Consciousness in Transition: Forced Migration, Identity, and Language Integration in Transcarpathia Across the 20th–21st Centuries
Research Area 1: Displacements, “Dépaysements” and Discrepancies: People, Knowledge and Practices
Contact: halyna.shumytska@gmail.com
Prof. Dr. Halyna Shumytska is Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work and Coordinator of the Research Center for Sociology of Language at Uzhhorod National University. Her research project, entitled Linguistic Consciousness in Transition: Forced Migration, Identity, and Language Integration in Transcarpathia Across the 20th–21st Centuries, contributes to CEFRES Research Area 1. The project examines how forced migration reshapes linguistic consciousness, identity negotiation, and social integration in Transcarpathia, one of Ukraine’s most multilingual regions. By comparing political displacement between 1919 and 1939 with contemporary displacement caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war (2014–ongoing), the research traces long-term patterns of linguistic adaptation and explores the role of language in processes of belonging and identity formation.
Halyna Shumytska is a sociolinguist, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Philology (2013–2021) and has headed the Research Center for Sociology of Language since 2022. Her research focuses on sociolinguistics, language diversity, Ukrainian dialectology, multilingual education, and the relationship between language, identity, and social change. She holds a PhD in Philology (2001) on word formation in the North Lemko dialects and completed her habilitation on the language situation in Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia) (2021). She has coordinated and participated in international projects on minority languages and multilingualism, including “Contested Language Diversity – Dealing with Minority Languages in post-Soviet Ukraine” (2020–2023). Since 2020, she has served as an expert for the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and, since 2022, as a member of the Sociolinguistic Commission of the International Committee of Slavists. Her current research examines transformations of linguistic and sociocultural identities among internally displaced persons in Ukraine in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. She is the coordinator of the international research project “The Dynamics of Linguistic Consciousness of Ukrainian Citizens in Times of War and Migration,” supported by the Centre for Governance and Culture in Europe (GCE-HSG) at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
CV
| EDUCATION | |
| 1986–1990 | Sambir Pedagogical College (qualification:
Primary school teacher, after-school caregiver) |
| 1990–1995 | Faculty of Philology (Ukrainian Department),
Uzhhorod State University (qualification: Philologist, Teacher of Ukrainian Language and Literature) |
| 1995–1999 | Postgraduate studies at the Department
of the Ukrainian Language of Uzhhorod State University |
| PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY | |
| 1999–2003 | Teacher of the Ukrainian language at the branch of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine at the lyceum in Uzhhorod |
| 2003–2005 | Associate Professor of the Department of Methods of Teaching Social Sciences and Humanities at the Transcarpathian Institute of Postgraduate Education |
| 2005–2021 | Associate Professor of the Department of Journalism, UzhNU |
| 2006–2013 | Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Philology for Academic Affairs, Head of the “Media Perspectives Press Club” for Young Journalists |
| 2013–2021 | Dean of the Faculty of Philology of UzhNU,
Director of the UzhNU Media Centre |
| 2021 | Professor of the Department of Journalism, UzhNU | |
| 2022 | Professor of the Department of Sociology and Social Work, UzhNU | |
| ADVANCED TRAINING | ||
| 2006–2007 | Internship in practical journalism at the BBC in London | |
| 2010 | Internship in journalism at the FOJO Media Institute in Sweden | |
| 2012 | Internship at the University of Educational Management of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine | |
| 2021 | Internship at the Free University of Bolzano (South Tyrol, Italy) | |
| 2019–2020 | Internship within the programme “Development of a competence-based approach to learning and teaching” (organized by NGO “GoHigher” and partners: British Council Ukraine, Pearson, Dinternal Education, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the IT company Grammarly) |
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| 2024 | Internship within the programs «English-language Academic Communication in the Cross-cultural Context» and «Global Academic Communication: Advanced Level» (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (IFNUL) | |
| PROJECT EXPERIENCE | ||
| 2006–2007 | Participant of the EU/TACIS BBC project “Media Skills
Development – Ukraine” |
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| 2015–2020 | Scientific regional consultant of the project “Formation of Multilingualism of Children and Students: Progressive Ideas in the Ukrainian Context” (co-organised by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the OSCE HCNM) |
