I study political behaviour in times of crisis, with a regional focus on eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and Belarus. I am especially interested in understanding the nature and drivers of local mobilization during mass protests and conflict. I also study how media and technology interact with this protest and civil society engagement. I leverage my language skills and extensive regional knowledge on Eastern Europe to contribute to broader debates and theories in political science, contentious politics, and peace and conflict studies.

 

 Much of my current research focuses on civilian responses to conflict, focusing on the case of Ukrainian mobilisation during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. I am working on a book manuscript that explores the actions and motivations of ordinary Ukrainians who decided to stay in their places of residence and engage in the war effort as civilians following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. The book draws upon fieldwork in Ukraine and systematic analysis of local and social media data.

 

I also research subnational mobilisation during mass protest, mapping and analysing local protests Belarus and Ukraine for my doctoral research. My interest in the intersection of protest, civil society, media and technology has led me to make innovative use of social media data, such as Telegram Messenger.

 

​I also engage in and contribute to discussions around researcher and participant safety, particularly in high-risk contexts. I am a core-researcher on a 3-year, US National Science Foundation-funded project which seeks to review existing practices and debates around the ethics of conducting research in conflict or post-conflict contexts. The project aims to identify and codify appropriate factors to support the formation, improvement, and dissemination of ethical and responsible research principles.

 

​In my research, I make use of a varied methodological toolkit spanning quantitative and qualitative research methods: I conduct fieldwork in conflict zones and in peacetime, analyse survey data, government statistics, news and social media data, conduct and analyse interviews in English, Ukrainian and Russian, and use RStudio, Stata, GIS and NVivo software. I also have extensive experience as a conference and academic event organiser, proof-reader and editor. I speak, read and write English, Ukrainian, French, and Russian. My work has been published in Post-Soviet Affairs and Social Media + Society, and featured at major conferences and expert workshops in the US, Canada, UK, and EU.

 

I previously worked at Columbia University as a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Harriman Institute, and Adjunct Lecturer in Sociology. I have an interdisciplinary background: I hold a PhD in Sociology (2022) and MPhil in Russian and East European Studies (2018) from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Modern Languages (Russian, French and Ukrainian) from the University of Cambridge.