2024-2025 Non-residential & residential scholars

Vadym Aristov obtained his PhD in History at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2014. His thesis focused on methods used to study Old Ruthenian chronicles and became the basis for his first book, which was published in Kyiv in 2018. Since 2013, Vadym Arisov has been working at the Center for Kyivan Rus Studies at the Institute of History of Ukraine, where he currently holds the position of Senior Research Fellow. Additionally, since 2012 he has been teaching part-time at the Department of History at the National University of ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.’ In 2018, Vadym Aristov also took on a part-time position as a Research Fellow at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine. He has served as the secretary of the Center for Kyivan Rus Studies since 2020 and since 2021 has been the managing editor of Ruthenica, a journal of medieval history of Eastern Europe. Dr. Aristov’s research interests encompass the medieval history of Eastern Europe, with a focus on the political history of Kyivan Rus, Old Ruthenian historical writing in a medieval context, early medieval ‘barbarian kingdoms,’ intellectual history, and the history of ideas.

Dr. Marharyta Chabanna is the head of Political Science Department at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. She received her PhD in 2006 and obtained the degree of Doctor of Science in 2020. As a researcher, Dr. Chabanna focuses on political manipulation and political opportunism, totalitarian regimes and post-totalitarian transformations, anti-corruption policy, migration studies. She is the author of monograph “Political opportunism in the state budgeting during economic crisis in Ukraine (2008-2009)”, a manual on political parties and party systems, co-author of volumes “Ukraine – European Union: we have so much in common", “Innovations in the Education of the Future: Integration of Humanities, Technical and Natural Sciences”, author of 75 publications in books, encyclopedias, international and Ukrainian academic journals. Since 2007, she has participated in academic mobility programmes with Friedrich Shiller University (Germany), Tartu University (Estonia), Glasgow University (UK), Free University of Brussels (Belgium), Lyon 2 University (France), Illia State University (Georgia), Central European University (Hungary), Justus Liebig University (Germany), Paris Ludron Salzburg University (Austria), Warsaw School of Economics (Poland), Hertie School (Germany), University Paris 8 (France). Dr. Chabanna had been IERES fellow at Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University (USA), fellow at European University Viadrina (Germany), associate fellow at University of Glasgow (UK). In 2022-2023 she participated in research project «Developing the Global Academy: Piloting a Network-based Model of Research during War» (University of Toronto, NaUKMA). Dr. Chabanna contributed to international educational projects, she is the co-chair of the double-degree master’s programme of NaUKMA and FSU (Germany) and a senior researcher of the Anti-corruption Research and Educational Center of the NaUKMA. In 2024 she has been elected to the Presidium of the Association of Political Sciences of Ukraine. During her fellowship at UofT Dr. Chabanna will conduct a research project on return migration during the full-scale war in Ukraine.

Maryna Domanovska is an associate professor at the Department of Ukrainian Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Her research interests include History of Ukraine, local history, and history of the Lyptsy district of the Kharkiv region in the Soviet era. At the University she teaches courses History of Ukraine, Ukraine in the Context of European History, History of Ukraine: civilization dimension. In the conditions of Russian-Ukrainian war, due to the threat of constant enemy shelling, the University works remotely, and Dr. Domanovska is currently residing in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, in the west of Ukraine.

With support of Petro Jacyk Non-Residential Scholarship at the University of Toronto Dr. Domanovska plans to conduct a study of the local dimensions of the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in the Lypti district of the Kharkiv region, primarily based on the materials of the newspaper "Kolhospnyk" and prepare its materials for publication.

The study of the history of the Lyptsi community of the Kharkiv region in the current conditions acquires special importance. Currently, this is a zone of active hostilities and the entire population of the community was evacuated, housing and civilian infrastructure were almost completely destroyed by enemy shelling and aerial bombardment.

Studying the history of the community and projects which provide its popularization now are extremely important for the formation of the historical memory of residents of the community and their descendants and for all residents of Kharkiv Region and Ukraine.

The funding for Dr. Domanovska’s engagement has been generously provided by the Holodomor Education and Research Consortium (HREC) at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.

