Overview

I am a Research Associate at the University of Nottingham's Centre for the Study of Subversion, Unconventional Interventions and Threats. My research focuses on Ukrainian national identity, foreign policy, and European security, with particular interest in Ukraine’s post-1991 transformation, the relationship between identity and foreign policy, and Ukraine’s evolving place in Europe. Starting September 2026, I will be a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Aston University's Department of Society and Politics and Centre for Migration and Forced Displacement. The fellowship will allow me to develop a new project, "Pedagogies of Exile: Ukrainian Childhoods and the Making of Belonging in the UK". The project examines how Ukrainian identity is taught, learned, and lived by children and teenagers growing up in the UK after Russia’s full-scale invasion, under conditions of uncertainty about their legal status and future.

I conduct qualitative research on Ukrainian politics, foreign policy, identity, and security. My award-winning doctoral research, Ukraine’s National Identity and Foreign Policy, 2004–2014, examined how competing ideas of Ukrainian national identity shaped the country’s foreign policy direction between the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity. My current work develops this research into a book project and extends it to the post-2022 period, with particular attention to war, displacement, refugees, and the transformation of Ukrainian identity after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

My wider research interests include NATO, European integration, epistemic security discourses, and intermestic politics. I work across international relations, political sociology, and area studies, using qualitative methods and software to explore how ideas, narratives, and lived experiences shape political choices.

In addition to my research, I am interested in public engagement and policy-relevant debate on Ukraine, Russia’s war against Ukraine, European security, and NATO. My work seeks to connect academic research with wider discussions about Ukraine’s place in Europe and the changing security order after 2022.

Qualification