On June 5, 2025, the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv hosted the defense of the dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the specialty 032 History and Archaeology of Anna Serhiivna Vakhnyanyn, a graduate student of the Department of World History of Modern Times. Bohdan Paska, a leading specialist of the Institute of History, Ethnology and Archaeology of the Carpathians of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, as an official opponent, attended the meeting of the specialized academic council for awarding the degree of Doctor of Philosophy DF 35.051.218. The topic of the dissertation is “The World Congress of Free Ukrainians: Foundation and Activities (1967–1991)”, the scientific supervisor of the work is Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Professor of the Department of World History of Modern Times, Dean of the Faculty of History of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Ruslan Siromsky. The chairman of the council was Volodymyr Kachmar – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Vice-Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work and Social Issues and Development of the I. Franko Lviv National University; the official opponents were Lesya Bilovus – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Information and Socio-Cultural Activities of the Western Ukrainian National University and Alla Atamanenko – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of International Relations of the National University “Ostroh Academy”; the work was reviewed by Andriy Kozytskyi – Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Modern World History of the I. Franko Lviv National University.
Bohdan Paska took an active part in the discussion of the dissertation work, expressed valuable comments and wishes for its further improvement. Because of the defense, all members of the specialized academic council unanimously supported the decision to award Anna Vakhnyanyn the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of knowledge Humanities with a specialty of “History and Archaeology”.
The staff of the Department of History of Ukraine and Methods of Teaching History sincerely congratulates Anna Vakhnyanyn and her scientific supervisor Ruslan Siromsky on the successful defense of her dissertation. In difficult wartime conditions, scientific life continues, we believe in the victory of Ukraine and its heroic defenders!