Russia’s War in Ukraine 2022

Dr Tetiana Kostiuchenko is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. After her evacuation from Kyiv to Germany, she became also affiliated with the Free University of Berlin and Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Kostiuchenko's doctoral research was on political elite networks in Ukraine before and after political turbulences. She is a member of the International Sociological Association, International Network for Social Network Analysis, and other professional association. Among others, she co-authored the chapter “Power Structures of Policy Networks” (with David Knoke) for the Handbook on Political Networks (Oxford University Press 2017). Her papers have been published by, among other outlets, Europe-Asia Studies, Historical Social Research, and Polish Sociology Review. 

Dr Tamara Martsenyuk is Associate Professor of Sociology at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. After her evacuation from Kyiv to Germany, she became also affiliated with the Free University of Berlin and Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Martsenyuk's research focuses on gender and social structure including, among others, women’s access to the military. She is a member of the International Sociological Association, Association for the Study of Nationalities, and other professional bodies. She authored, among others, chapters for the collected volumes Gender, Politics, and Society in Ukraine (University of Toronto Press 2012), New Imaginaries: Youthful Reinvention of Ukraine’s Cultural Paradigm (Berghahn 2015), and other books. Her papers have been published in the Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, Problems of Post-Communism, Sexuality & Culture and other periodicals.

Andreas Umland, M.Phil. (Oxford), Dr.Phil. (FU Berlin), Ph.D. (Cambridge), Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm, Senior Expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future in Kyiv, and Associate Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Dr Yuliya Bidenko is MA in Sociology (2004), PhD in Political Science (2009). She holds the position of Associate Professor and Guarantee of the Master’s Program at Karazin Kharkiv National University, Political Science Department. She was a Research Fellow for The Institute for Human Sciences (IWM, Wien), the Civil Society Studies Department of Charles University, an Individual Research Fellow for the Center for Advanced Studies and Education in the European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania), and a participant of the post-Soviet Researchers and Teachers Excellence Program by the Temple University, co-facilitator for the International Institute for Civic Studies by the Tufts University and the University of Augsburg. Since 2016 Dr. Bidenko is the expert for the “Team Europe” Initiative by the European Union’s Delegation to Ukraine. In 2021 she was the expert and the author of the Ukrainian annual country report for the Nations in Transit by the Freedom House.  Professor Bidenko has published academic articles and papers devoted to the problems of civil society, decentralization, ideologies, political regimes’ changes, and the establishment of democratic institutions and reforms in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe.

Sergiy Gerasymchuk is a Deputy Executive Director and Regional Initiatives and Neighborhood Program Director at Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”. Among the organizations and structures Sergiy used to cooperate within the capacity of expert, analyst and project manager there are National Democratic Institute, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, NATO Center for Information and Documentation, NATO Liason Office in Ukraine, Black Sea Trust for regional cooperation, Volkswagen Foundation, International Renaissance Foundation. As an expert Gerasymchuk cooperated with Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (HSFK), International Center for Defence and Security (Tallinn, Estonia), International Center for Democratic Transformation in Budapest (Hungary), International Research Company GfK Ukraine and also conducted the research at Uppsala University (Sweden), Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Poland), Justus Liebig University (Germany) and National University of Public Service (Hungary). Gerasymchuk is also Board member at Strategic and Security Studies Group. The Papers authored and co-authored by him were published in volumes of papers released by Palgrave, Routledge, and in EERR-European Foreign Affairs Review.

Ivan Gomza, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Head of Public Policy and Governance Department at Kyiv School of Economics (Kyiv, Ukraine). His scholarly interests comprise democratization, authoritarian regimes, nationalism, contentious politics, and good governance. He authored two books (the most recent title is The Republic of Decadent Days: Ideology of French Integral Nationalism in the Third Republic, Kyiv: Krytyka, 2021) and articles on the Ukrainian nationalism, authoritarian politics, and social movements published, among other outlets, by Problems of Post-Communism, Journal of Democracy, and Nationality Papers. Dr. Gomza also sits on Communist and Post-Communist Studies journal editorial board. In addition, he teaches eight academic courses at Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Oleksandra Keudel, PhD, is Assistant Professor at Kyiv School of Economics, based in Berlin. Her scholarly interests include local governance, knowledge production and civil society-state relations in young democracies. She held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Free University of Berlin. Her most recent book is How Patronal Networks Shape Opportunities for Local Citizen Participation in a Hybrid Regime: A Comparative Analysis of Five Cities in Ukraine (ibidem). Her papers were featured in East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures and East European Politics

Anna Osypchuk is a Director for Research at School for Policy Analysis and an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. After completing her PhD in Sociology there in 2010, she was a Fulbright visiting scholar in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University, New Jersey (FFDP, 2010-2011). She also has been visiting scholar and lecturer at Central and East European Studies (CEES), Glasgow University (2014), Department of Sociology at Lund University (2016) and a Visiting Associated Professor at CREEES, Stanford University (2018). Her research focuses on social, political and cultural transformations in post-Soviet countries; studies of identities and collective memory; (post)conflict studies, discourses and politics; interplay of agency, cognition, social structures and culture; sociology of law and constitutionalism, thus spanning sociology, social and political science and philosophy, history, anthropology and cultural studies, urban and media studies.

