Robert Klymasz

Robert Klymasz

Robert (Bogdan) Klymasz. Folklorist, b Toronto 14 May 1936; BA Russian (Toronto) 1957, MA Slavic Studies (Manitoba) 1960, PH D (Indiana) 1971. A specialist in Ukrainian folk traditions, Klymasz served 1967-76 as head, and later as senior co-ordinator, of the Slavic and Eastern European Program of the Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies of the National Museum of Man (Canadian Museum of Civilization) in Ottawa. He mounted several exhibits and collaborated on filmed documentaries for the museum. He was the executive director 1976-8 of the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg. He has taught at Harvard University, the University of Manitoba, the University of Ottawa, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Alberta, and Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 1984 he rejoined the Canadian Museum of Civilization's folk culture centre as curator of the East European Program. He provided curatorial research for the museum's 1991 exhibition celebrating the centenary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada. Following his retirement in 2000, Klymasz was named Curator Emeritus of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and was the Zurawecki Research Scholar at the University of Manitoba's Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies (beginning 2006).

The author of several books, Klymasz has also contributed articles and reviews, many dealing with Ukrainian-Canadian music and customs, to Canadian Folklore Canadien, Canadian Folk Music Journal, Ethnomusicology, Folklore and Folk Music Archivist, Journal of the Folklore Institute, Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, and other publications. Between 2005 and 2009 Klymasz also completed a number of archival research projects on Ukrainian-Canadian music and culture, the manuscripts for which are held by the University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections. He has presented papers, lectures and seminars in Canada, the US, the Ukraine, and Bulgaria, and has broadcast on the CBC. In 1975 he was one of the founders of the Folklore Studies Association of Canada; the association awarded Klymasz the Marius Barbeau Medal in 2000.

Selected Writings

"Field work in the Canadian prairie provinces," Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, vol 10, 1966

An Introduction to the Ukrainian-Canadian Immigrant Folksong Cycle (Ottawa 1970)

Ukrainian Folklore in Canada (New York 1980)

The Ukrainian Folk Ballad in Canada (New York 1989)

The Icon in Canada: Recent Findings from the Canadian Museum of Civilization (Ottawa 1996)

See also Bibliography for Ukraine.