May 6, 2024
In June of 2022, IIE-SRF awarded its 1,000th fellowship to Dr. Tetiana Danylova, a philosopher who was among the first group of Ukrainian academics to be supported by the program amidst the ongoing conflict. Danylova began her fellowship at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2022 and is currently undertaking her second fellowship year there.
Danylova explores Eastern philosophies and their impacts on contemporary Ukrainian thought, broadly addressing areas such as conflict, intercultural communications, gender, and mental health. “My keen interest in the field of Eastern philosophy led me to the investigation of Taoist parables as intermediaries between the different cultures and mentalities,” she says of her work. On fellowship, she has published a monograph and several articles and participated in conferences in Italy, Ukraine, the U.S., and online.
She is working on a project using parables as dynamic models and mediators in intercultural communication and expressed her feelings about being an IIE-SRF fellow through a well-known parable:
Once, a man was walking along the beach. Suddenly, he noticed a boy picking up and throwing starfish into the ocean. He approached the boy and asked, “Hi, what are you doing?” The boy replied, “There was a storm and starfish washed up. If I do not throw them back, they will die.” The man was surprised and said, “Oh, boy, look at the beach! You cannot save all these starfish. You cannot make any difference.” The boy picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean. Then he said, “I made a difference to that one.”
Danylova compares herself to one of those lucky starfish, while recognizing that many other scholars in Ukraine and around the globe also need support. She shares the parable’s conclusion: The man was inspired by the boy’s attitude and joined him in saving starfish. Other people on the beach joined them too, and by the evening, all the starfish were saved.
According to Danylova, helping all threatened scholars “can be accomplished only in partnership with all progressive elements of civil society, government, international organizations, and business structures.”