The Research Institute of History, Ethnology and Archeology of the Carpathians was established in April 2008 as a structural unit of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. The institute, which has departments of history, ethnology and archeology, is designed to integrate specialists in the humanities to make the most of their scientific potential. Therefore, leading scientists of the Precarpathian University, as well as other research and educational institutions, specialists from the Carpathian region are involved in the implementation of research projects.
This institution submits proposals to the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council on the registration of monuments of traditional culture and archeology, participates in monument protection, cultural, educational and tourist-recreational activities of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council and the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration.
Edited by prof. Mykola Vasyliovych Kuhutyak in 2009 began publishing a new scientific publication on Carpathian issues – “Carpathians: man, ethnicity, civilization.” It includes articles written by employees of the Research Institute and many domestic experts, as well as foreign authors from the Russian Federation, Moldova, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United States. Historical, ethnological and archeological research, published in the first issue of the journal, provides an opportunity to talk about the Carpathian region as a contact zone of many ancient civilizations in Europe and Asia.
The Department of Ethnology was headed by a senior researcher, Ph.D. in Hystory Mykhailo Illich Pankiv. Under his leadership, the staff of the department conducts comprehensive interdisciplinary research on the following issues: socio-cultural and ethno-political processes in the Carpathian region from ancient times to the present; cartography of monuments of material and spiritual culture of the Ukrainian Carpathians; the influence of globalization processes on changes in the traditional culture of Hutsuls, Boyks and Lemkos (late XX – early XXI century.).
Particular attention is paid to the collection of field materials and mapping of toponymy of settlements in the Carpathians. To do this, the staff of the department actively involves students of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University.
The materials collected during the field expeditions are subject to detailed processing and archiving and transferred to the Scientific Ethnographic Archive of the Faculty of History and Political Science of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University.
The institute cooperates with many domestic scientific institutions. Among them, the Maksym Rylsky Institute of Art History, Folklore and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv), the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Lviv), the Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Lviv), the Department of Ethnology, Ancient and Medieval History of Yurii Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Department of History of Ukraine of Uzhhorod National University. Foreign institutions include the Adam Mickiewicz Institute of Prehistory (Poznan, Poland), the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Warsaw (Warsaw, Poland), the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Hungary (Budapest, Hungary), Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Bratislava, Slovakia), the German Historical Institute (Warsaw), the Institute of Eastern European History of the University of Vienna, the Satu Mare County Museum (Satu Mare, Romania) and others.
As of today, the institution has been reorganized into the Educational and Scientific Institute of History, Ethnology and Archeology of the Carpathians of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. The director is Mykhailo Illich Pankiv, Ph.D. in History. The employees of the Institute are two leading specialists and one category I specialist.