��������

Last fall, CIUS welcomed Nara Narimanova as our first doctoral student in the newly instituted Indigenous Crimean Tatar Studies fellowship at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS, Faculty of Arts) and the Faculty of Native Studies.

Below, Nara reflects on her first year at the ��������.

I am profoundly grateful to CIUS for awarding me a PhD Fellowship in Indigenous Crimean Tatar Studies. This support not only provides the resources necessary to advance my doctoral research but also affirms the significance of centering Indigenous Crimean Tatar voices, histories, and knowledge systems within academic discourse. I view this fellowship as both an opportunity and a responsibility—to contribute to scholarship that challenges colonial erasures, strengthens connections between Indigenous peoples globally, and advances understandings of self-determination and the importance of Crimean Tatar Studies. I am honoured to carry forward this work with the encouragement of CIUS and to join a community of scholars committed to research that uplifts Indigenous voices and deepens the collective pursuit of justice. I am tremendously grateful to CIUS and the Faculty of Native Studies of �������� for the opportunity to be here studying Indigenous Studies and also learn so much about the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island or North America.

When I attend conferences, I can be positioned as Indigenous, Slavist, and Turkic because it’s true to the nature of the region and my people—Crimean Tatars. I participated and presented on “Forced displacement of the Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar toponymy, and colonization” at the international workshop "Indigeneity and transnationalism: The forced displacement of the Crimean Tatars and the challenges of transnational approaches," on 5 May 2025. The event was organized by EURUS, with the support of the McMillan Chair in Russian Studies, and gathered many Crimean Tatar scholars and practitioners from Ukraine, Turkey, Canada, Germany, the United States, Austria, and Poland. At the on 9 May 2025 in Edmonton, I organized a panel on the topic “Crimean Tatar studies: Redefining the field” and presented my paper, “Naming and renaming on the Crimean peninsula,” along with two other Crimean Tatar scholars.

Further, I was involved in an ongoing Indigenous studies initiative, organized by CIUS and MacEwan University, highlighted in June 2025 at the first, in three cities of Türkiye. This initiative brought together Indigenous Canadian and Indigenous Crimean Tatar scholars as well as community leaders to exchange knowledge, foster dialogue, and advance emerging Indigenous scholarship. I was on the organizational committee, along with Natalia Khanenko-Friesen, director of CIUS, Larysa Hayduk, director of the Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre at MacEwan University, and Gayana Yüksel, director of the Şefika Gaspıralı International Women's Organization. In addition to coordinating the workshop, I served as interpreter for the Canadian team for the full five days of the visit.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the project of preservation of Crimean Tatar oral histories, particularly those recounting experiences of deportation, life in exile, and return back home to Crimea under the collective farm recruit program within the USSR. I engaged in editing transcripts of Russian and English, while also verifying the accuracy of the Crimean Tatar language and the correct use of Indigenous toponymy. This included confirming peoples and places names, ensuring accuracy of geographical places, and making necessary corrections to the orthography of the Crimean Tatar interviews following the translators’ final edits into English. This process has not only enhanced the precision of the collected histories but also reinforced the importance of safeguarding linguistic and cultural authenticity. It is my hope that this collective effort will culminate in the publication of a book that honours and amplifies these vital voices of Crimean Tatars.

CIUS is proud to support Nara in her ongoing fellowship. CIUS is committed to supporting and strengthening Indigenous Crimean Tatar studies, aiming particularly to foster a robust intellectual connection between Crimean Tatar studies and Indigenous studies both in Canada and globally.

PhD Fellowship in Indigenous Crimean Tatar Studies