Ukropedia’s Design
The UC Arts Digital Lab at the University of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand, designed and developed Ukropedia in collaboration with the HER-UKR project team. Drawing on its expertise in digital humanities and scholarly communication, the Lab created an accessible, user-friendly platform to bring together curated information and resources on Ukrainian cultural heritage and EU heritage diplomacy. The Lab’s contribution reflects its commitment to making reliable scholarly knowledge accessible to diverse audiences through innovative digital approaches.
Ukropedia was built on a WordPress platform, in accordance with the UC Arts Digital Lab’s commitment to using open source tools wherever possible. The site was designed by University of Canterbury Fine Arts graduate Alfred Hoi, using the Twenty Twenty Five theme. The site’s design uses the Arsenal font designed by Andrij Shevchenko, a type designer from Berdyansk, Ukraine.
People and Partners
Idea, Content Arrangement and Editing: Svitlana Zhabotynska
Content Data Collection: Tetiana McGowan, Oksana Pietsukh, Svitlana Levochkina, and academic staff and students of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Bohdan Khmelnitsky National University of Cherkasy
Content review: Natalia Zemzyulina and Anatoliy Chaban
Design and development support: UC Arts Digital Lab and Kaspar Middendorf
UC Arts Digital Lab support team: Chris Thomson and Geoffrey Ford
Designers: Alfred Hoi, Hana Sellens, and Yevhenia Petsukh
Content uploader: Zara Fraser
“Live Voices” section production: Konrad Szatters and Mia Angeline
HER-UKR Work Package 5 ‘Strategic Communication’ Project Management: Natalia Chaban, Paul Millar, and Svitlana Zhabotynska
Use of AI
AI technology was engaged to support the project in two specific areas: data search (partially), and writing annotations.
Editorial Principles and Sources
Funding support
This work was supported by a trans-national research project “Challenges and opportunities of EU heritage diplomacy in Ukraine (HER-UKR)” (2023-2026), the European Commission’s Jean Monnet Policy Network Action. Proposal number: 101127459.
HER-UKR Leading Organisation: KU Leuven
HER-UKR Principle Investigator: Professor Lien Verpoest