Yevhen Horb is a historian, translator, PhD student at Mariupol State University (Kyiv, Ukraine). His dissertation research focuses on the development of cultural studies in Poland and Germany at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. After leaving Mariupol at the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine, he has been living and working in Cherkasy. In 2022, he was a visiting researcher at the Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna) and the Centre for Urban History (Lviv). In 2023, he worked on an individual project as part of the CEFRES team (Prague, Czech Republic). He is the author of 7 monographs on the history of the 17th – 19th centuries and more than 40 articles in scientific journals in Ukrainian, Polish, and English.

The research project “Erased Community: Jewish Community of Northern Azov Region under Russian Aggression” aims to draw the attention of the European and international community to the pressing issues of the Jewish population of the Northern Azov Region, part of which was forced to leave their homes as a result of the full-scale invasion of the territory of the region by Russian troops, and part of it ended up under occupation, under the threat of complete assimilation and loss of its ethnocultural identity. The proposed research project consists of three parts, which represent three consecutive stages of collection, processing and presentation of materials illustrating the life of the Jewish community of the Northern Azov Region during the war: “Voices of War” (oral stories of the Jewish refugees), “Human Dimension of War” (infographic of the life of the Jewish community of the Northern Azov Region under Russian aggression), “Erased Community” (open Book of Memory of the Jewish population of the region).

Ilona Kostikova holds a doctoral degree from H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University (1998) and PhD in Philology (2000) from the same University. She became full professor in 2011 and is currently the Head of the Department of Theory and Practice of the English Language, H.F.Kvitka-Osnovyanenko Ukrainian Language and Literature Faculty, H.S.Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine. She has been teaching ungraduate and graduate students for 25 years (15 PhD students have completed their studies under her supervision). She has also published more than 200 papers, 30 of which are indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. Professor Kostikova has embraced education issues such as digital technologies in education, teaching and learning, soft skills, competence development, teaching English. She is currently Editor-in-chief of the journal ‘Educational challenges’.

The scientific profiles are :

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5894-4846,

https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=GYm266IAAAAJ,

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/rid/M-9580-2018,

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57207981491.

Dr. Kostikova’s professional training includes internship in Bulgaria at Varna Free University “Chernorizets Hrabar” in 2023. In 2023-2024 she was a guest professor in China, at Shangque Normal University with preschool and primary school students in Humanities.

Dr. Kostikova also holds numerous awards and distinctions. In 2003, she was awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for the contribution to the training of highly qualified specialists. In 2019, she received the Diploma of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine for contribution to the development of scientific schools of Ukraine. In 2020, she was awarded with the Honorary Medal “H.S. Skovoroda” for outstanding scientific achievements, In 2024, she was awarded with the Diploma of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for the for initiative and perseverance, high professionalism, contribution to the development of the field of education and science.

Roman Kyslenko has a PhD in Political Science from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The title of his dissertation was “The Features of Transformation of the Hybrid Political Regime”. Kyslenko's main scientific interests lie in the area of comparative politics (democratization), hybrid political regimes and elections.

During the last five years Dr. Kyslenko has been working as an MP's assistant, the Head of the Subcommittee on elections, referendums and other forms of direct democracy. He is also author and presenter of Youtube-channel “PROElection”.

Yuriy Matsiyevsky is Professor of Political Science and the head of the Center for Political Research at the National University of Ostroh Academy in Ostroh, Ukraine. He received his doctoral degree in political science from Lviv University in 1996 and habilitation from Ivan Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2016. Previously he studied at the Graduate School for Social Research in Warsaw. Since 1999 he has taught at Ostroh Academy (Ostroh, Ukraine). Dr. Matsiyevsky is a member of PONARS Eurasia policy network and Midwest Political Science Association. His research interests include political regimes, democratization, informal institutions in politics and contentious politics.

Dr. Matsiyevsky is the author of Trapped in Hybridity: Zigzags of Ukraine’s Political Regime Transformations (2016, in Ukrainian), several book chapters, including ”Internal Conflict or Hidden Aggression: Competing Accounts and Expert Assessments of the War in Ukraine’s Donbas. In: Civil War? Interstate War? Hybrid War? Dimensions and Interpretations of the Donbas Conflict in 2014-2020” (Ibidem-Verlag. 2021). His articles have appeared in Russian Politics and Law, Demokratizatsiya, Political Studies (Polis), Ideology and Politics, and Communist and Post-Communist Studies.

