Olha Tytarenko joined the Yale faculty in spring 2024 with the intention of introducing a formal Ukrainian language program at the University. In the fall semester, the Slavic Languages and Literatures department offered the first-ever Elementary Ukrainian I course, the first half of a year-long introduction to the language. 

“This course represents a significant step toward embedding Ukrainian studies into Yale’s

broader curriculum, ensuring that students can explore Ukraine’s history and culture through multiple disciplinary lenses,” said Tytarenko, who teaches “Elementary Ukrainian” and spearheaded the program’s creation. 

The “Elementary Ukrainian” course, like many of Yale’s other intensive language courses, meets every day for 50 minutes. Students describe the coursework as “rigorous” but rewarding. 

“I enjoy learning languages, and this has been by far the most transformative language process I’ve been through,” said Mike York GRD ’17 ’26, one of two students in the nascent language program. 

York is pursuing a doctorate in European and Russian Studies and was inspired to enroll in Ukrainian due to his fascination with the culture. York retired from the Army in 2023, shortly after the conflict in Ukraine escalated, and told the News that the war inspired his interest in Ukrainian language and writing. 

For York’s classmate, Jack Leydiker ’25, learning Ukrainian also carries personal significance. Leydiker’s family emigrated from Ukraine in the late 1970s. 

“I have a very checkered relationship with Ukrainian culture because Ukrainians and Jews have a very fraught relationship,” shared Leydiker. However, after a semester and a half of Ukrainian, he said, “I feel like I’m understanding the culture where my family comes from better.”

Both York and Leydiker emphasized how the course goes beyond teaching the language and offers profound opportunities for cultural exchange. On Fridays, class time is exclusively dedicated to translating Ukrainian poetry from refugees and soldiers on the front lines. Leydiker described this experience as “personally very meaningful.”

As part of this project, the class welcomed acclaimed Ukrainian poet Marianna Kiyanovska. 

“It’s me, Jack, Marianna, sitting in a hotel lobby just talking. It was a really, really singular experience,” York said. “We had an incredible conversation. It was a really unique opportunity for a first-year language.”

York has found that translating poetry and “arguing over specific wording” facilitates an “intuitive understanding” of the language. The poems that York and Leydiker have translated in “Elementary Ukrainian” will be published in Yale’s Journal of Literary Translation. 

“Poetry is something which could be understood by the heart. It makes emotional connections,” said professor Andrei Kureichik. “I think that it will be a great, grand opening for American students and professors when they really understand the treasure that was created in Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia in their languages: what kinds of great poetry, great dramas, science and art.”

Kureichik, a Belarusian playwright and recipient of The Sakharov Prize of Freedom of Speech for his human rights activism spent several years in Ukraine and has partnered with Tytarenko to bring more Ukrainian studies to Yale.

To him, a Ukrainian language program is essential since most Ukrainian works translated into English are first translated into Russian. He believes that learning Ukrainian prevents scholars from encountering Ukraine through “the lenses of imperial culture.”

Kureichik expressed frustration that American perspectives often homogenize former-Soviet Union Eastern European countries. 

“I really believe that 21st century is about the decolonization of nations. We must throw out all the imperial thinking, imperial agenda. We must understand that sometimes a small country could be as important in a scientific or cultural way than a country with a bigger population,” he said. 

Tytarenko had kept this mission in mind when designing and teaching “Elementary Ukrainian.” 

“There is an urgent need to revisit history from Ukraine’s perspective, challenging longstanding narratives and highlighting Ukraine’s cultural resilience and historical continuity — not just in response to the current war, but as an integral part of its centuries-old history. In our curriculum, this means emphasizing Ukraine’s unique artistic and intellectual heritage, whether through film, literature, or art,” Tytarenko said.

Tytarenko’s unique background in pedagogy has inspired her to implement several unique and experimental teaching methods in her class. This past week, York and Leydiker found themselves strapped into VR headsets. They had to communicate with each other in Ukrainian to work together and navigate a virtual world.

The class also traveled to Amherst College to visit the Mead Art Museum’s special exhibition: “The Juncture: Ukrainian Artists in Search of Modernity and Identity.” Leydiker recalls analyzing the grammar and syntax of Russian propaganda posters in Ukrainian. He found working with “real” primary sources “incredibly helpful.”

“The methodologies that she’s come up with and the ways that we are learning things are much more effective than some of the other language-learning modules,” said York. “It’s been really, really exciting, and it’s made learning a very difficult language a lot easier, and made me really passionate about it.”

Both students had nothing but praise for Tytarenko’s novel course and are excited to see how it grows in the coming years. Their feedback has inspired Tytarenko to make immersive and aesthetic learning experiences a permanent feature of the Ukrainian language program. 

“Honestly, I just want more attention to be put on this. It’s a really great opportunity to learn a language that’s horribly under-resourced, and that’s extremely important,” said Leydiker.

In terms of the program’s future, Tytarenko has ambitious plans to build up a multi-disciplinary Ukrainian studies program around the new language course. In fall 2025 she will teach a film course titled “Cinematic Ukraine: Culture, Identity, and Memory.” 

Additionally, Tytarenko has initiated discussions with Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. She hopes to establish an academic fellowship between the two institutions that may include joint research, study abroad and student exchange programs. 

“Ultimately, our goal is not only to teach Ukrainian but to actively participate in and support cultural initiatives that originate in Ukraine — to be a bridge between academic scholarship and real-world cultural production. That, I believe, is what would make this program so meaningful,” said Tytarenko. 

Tytarenko expressed excitement for “incredible momentum” these initiatives have enjoyed. Nevertheless, she recognizes in the face of Ukrainian’s “modest” enrollment that this critical project requires “long-term visibility and institutional support.”

York hopes more Yale students will take advantage of the investment Tytarenko has made to this program.

“I think there is an element of preservation and keeping something alive and vibrant. And it would be just phenomenal if we could get more people who are interested in learning this language. It’s such a beautiful language,” said York. “Please, please, take Ukrainian.”

The war in Ukraine just entered its third year. 

Correction, Feb. 28: Kureichik is a recipient of the Sakharov Prize, not the Nobel Peace Prize.