Citizenship and welfare state in Eastern Europe
Conflict and displacement
Gender politics
2019 Dr. phil. Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2009-2011 MS in Gender Studies with minor in Sociology, Lund University
2005-2009 BA in Sociology, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,” Certificate in Conflict Studies and Social Psychology
Since 2024, SNSF Ambizione Grant holder with the research project "Radical Reconfiguration of State-Citizen Relations in Ukraine"
2023 - 2024 Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Neuchâtel, in the nccr-on the move project, "Dealing with Crises and Liminal Situations: The Agency of Ukrainian and Syrian Forced Migrants in Three National Contexts"
2022 - 2023 Lecturer for Contextual Studies
2021 - 2024 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen, in the project "Negotiating citizenship on the margins of the Ukrainian state"
2020 - 2021 Postdoctoral Fellow, Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship
2017 - Visiting Fellow, Russian and East European Institute, Indiana University
2014 - 2020 Research Associate and Lecturer, Faculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld
"Radical reconfigurations of state-citizen relations in Ukraine," 2024-2028. Project leader, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation with an Ambizione Grant.
Research team: Dr. Olena Strelnyk (Institute of Sociology, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), Dr. Hanna Zaremba-Kosovych (Institute of Ethnology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), Taisia Vedunova (MA student, University of St. Gallen).
The project is about the limits and potential of citizenship relations. What happens when fundamental relations of rights and responsibilities between the state and citizens are being radically reconfigured due to a crisis of sovereignty? What shape does citizenship take under occupation, following mass displacement, and under conditions of mass civic mobilization? Using interview and ethnographic methods, the project investigates reconfigurations of state-citizen relations in several critical encounters: between the state and displaced people, people who resided under occupation, activists, or volunteers.
“Negotiating citizenship on the margins of the Ukrainian state,” 2020 - 2023. Project leader, funded by the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship and the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, University of St. Gallen.
This project investigates the peculiar citizenship and border regime that emerged along the so-called contact line in Eastern Ukraine prior to the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion. By focusing on the internally displaced people and people who reside under occupation through in-depth interviewing and ethnographic observations at the state welfare offices and at the crossing points, the project shows how the citizenship of these groups is regulated by the state and negotiated by the people.
"Displacement in Ukraine: Decision-making, routes, and prospects," 2022. Project leader, funded by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, University of St. Gallen. Qualitative, interview-based research project on decision-making processes and choices during forced displacement following Russian aggression in Ukraine.
“ReStart Ukraine,” 2022. Project coordinator, funded by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe. Collective of researchers and practitioners developing strategies for restoring and rebuilding war-affected urban and rural areas in Ukraine.
Doctoral research project 2014 - 2019: “Ukrainian Gender Politics and the Subject of Woman,” Bielefeld University. Monograph “Compulsory Motherhood, Paternalistic State? Ukrainian Gender Politics and the Subject of Woman,” 2021, Palgrave Macmillan