Renata Kosc-Harmatiy

Course instruction on American Government, as well as Comparative Government systems. In order to engage the students to the more profound understanding of government in their personal lives, as well as in the role of international affairs and regional stability, I integrate political philosophy, cultural references, literature, multi-media, poetry, interactive role playing and nuanced learning moments. In order to better understand the role of social media in public opinion development and monitoring, I include a special “lab” that relates specifically to a semester-long social media project.

I am motivated by the research-based evidence that bi-lingual education is not only a neuro-enhancer, but also fosters a character of tolerance, cultural understanding and flexibility in problem solving. For two decades, I have been working as a free-lance curriculum developer for Ukrainian-language heritage schools since the summer of 2001, when I organized a national conference for Ukrainian Heritage schools at John Carroll University. Since then, I have been developing programming for bi-lingual heritage education. Aside from developing programming for younger students’ language acquisition based on game-play and non-traditional approaches to learning, I have developed programs for the study of Geography, grades 7-12. While Geography is rarely taught as a subject in most schools, it becomes an integral way of understanding our unique relationship to place, time, resources, culture, ecology and the environment. Conveniently, working on this curriculum also feeds my obsession with maps — both antique and new — as well as the exciting revelations that come when old ideas and places are mapped with novel technology and perspectives.

Regularly taught between 60-120 students, discussing international affairs as they related to the development and integration of cultural norms.

Initially my work at the heritage school began with teaching Geography and integrating methodologies of AP Human Geography into regional-specific curriculum. Collaborating with interpreters, ethnic musicologists and education specialists, we developed programming that integrated various language-acquisition techniques, particularly game-playing. After two years of teaching, I went on to administrating the school, while working closely with teachers to accommodate curriculum to diverse learning needs and language abilities.

As a Program Associate at the Kennan Institute, I organized speakers, conferences, publications, cultural events and served as the programming liaison between the DC office and the Kennan Kyiv Office in Ukraine. The latter included working with the Kyiv office director on managing the publication Agora, as well as organizing Alumni conferences and local events. My responsibilities on the US side was generating programming that would inform the US audience on the most relevant issues pertaining to US-Ukraine relations. Conference, speaker, and seminar topics ranged from political economics to history to public policy. We organized scholars that analyzed minority integration, migration, the role of language in identity and important public policy questions. Another vital role I played was bringing in public figures which included representatives of the government, members of Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's Parliament), public intellectuals (poets and musicians), and organizing the logistics of these meetings. Working under a director who believed strongly in collaboration, I was able to work with representatives of various offices to bring in delegations from Ukraine to learn the policy formation process in Ukraine, bring in students (both high school and college) to have a view on public policy discourse in Washington DC, and also consider the crucial role of the arts in understanding human relations. I was especially privileged to run a Literary Nights Program, where we had leading authors from Ukraine read and discuss their publications. We also created a two-year collaboration between Odessa and New Orleans Symphonies, recognizing the particular similarities between these unique port cities. We regularly traveled to conferences in the US and abroad to represent scholarly work, but also to recruit scholars. My personal research focused on the integration of migrants and refugees into Ukrainian society, particularly from East Asia.

My personal research was about the Foreign Relations between Ukraine and the Far East. Eventually, this was narrowed down to Sino-Ukrainian relations, as well as the crucial role created by the triangle of economic and political relations between Ukraine, China and the Russian Federation. To obtain data for my research, I interviewed economic, political, cultural and educational organizations that worked between Ukraine and China. My research was proactive and designed by myself: I visited students and university departments that hosted substantial numbers of Chinese students in Kyiv, Odessa and Dniporpetrovsk. I organized round tables between members of the National Security Council, the Department of International Relations of the Kyiv State University, and private non-profit China-Ukraine organizations. My research also took me to Beijing, where I met with scholars who focused on researching Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian and Chinese diplomats studying each other. I also participated in a Fulbright Conference in Hong Kong. This research as a Fulbright Scholar allowed me to seamlessly move into the Fulbright Office in Ukraine as an Assistant to the Director, where I worked on recruiting scholars (junior and senior), organize local roundtables, and helped with administering the scholar selection process. This collaboration was with the Cultural Attache of the US Embassy. I also worked together with US Fulbright Scholars, helping them integrate and facilitate research objectives. While in this role, I initiated a newsletter that was sent both in paper and digital form to keep scholars informed of each other's work, and help strengthen the network of alumni. Additionally, I worked with the office manager to develop a website that would help streamline the Fulbright application process, but also help make available a database of Fulbright activity to make scholars and their work more accessible to the public.

As a student of the Master of Law and Diplomacy Program, I was fortunate to continue independent research, having traveled to Hungary, the UK and Ukraine studying safety culture in nuclear power to understand how energy sustainability could be linked to public safety. My area of interest remained International Economic Development, conflict resolution, and the history of International Law and organizations.

CWRU offered invaluable research opportunities, and sponsored my efforts as I traveled to Ukraine studying the shadow economy for my Honors Law and Economics Thesis. As a Political Science major, I organized the first US delegation to the Jean Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition, held in Malta and conducted in French. It was followed by subsequent participation from the US, as well as CWRU teams. I enjoyed individual awards, including the "First Delegate Among Equals" at the Model United National competition. Additionally, I took advantage of CWRU's work study program and worked at the International Law Office, where I was able to assist administratively in the LLM program for international students. Rhodes Scholar Ohio State Finalist.

Having arrived in Ukraine two years after the fall of the USSR, and when university systems were establishing themselves in a new paradigm of Western education systems, I worked directly with the Dean of the Faculty of International Relations to launch a program for one-year intensive study for foreign students. This same year, that faculty hosted its first Fulbright Scholar, Paul D’Anieri. I was fortunate to be a student in this scholar’s class, and later collaborate with Paul in a professional manner when I was working in Washington DC. This early exposure to the benefits of the Fulbright Program encouraged me to become a Fulbright Scholar, and later Assistant to the Director at Fulbright, Ukraine.