Bohdana Neborak is a journalist and curator of cultural projects. She has an MA in Law and is the editor of «The Ukrainians Media». Bohdana has ten years of experience in creative industries, where she has worked as a journalist, culture manager, and curator in Ukrainian and international projects. In 2020, Bohdana drafted and launched the first state literary translation grant program at the Ukrainian Book Institute. She co-hosts a podcast about culture and colonialism and is a lecturer of a contemporary Ukrainian literature course at Projector Institute.

Bohdana was recognized by «30 Under 30: Most Prospective Young Journalists» in 2021 by the Georgiy Gongadze Prize and «30 Under 30 Kyiv Post» (award for the most innovative Ukrainians) in 2020. Her podcast about the influence of literature on civil society, «I Read That,» was recognized as one of the top 30 Ukrainian podcasts from 2021. Her podcast about colonialism «Unnamed for Now» won «The Best Ukrainian Podcast about Culture» award by «Slushno» (2022).

Oksana Smorzhevska defended PhD thesis on the topic "Pagan traditions in the spiritual culture of Ukrainians (90s of the 20th century) in 2002 and graduated from the Faculty of History of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University with honors and obtained the qualifications "Historian", "Teacher of History". Since 2011, she has been associate professor in the Department of Modern History of Ukraine, Faculty of History at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University. Her scientific interests include commemorative practices in modern historical culture and politics, contemporary paganism of Ukraine as a historical and cultural phenomenon, religious and church life of Ukraine (end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century), and cultural space of postmodern Ukraine.

In 2004-2006, she received a grant from the President of Ukraine for gifted youth for conducting scientific research and publishing an illustrated anthology "National traditions of the Ukrainian avant-garde." Dr. Smorzhevska also participated in the work of the pilot project of the IOM Representative Office in Ukraine "Development of a training course on cultural awareness for higher educational institutions in Ukraine" in partnership with PH International and with the financial support of the Fund for Strategic Programs of the Government of Great Britain "Man in a Multicultural Society" (2010).

Dr. Smorzhevska completed a research internship at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2019) and scientific internship in the Republic of Poland, Ryaszów, Rzeszów University (2019). In 2023-2024, she was a participant of «IU-Ukraine nonresidential scholars program».

Dr. Smorzhevska is the author of more than 130 scientific, educational and methodological, encyclopedic reference and popular science works, including the Great Ukrainian Encyclopedia (GUE). She has taken part in more than 100 scientific conferences, forums, and symposiums in Ukraine and abroad.

She is a Member of the Educational and Methodological Commission of the Faculty of History of Taras Shevchenko KNU and an expert of the public organization the Ukrainian Institute for the Study of Happiness (http://ukr-happiness-institute.com/oksana-smorzhevska/ )

Iryna Tukova, PhD Music, Dr. Habil., is an Associate Professor of Music Theory at the National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine), a co-founder of NGO Liatoshynsky Foundation. In 2023-24 Dr Tukova held the position of a non-resident visiting scholar at the Indiana University Bloomington (USA). Her research interests include the history of Ukrainian contemporary art music, Borys Liatoshynsky creativity and the intersection of natural science and art music. Dr. Tukova is the author of fifty articles, as well as the 2021 monograph, Music and Natural Science: Interaction of Worlds in the Epochs’ Mental Habits (17th–Early 21st Centuries). In 2024 Dr. Tukova held Ukrainian State Lysenko award for achievement in the musicology. She has presented her research at the musicological conferences in Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, Austria, France, Poland and Georgia, and lectured on contemporary Ukrainian art music at the Ljubljana Academy of Music (Slovenia), at the Indiana University Bloomington (USA), and at the Capital University Columbus (Ohio, USA).

Maryna Utkina is a Doctor of Law and Associate Professor at Academic and Research Institute of Law, Sumy State University; British Academy Research Fellow at University of Warwick Law School.

Dr. Utkina was previously a Visiting Academic at Latvijas Universitate (Latvia) and Univerzita Komenského (Slovakia).

She is currently leading two projects. The first, funded by the British Academy, explores the effectiveness of financial monitoring in corruption prevention, anti-money laundering and financing terrorism. The European Union co-funds the second project - “The Protection of IP Rights of Researchers and Research Institutions in Ukraine: Best EU Practices”. Her principal research interest lies in financial monitoring (intelligence) (particularly at the intersections of anti-money laundering, prevention of corruption and achieving sustainable development goals) and digital technologies.