Rostyslav Semkiv is Associate Professor of the Department of Literature at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”. Since 2004, he is a Director of the Smoloskyp Publishing House. His scientific articles have been published in professional periodicals, the Krytyka journal and the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper, and his reviews are published on the LitAccent literary portal and in The Ukrainian Week magazine. Semkiv has translated fiction and non-fiction books, and is the author of several non-fiction books. Member of the Ukrainian PEN Centre.

Mariia Shuvalova is PhD Candidate and Lecturer at National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Kyiv, Ukraine). Her sphere of interest is contemporary Ukrainian literature, short story theory, and comparative studies. In 2019-2020 she was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. She is an acquisition editor of The Ukrainian Language Open Assess Series (Academic Studies Press, Boston, MA), co-founder of NGO New Ukrainian Academic Community, and a Young Ukrainian Scholars Network board member. Her papers have been published by, among other outlets, in Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal, Spheres of Culture, The Ukrainian Quarterly, and other outlets.

Prof. Yuliia Soroka is Doctor of science in sociology, professor in department of sociology, N.V. Karazin Kharkiv national university (Ukraine), senior researcher in Human Geography Unit, University of Fribourg (Switzerland). She studied the processes in symbolic space of Ukrainian society in different empirical fields. There were the texts of new independent  media in the middle of 1990th, post-soviet sociocultural transformation in Ukrainian society, namely attitudes to material wealth, students attitudes to past and recognition of heroes, popular culture and films, the changes in urban symbolic space (toponyms as such) and other.  Now she concentrates attention in the question: How culture “works” in reproduction of power relation within society? What are the cultural mechanisms of power (CMW)? The concept of CMW were using and empirically justifying in research of  Discourse of Muslims in Ukrainian media, Social theater, Hate speech, Dialogue as social technology, Collective identities within Pro-evromaidan discourse,  Hostility towards IDPs, Nomination of winners in Olympic games in TV translations, Representation of the provincials in Ukrainian TV-shows, Standing greeting rituals and others. She published two books: Soroka, Yu. (2012). The native, the strange, the different: sociocultural perspective of perception of the Other. Monograph. Kharkiv: V.N. Karazin KhNU. (in Ukrainian), Soroka Yu. (2010). Seeing, Thinking, Discerning: Sociocultural Theory of Perception. Monograph.– Kharkiv: V.N. Karazin KhNU (in Russian) and more than 120 papers in international and Ukrainian scientific journals, chapters and syllabuses

Polina Stohnushko is a PhD Candidate at the University of Passau (Passau, Germany). In 2017-2019 she was a DAAD Scholar at the University of Tübingen (Tübingen, Germany). Her main research interest is graffiti with social and political messages on the case of Berlin. Within her dissertation she creates a digital graffiti archive based on a GIS approach. Additionally, she works on a new theoretical concept exploring graffiti as a multi-dimensional mirror of society in times of crises. Through her curatorial practice in the urban public space she critically reflects on societal problems through social scientific approaches using art as a medium. Working with urban fabrics of Berlin as a platform for public discussions and appearances she continues to call for local and international solidarity with Ukraine through politically and socially engaged art interventions.

Mychailo Wynnyckyj is Associate Professor at the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Sociology Department and Business School). Until recently he served as Head of the Secretariat of Ukraine’s National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance, and prior to that as Advisor to three of Ukraine’s Ministers of Education (2015–2019). Originally from Canada, Mychailo has lived permanently in Kyiv for almost two decades. He was awarded a PhD in 2004 from the University of Cambridge (U.K.), and gained Ukrainian citizenship in 2019. Mychailo is a regular commentator for English-language media outlets (CNN, Fox News, Al Jazeera, BBC, CBC, CTV, Kyiv Post, and others), and provides analysis on current events in his "Thoughts from Kyiv" blog. His book “Ukraine’s Maidan, Russia’s War: A Chronicle and Analysis of the Revolution of Dignity” was published in English in 2019, and in Ukrainian translation in 2021.

Dr Kateryna Zarembo holds a PhD in Political Science from the National Institute for Security Studies (Kyiv, Ukraine). Since 2020, she is a senior lecturer at the International relations department of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. She is also a guest researcher at TU Darmstadt (Germany) and an associate fellow at the New Europe Center. Kateryna Zarembo is a member of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and other professional associations. She authored a chapter for Civil Society in post-Euromaidan Ukraine in (ibidem Verlag, 2018). Her papers have been published by, among other outlets, in Problems of Post-Communism, European Security, Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal and other outlets.

Dr Tetiana Kostiuchenko, Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department at National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine).

Dr Tamara Martsenyuk, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine).