Odessa National I.I. Mechnikov University is the leading scientific and educational center of modern Ukraine, the first higher education institution in the southern region of the country. In 2015, it celebrated the 150th anniversary of its foundation. Nowadays the University hosts more than 10,000 students and 1,500 of qualified researchers. Among the most significant awards are the Diploma of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (2003), the honorary title of “Leader of modern education” (2005-2009), the Grand Prix in the ranking competition at the exhibition “Modern Education in Ukraine” (2010), organized by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine. For 2011-2014, it received the honorary title of “Leader of the scientific and technical activities” and the Grand Prix for “The effectiveness of scientific research institution of higher education.”
Involved Researchers:
The national coordinator Prof. Dr. Valentyna Koliesnik is head of the Philology Department, and author of over 130 scientific articles, 5 monographs, 25 manuals, 5 textbooks on Slavic languages and their dialects. As illustrated already by her PhD-thesis “Southern Ukraine`s Bulgarian anthroponomy” and her doctoral thesis “Debalkanization of Bulgarian migrants dialects in Ukraine”, her primary fields of interest are ethno-linguistics and dialectology.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sergii Glebov is Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations, Leading Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies (http://cis-onu.com/), and Dean of the School of International Relations at the Institute of Social Sciences, Odessa Mechnikov National University (ONU). He received his Ph.D. in June 2002 for his thesis entitled: “Constructing Security and Cooperation System in the Black Sea Region and the Role of Ukraine in this Process (1990s).“ Courses currently taught include: Problems of the Black Sea region, Foreign Policy of Russia, Contemporary History of Europe and America (1945 -), Theory of State and Law. His research and teaching interests are in the field of foreign and security policy of Ukraine, international relations in the Black Sea-Caspian region, European and Euro-Atlantic security, foreign policy of Russia, NATO-Ukraine, EU-Ukraine relations. In 2000/2001 he was a visiting scholar at the Center for European Studies, University of Exeter (Exeter, UK) and at Columbia University, Harriman Institute (New-York City, USA) in 2003. He received several individual and institutional fellowships, including from HESP/AFP Open Society Institute (Budapest, Hungary), Carnegie Foundation and Jean Monnet Program. He has been involved into several TEMPUS/Erasmus+ Projects in the sphere of Higher Education. He wrote about 60 scientific works which were published in national and international editions; speaker and presenter in numerous scientific events in Europe and USA. Now he is working on the individual monograph with the working title “The Black Sea Region: the Case for System Analysis”. He is author and host of political programs at the Odesa Media TV-Radio Group “GLAS” (www.video.glasweb.com).
Yana Volkova, MA is junior researcher at Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University. Her main research interests are the Balkans in the Black Sea region, diaspora and transnationalism, Turkish-Bulgarian bilateral relations, as well as the Turkish minority in Bulgaria and the Balkans.
KEAC-BSR 