ethnic background, Ukrainian (on father's side) and Italian (on mother's). Initially he wanted to become a Greek Catholic priest and studied at St. Basil Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut. However, due to the radicalization of his political views to the left by the end of the 1960s he did not pursue that vocation.[2]

Since 1977 he taught at University of Alberta, Department of History and Classics.[3] He became full Professor in 1992 and retired from the university in 2014.[1] Himka is the recipient of several awards and fellowships, most notably the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2006, the Philip Lawson Award for Excellence in Teaching,[4] and the J. Gordin Kaplan Award for Research Excellence.[5] He served as co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine for three volumes devoted to history.[6]

In his academic interests Himka focused on history of Greek Catholic Church and socialism in Habsburg Galicia, sacred culture of the Eastern Slavs (on iconography in particular) and the Holocaust in Ukraine. Since the late 1990s his contention with what he calls Ukrainian "nationalist historical myths" became subject of increasing, sometimes heated, debates both in Ukraine and Ukrainian Diaspora (especially in North America). Himka challenged the interpretation of Holodomor as a genocide and the view that Ukrainian nationalism and nationalists played no or almost no role in the Holocaust in Ukraine. He also opposed official glorification of such nationalistic heroes as Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera in Ukraine during presidency of Viktor Yushchenko.[2]

The fundamental point of contention between the adherents of the national myth and me is whether or not the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (hereafter OUN) and its armed force, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (hereafter UPA, from its Ukrainian initials) participated in the Holocaust. They deny this entirely. My research indicates, however, as does the research of scholars around the world, that the participation was significant. — John-Paul Himka [5]

Personal life

John-Paul Himka is married to a daughter of the Canadian immigrant Michael Chomiak (Mykhailo Khomiak in Ukrainian, d. 1984),[7] the editor-in-chief of a pro-Nazi Ukrainian-language newspaper called Krakivs'ki visti published since 1940 with the German financial aid in the General Government territory of occupied Poland during World War II.[8] Himka informed that he did not know about Chomiak's collaboration with the Nazis until after his father-in-law died, at which time, he had discovered copies of Krakivs'ki Visti in Chomiak's personal papers.[9][10]

Awards

Bibliography

Books
Edited and co-edited volumes
Notable articles

References

  1. 1 2 3 Himka, John-Paul. "John-Paul Himka: CV" (PDF). University of Alberta, Department of History and Classics. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Інтерв'ю: Іван-Павло Химка: 'Я пережив багато методологічних мод' [Interview: John Paul Himka 'I have lived through many methodological trends'] (in Ukrainian). Historians.in.ua. 2 April 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  3. ↑ John-Paul Himka, Curriculum vitae. Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta.
  4. 1 2 Fellow Professor John-Paul Himka. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  5. 1 2 3 John-Paul Himka, Challenging the Myths of Twentieth-Century Ukrainian History. Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta, page 3 in PDF.
  6. ↑ John-Paul Himka Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
  7. ↑ Colby Cosh (March 8, 2017). "Of course it’s ‘news’ that Freeland’s grampa was a Nazi collaborator, even if the Russians are spreading it". National Post.
  8. ↑ John-Paul Himka. "Ethnicity and the Reporting of Mass Murder: Krakivs'ki visti, the NKVD Murders of 1941, and the Vinnytsia Exhumation". Time and Space. Lviv: University of Alberta. Krakivs'ki visti published materials from German papers, especially the Nazi party organ Völkischer Beobachter, which appeared frequently. Articles were also translated from Berliner Illustrierte Nachtausgabe and all most important Berlin papers.
  9. ↑ Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief (March 7, 2017). "Freeland knew her grandfather was editor of Nazi newspaper". The Globe and Mail. Although [Himka] acknowledged that Mr. Chomiak was a Nazi collaborator, he maintained that the Germans made the editorial decisions to run anti-Semitic articles and other Nazi propaganda.
  10. ↑ David Pugliese (March 8, 2017). "Chrystia Freeland’s granddad was indeed a Nazi collaborator – so much for Russian disinformation". Ottawa Citizen. Chomiak edited the paper first in Krakow (Cracow), Poland and then in Vienna. The reason he edited the paper in Vienna was because he had to flee with his Nazis colleagues as the Russians advanced into Poland.
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