Denys Chyk
Denys Chyk was awarded a CAF grant for “Animals and War: Humanistic and Ecological Dimensions in Ukrainian Literature (2022–2024).” The project analyzed Ukrainian wartime writing in which animals figure as witnesses and participants in war, exploring themes of empathy, resilience, and human-animal interconnectedness. Through a series of scholarly articles, Chyk aimed to illuminate the ecological and humanistic dimensions of this literature and bring its cultural significance to a global audience.
The grant supported Chyk in researching animals in contemporary Ukrainian wartime literature (2022–2024) across humanistic, ecological, and symbolic dimensions. He presented at the XI Scientific and Practical Internet Conference “Methodology and Historiography of Linguistics” (October 2024, Slovyansk–Dnipro), submitted his first article — “Animal Studies Methodology and Prospects of Its Application in the Analysis of Ukrainian Literature about the Russo-Ukrainian War” — for publication, and was completing a second. Progress was hampered by electricity outages and internet disruptions from Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Denys Chyk is a Doctor of Philological Sciences in Comparative Literature, Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and their Teaching Methods, at Taras Shevchenko Regional Humanitarian Pedagogical Academy of Kremenets, Ukraine.
Alongside Denys’ research into the representation and roles of animals in literature is the work of Sangamithra Iyer who received a CAF grant for “The Literary Animal Project,” a platform dedicated to the conversation and exploration of animals in literature.
