Iryna Ponomaryova †

Professor Iryna Ponomaryova, born in Mariupol, was a specialist in Mariupol ethnology and history. She studied the ethnic and cultural history of the Greeks of the Azov area, as well as other ethnic groups of the region. She took her first degree from Donetsk State University and she carried out her graduate studies at Mariupol Institute of Humanities, at the Institute of National Affairs and Politics of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv and at the Kyiv National University of Taras Shevchenko. In 1993 she was appointed as lecturer at the Mariupol Institute of Humanities at the Department of History, where she later became Dean (2005-2012). In 2008, she became an associate professor at the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Mariupol State University and in 2013 she received her professorship. In 2017 she also got the position of professor at the Language and Humanities Department of the Donetsk Medical University; that same year she became a member of the Expert Council of the Ministry of Education of Culture and Science of Ukraine on the issues of conducting the examination of academic dissertations. During 2023 she also taught part time as Professor at the National Aviation University in Kyiv. She participated in a number of national research and educational projects. Among others, she carried out extensive field research during 1996-2011 as the organizer of ethnographic expeditions and head of ethnographic and folklore field research in the south of Ukraine, leaving a significant historical impact on local history and contributing to the preservation of the heritage of the Greeks of Azov. Her research interests, publications and teaching were in the history and ethnology of peoples in Ukraine, traditional culture, local history, traditional medicine, history of medicine, political and legal processes. Among her 138 publications on the previous themes, her book stands out: Ethnic History of the Greeks of the Azov Region (late 18th – early 21st centuries), Kiyv 2006.