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| 2018 | Project Manager of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting in cooperation with the European Pravda within the framework of the project “Promoting Reforms in the Regions”, funded by the European Union under the programme
“Support to Civil Society in Ukraine” and the International Renaissance Foundation – “Through dialogue with national minorities – to resolve the language situation in Zakarpattia” |
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| 2020–2023 | Participant of the project “Contested Language Diversity – Dealing with Minority Languages in post-Soviet Ukraine” (Giessen (Germany), 2020-2023) | |
| 2025–2026 | Project Manager Dynamics of Language Awareness among Ukrainian Citizens in the Context of War and Migration with financial support of the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe (GCE-HSG) University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) | |
| RESEARCH PAPERS | ||
| 2001 | PhD thesis “Word Formation of Appellative Nouns in the North
Lemko Dialects of the Ukrainian Language” |
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| 2021 | Doctoral dissertation “The Language Situation in Zakarpattia in
1991-2020: The Regional Dimension of Language Policy” |
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| SCIENTIFIC WORKS ON SOCIOLINGUISTICS | ||
| 1 | Shumytska, H.V. (2019). Through dialogue to mutual understanding in a multilingual space: regional reception of language innovations in the educational sphere. Monograph. Uzhhorod: Grazhda. 104 p. | |
| 2 | Shumytska, H. (2020). The state language is a unifying factor in preserving the multilingual diversity of modern Ukraine. STUDIA UKRAINICA POSNANIENSIA. Zeszyt VIII / 1. Poznaǹ: Wydawnictwo Naukove UAM. P. 189–199. | |
| 3 | Shumytska, H.V. (2022). The Phenomenon of Language Policy in the Ukrainian Sociolinguistic Tradition: Approaches to Its Analysis in the Regional Dimension. Studia z Filologii Polskiej i Słowiańskiej, 57, Article 2679. https://doi.org/10.11649/sfps.2679 | |
| 4 | Shumytska, H. (2022). Changes in the linguistic identity of Ukrainians during the Russian-Ukrainian war: 2022. Ukrainian language. 4 (84). P. 3–10. | |
| 5 | Shumytska, H. The language situation in Transcarpathia in 1991–2021: the regional dimension of language policy: a monograph. Kyiv: Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Publishing House, 2024. 436 p. | |
| 6 | Shumytska, H.V., Sharkan, V.V. (2024). Languages of national minorities in Transcarpathia: analysis of media content in war conditions. Ukrainian ethnolinguistic continuum in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine: a monograph/editor-in-chief S.O. Sokolova, technical editor I.I. Braga. Kyiv: Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. P. 211–227. | |
| 7 | Shumytska, H. (2025). Autobiographical narrative of linguistic personality formation in a multilingual border region: Documentation based on in-depth interviews. In: Kiss, N., Wingender, M. (eds.) Contested language diversity in wartime Ukraine: National minorities, language biographies and linguistic landscape. Stuttgart, Ibidem. P. 273-297. | |
| 8 | Shumytska, H. (2025). The rear region in wartime Ukraine – language policy and the language situation in Transcarpathia. In: Shumytska, Halyna and Krouglov, Alex, (eds.) Languages and cultures in times of war: Collective monograph (pp. 133–154). Uzhhorod National University: Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10206636/. https://doi.org/10.14324/000.ch.10206636 | |
| 9 | Shumytska, H., & Tokar, M. The linguistic situation in Transcarpathia (Ukraine) during the war: the state and prospects of the state language and the languages of national communities, in particular Romanian. 25 Years Since the Establishment of the Department of Ukrainian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology, Babeș–Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca: an anniversary collection / ed. Ioan Gerbil and Mihaela Gerbil. Cluj-Napoca: Casa cărţii de ştiinţă; Bucureşti : R.C.R. Editorial, 2025. P. 460-476. URL: https://uur.ro/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/VOLUM-25-DE-ANI-DE-UCRAINEANA-2025-Cluj-BT-F.pdf | |
| 10 | Shumytska, H., Shandor, F. (2026). Depopulation of the Hungarian National Minority in Transcarpathia as One of the Consequences of Russia’s War against Ukraine. In: Vamling, K., Kiss, N., Petersson, B., Pidkuimukha, L. (eds) Languages in Conflict and War. Palgrave Studies in Languages at War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-08419-4_4 | |
| 11 | Shumytska, H. Research by the Research Centre for the Sociology of Language at Uzhhorod University in the Context of Military Transformation / Society in Times of Change: Sociological Reflections and Practices of Social Support: a collective monograph dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Uzhhorod University. Prague; Uzhhorod: OKTAN PRINT, 2026. P.372–387. DOI: 10.46489/SITSR-26-06-16 | |
For more (detailed) information, please follow the link: https://shumytska.ukr.ceo/naukovi-pratsi/