In his research project entitled "An Independent Intellectual in International Politics: R.W. Seton-Watson and the Ukrainian Question in Great Britain in the First Half of the Twentieth Century," Syrota intends to develop a framework for writing an intellectual and diplomatic history of the "Ukrainian question" and do a specific case study of the influence a private individual could exercise on public policy in the first half of the twentieth century.

In 1996-1997 Syrota studied at London University in the Ukrainian Fellowship Programme. He received his Ph.D. in History from the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv in 1998. Presently he is an Associate Professor at the Department of History at the National Ivan Franko University of Lviv where he has taught such history courses as "East-Central Europe in Modern Times", "Contemporary Western Historiography of East-Central Europe", and "Historian as Nation-Builder in Western and Eastern Europe in Modern Times." Syrota's relationship with HURI began in the summer of 2002 when he was a student at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute.

His five-month fellowship at the Institute begins in January, 2004. It will be financed by the Ukrainian Studies Fund, Inc. and, in particular, by the gift fund in support of a research position in Ukrainian Studies, with preference given to research on twentieth century history and political science.