Since its launch in 2008, Cambridge Ukrainian Studies has taught hundreds of undergraduates and cultivated a dynamic, award-winning postgraduate community. This year we are proud to mark another stage in our development and to announce the arrival of a new Postdoctoral Research Associate in Ukrainian Studies, who will be working with our landmark partner research project, ‘Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies’ (MEITS): Dr Ivan Kozachenko.

A graduate of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University and the University of Aberdeen, Dr Kozachenko has focused his research on the role of social media in the development of social movements and on the articulation of national belonging in online and offline public spaces. At Cambridge he will be exploring the question of linguistic diversity, unity, and power in Ukraine’s public sphere in the context of the Maidan Revolution and the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, with a special emphasis on cultural production. Prior to his arrival, Dr Kozachenko was a Stasiuk Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.

‘Ivan Kozachenko brings a refreshing sociological perspective to our programme, which has been orientated primarily on culture’, said Dr Rory Finnin, Director of the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme and a Co-Investigator in the MEITS project. ‘Together with our partners in MEITS, we will be working to forge new interdisciplinary pathways into the study of the place of literature, film, and theatre in public discourses about the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.’

In 2018 Cambridge Ukrainian Studies will be partnering with MEITS to host an international conference on multilingualism in Ukraine.