I am a cultural and historical sociologist researching the legacies of political violence, with a particular focus on memory, identity, and state formation in Ukraine and the broader Central and Eastern European region. Over the past decade, I have conducted archival and ethnographic research in Ukraine, Poland, the United States, Canada, and beyond—examining how historical injustices, including environmental ones, continue to shape contemporary politics and social life.
My academic journey has taken me through a number of international institutions. I have been a visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, the NYU Jordan Center in New York, the Open Society Archives in Budapest, and the University of Konstanz in Germany. I have also been actively involved with the Invisible University for Ukraine at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest.
I completed my graduate studies at The New School for Social Research in New York, where I focused on the sociology of knowledge, environmental history, and political violence. My work has been deeply engaged in connecting the histories of Eastern Europe to global conversations about imperialism and decolonization. While in New York, I also taught at Parsons School of Design, where I explored the intersections of memory studies, critical theory, and artistic practice.
In 2023, I defended my doctoral dissertation on the politics of hunger and the long struggle for recognition of the Great Ukrainian Famine (Holodomor), tracing its political life from the 1930s through to the present Russian invasion of Ukraine. I hope my book will tell a broader story about the global tensions of acknowledging hunger as a form of political violence.
Following my PhD, I moved to Florence to join the European University Institute as a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow. There, I worked on European memory politics and collaborated with the Historical Archives of the European Union, further developing my interest in bridging environmental history, memory studies, and politics of knowledge.
In 2025, I began a new research project at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, where I am a Petro Jacyk Postdoctoral Fellow. My current work investigates the comparative politics of recognition surrounding past injustices. I examine how various communities—including diasporic groups and former dissidents—across and beyond Europe have negotiated the memory of systemic repression and continue to grapple with its legacies today.
Whether I am in Chernivtsi, Lviv, New York, Florence, or Toronto, I like to have long urban walks, make pancakes with my daughter, and explore local flea markets.