Dr. Bohdan Tokarskyi joined the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University as assistant professor in July 2024, with a focus on Ukrainian literature and culture.
- The Harvard Gazette, Arts & Culture: 12 centuries of Ukrainian literature in 12 weeks? Bohdan Tokarskyi, new assistant professor, says he’s up to the challenge. By Eileen O’Grady (13 November 2024)
- George Grabowicz in conversation with Bohdan Tokarskyi “Keeping the Fires Burning: Studying Ukrainian Literature Through Censorship, Independence, and War” (streemed live on 5 August 2024). George G. Grabowicz – Dmytro Čyževs’kyi Research Professor of Ukrainian Literature and Professor Emeritus, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. Moderated by Oleh Kotsyuba, Director of Print and Digital Publications at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
Short Biosketch: Bohdan Tokarskyi was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in International Law at the Kyiv Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He then went to study at the University of Cambridge, where he gained Master’s degree in European Literature and Culture (2014-2015). His Master Thesis was supported by a Cambridge-Ukrainian Studentship and distinguished with the Santander Academic Excellence Award. Bohdan carried out his PhD research at the St John’s College/ University of Cambridge (2015-2020), under the supervision of Rory Finnin, the Director of Cambridge Ukrainian Studies. His PhD research was supported by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship and St. John’s Benefactors’ Scholarship. In summer 2015, Bohdan with a colleague embarked on a three-month trip around Ukraine and spoke to people from all walks of life (soldiers, volunteers, journalists, IDPs, etc.) to get an understanding of how the country has changed since the war started. Having recorded more than a hundred hours of interviews, they composed the verbatim play “The Summer Before Everything” that featured as part of the 2016 Hotbed Festival in Cambridge. Bohdan also was a Ukrainian Language Teaching Fellow and he has also taught a number of lectures on Ukrainian literature and culture at Cambridge. In 2017 Bohdan won the 2nd place in the UKRAINET PhD Thesis Presentation Contest. Moreover, Bohdan was an URIS Fellow at the University of Basel; a Prisma Ukraїna Fellow, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin and a HURI Research Fellow at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University. Before joining the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, Bohdan worked as Senior Research Associate at the University of Potsdam.