Department of World History
Department of World History was established as part of the Faculty of History on November 18, 1991 on the basis of the General History Department. At that time, 11 professors worked there, and the department was headed by Associate Professor Mykola Kuhutiak.
With the transition to the university system of education on the basis of the Department of World History, on October 28, 1992, there were established the Department of History of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages (headed by Professor Yaroslav Zaborovskyi) and the Department of Modern and Contemporary History (headed by Professor Mykola Kuhutiak).
In 1993, there emerged the Department of Slavic History being separated from the Department of Modern and Contemporary History (headed by Professor. Petro Fedorchak). After that, in June 1998, the Department of History of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages and the Department of Modern and Contemporary History once again merged together into the Department of World History headed by Professor Mykola Kuhutiak.
Professor Oleh Zhernokleiev has been the head of the department since 2006 (re-elected in 2013 and 2021). During the period from 2007 to 2024, professors and postgraduate students of the department defended three doctoral dissertations and a number of candidate’s dissertations. As of 2024, the department has 3 Doctors of Historical Sciences, Professors (Oleh Zhernokleiev, Stepan Borchuk, and Myroslav Voloshchuk), 4 PhD in History (Candidates of Historical Sciences), Associate Professors (Lilia Burachok, Yuriy Dovgan, Oleksandr Marushchenko, Lilia Scherbin), and 1 PhD in history and archaeology (Doctor of Philosophy), Assistant Professor (Ostap Kardash).
The department provides students of the faculty with the opportunity to study fundamental normative academic disciplines of the world history cycle, including history of the Ancient East, history of ancient civilizations, history of the Middle Ages, modern and contemporary history of Western Europe and America, history of Asian and African countries, along with a number of special courses and elective disciplines, as well as scientific seminars etc.
Research work is one of the priority areas of the Department of World History. Its teachers have published numerous monographs and articles in academic jounals belonging to various scientific databases.
Since 2015, the Department has been a host to the Center for Media Studies, headed by Professor Myroslav Voloshchuk with promising researchers Andriy Stasiuk, Iryna Tymar, Ostap Kardash, working under the auspices of the center.
The department’s scientific topic is “Central and Eastern Europe: ethno-political processes, social transformations, and international relations” (state registration number 0112U003030), other two major areas of studies carried out at the Center for Media Studies are: “Halych and the Galician land (up to the end of the 18th century)” and “Migration processes and international relations in Europe of the IX-XIV centuries.”.
Since 2010, prof. M.M. Voloshchuk is a permanent co-organizer of the International Scientific Conference Colloquia Russica (jointly with the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Republic of Poland), which was held in Krakow (2010, 2015), Warsaw (2012), Przemyśl, (2012, 2018), Mogilno in Poland (2013), Spišské Podhradie in Slovakia (2014), Plzeň in the Czech Republic (2016), Lviv (2017), Ivano-Frankivsk (2011, 2017). The conferences host representatives from 10 European countries, and the materials of their scientific discussions get published on a regular basis.
Since 2010, the Department of World History (together with the Center for Media Studies since 2016) has been publishing the scientific periodical “Student Historical Notebooks” at (as of 2023, there have been 15 issues), and since 2016 – within the framework of the Center’s activity – there gets published a collection of scientific works “Halych“. Professor Myroslav Voloshchuk is the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal “Halychyna: Scientific and Cultural-Educational Local History Journal”, which has been accredited as a professional publication (in category B).
The Department of World History has a postgraduate programme (since 2016, a PhD programme) in the specialty 032 “History and Archaeology”, as well as a doctoral program. Master’s graduates continue their training at the third (educational and scientific) and fourth (scientific) levels of higher education. They receive scientific degrees of Candidate of Historical Sciences (Doctor of Philosophy, PhD) and Doctor of Historical Sciences, and get qualifications enabling them to work in both higher education institutions and scientific institutions, as well as to engage in teaching and research activities.