History

The foundation of the Department of Rusyn Literature in 1848, the first head of which was Jacob Golovatsky (1848-1867), was the beginning of the formation of Ukrainian philology at the University of Lviv. In 1900, the second Department of Ukrainian Studies was established at the University – the Department of Ukrainian Literature, headed by Kyrylo Studynsky (1900–1918).  After the Ukrainian-Polish War (1918), Lviv University was polonized entirely, so there was no department with Ukrainian as the language of instruction. Ukrainians organized the Secret Ukrainian University (1921–1925) in response. Only in 1928, at the request of numerous Ukrainians, the Ukrainian-Language Department was opened at the University but headed by a Pole, Jan Janow, until 1939. In 1936, the Department of Ukrainian Philology was opened but there were no Ukrainian professors. At the end of 1939, after the accession of Western Ukraine to the USSR, Lviv University was restructured: the Faculty of Theology was liquidated, the Faculty of Medicine became an independent medical institute, and five faculties were established: of Philology, History, Law, Natural Science, and Physics And Mathematics. Vasyl Simovych (1940-1941) became the first Dean of the Faculty of Philology.

During the period from 1991 to 2010, the faculty structure underwent qualitative changes.  Eight new departments were opened: of Ukrainian Folklore Studies named after Filaret Kolessa, Ukrainian Applied Linguistics , Oriental Studies, Theatre Studies and Acting, Library Studies and Bibliography,  Directing, Literary Theory and Comparative Literary Studies, Polish Philology. In 2004, a separate Faculty of Culture and Arts (Dean – Bohdan Kozak) was established on the basis of the Faculty of Philology, the structural subdivisions of which were the Departments of Theatre Studies and Acting, Library Studies and Bibliography, and Directing.

Today the Faculty of Philology consists of 9 departments: of Ukrainian Language,Ukrainian Applied Linguistics, Ukrainian Literature, Ukrainian Folklore Studies, Literary Theory and Comparative Literary Studies , General Linguistics, Slavic Philology, Polish Philology, Oriental Studies .