KIU PhD programme in Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies

The KIU Graduate School is the first structured doctoral program in Germany on Ukrainian studies. At one of the most inspiring research locations, the Viadrina, which is located directly on the German-Polish border, and in the excellent research environment of the KIU, which includes the most important Berlin research institutions, 12 PhD students from various disciplines conduct their research on aspects of history, culture, state, society and conflict related to Ukraine, focusing on the topic on the Graduate School:

The war of aggression caused by Russia against Ukraine has not only brought immeasurable suffering to a peaceful country and war back to Europe. It has brought to the surface globally relevant fractures and conflicts, but also violence, colonialism and the elementary breaking of rules that were believed to be part of the past. The immense violence that emanates from Russia until today confronts the global community, the European Union and, in particular, every single European society with the challenge of finding answers to the threat to freedom and the fragility of peace. This is a new era – for societies, for politics, for economies, but also for science and academia.

The KIU Graduate School places Ukraine in the epicenter of a new research program that focuses on the topics of ‘Resilience, Restoration and Transformation’ through the lenses of History, Literature and Cultural Studies, Political Science, Economics, Law, Peace and Conflict Studies, Sociology, Media and Digital Studies. Starting in June 2025, the KIU Graduate School trains a new generation of scholars who will contribute to an entangled understanding of Ukraine within its multiple historical, political, and institutional layers.

Pauline Foret is a political scientist, journalist and researcher specializing in Ukraine and the post-communist space. Her work examines institutional transformation in hybrid regimes, with a focus on patronal politics, wartime governance, and democratic development in Eastern Europe. She holds an MA in Eastern European Studies and Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin, where she wrote her thesis on authoritarian succession dynamics in Kazakhstan, as well as an MA in conference interpreting from the Université de Mons (Belgium). Fluent in French, English, Russian, and German—and conversational in Ukrainian—she has conducted fieldwork in Ukraine and Armenia.

KIU research project: Maturity or resilience? Assessing the adaptivity of patronal networks in Ukraine´s wartime institutions. 

This research explores how Ukraine’s patronal political systems have adapted to the pressures of Russia’s full-scale invasion. While the war has weakened traditional oligarchic networks and empowered civil society and reform-oriented external actors, it has also generated new centers of discretionary power—particularly in mobilization, defense procurement, and border control. This study examines both the erosion and evolution of patronalism in wartime, and how these dynamics shape Ukraine’s prospects for transitioning from a limited access order to a more open, democratic political system.

Research interests:

• intersection of political institutions

• conflict

• post-Soviet transitions

Roman Kmyta holds an MSc in Media and Communication Studies from Lund University, where he received the Peter Dahlgren Dissertation Award, and a BA in Political Science (summa cum laude) from Ukrainian Catholic University. His professional experience bridges politics, media, and civil society, including roles as a teaching assistant at Lund University, an internal communications consultant at Emmaüs-Oselya, a journalist intern at Transparency International Ukraine, and assistant to the MP in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

KIU research project: Audiovisual Communication During the Russian Full-scale Invasion of Ukraine: Investigating European Perceptions of Vulnerability and Power Through War-related Content on Social Media

The project explores Ukrainian media framing of war-related content on Instagram and TikTok and how it is processed by young-adult European audiences, with a focus on the demonstration of power and vulnerability. It analyses media production and audience perception to see how audiovisual elements influence the meaning-making process. This project employs framing analysis, production interviews, surveys, and focus groups with German and Swedish audiences. It provides insights into mobilizing empathy and support for ‘distant others’ in times of war.

Research interests:

• conflictual media events

• media engagement
• meaning-making process
• transnational audiences
• content moderation

Mona Richter holds an M.A. in International Relations from Free University Berlin, Humboldt-University Berlin and University of Potsdam and a B.A. in European Studies from Maastricht University with exchange semesters at Queen’s University Belfast and Free University Amsterdam. Mona’s academic and professional interests span peace and conflict studies, political resilience research, political sociology, in particular democracy and transformation research, civil society and civic change, human rights and international law, with a focus on Ukraine and the broader Central and Eastern European region. She has worked in several think tanks, NGOs and research institutions in Berlin and Kyiv.

KIU research project: From Resilience to Recovery and Back: Civil Society and Wartime Recovery in Ukraine

In this dissertation the role of Ukrainian civil society in and conceptualisation of recovery amidst the ongoing Russian war of aggression is examined. Conventionally, recovery is often perceived as a post-war phenomenon focused on rebuilding physical infrastructure and restoring economic stability. However, this study challenges this linear perspective by examining recovery as a dynamic and ongoing phenomenon that occurs amidst the ongoing war. It posits that civil society actors, both formal and informal, shape a distinct recovery approach based on resilience, resistance, and long-term transformation. This research seeks to uncover patterns, mechanisms, and variations in recovery across different regions, organizational structures, and historical trajectories in Ukraine.

Research interests:

• civil society

• recovery
• peace & conflict

Anastasiia Rodi (Magazova) is a Ukrainian-German journalist and political analyst, born in Simferopol, Crimea. She holds MAs in Ukrainian Philology (V. Vernadsky Taurida National University, Simferopol, 2011) and Political Science (Freie Universität Berlin, 2023). Since 2013, she has worked as a correspondent for German and international media (taz, DW, RFE/RL), primarily covering Russia’s war against Ukraine. Her interests include German-Ukrainian relations, democratic backsliding and authoritarianism, Western policy towards authoritarian regimes, and the role of disinformation. She was an EJF Fellow (FU Berlin, 2019–2020) and a cohort in the Digitalisation and Democracy Programme at the Aspen Institute Germany (2025).

KIU research project: Demining Democracy: Ukraine’s political challenges in wartime

This PhD project explores how Russia’s full-scale invasion has impacted democracy in Ukraine. It analyses whether emergency wartime measures could become permanent and lead to democratic backsliding. Despite restrictions, public support for democracy remains strong, though trust in institutions is fragile. Combining theories of democratic backsliding, wartime democracy, and social constructivism, the project investigates institutional changes and shifting public perceptions of democracy. Using discourse analysis, interviews, and survey data, it offers insights into the functionality of democracy during wartime, rather than in the aftermath, thereby contributing to broader debates on democratic resilience and challenges in times of war.

Kateryna Serdiuk, MA of Philosophy, MA of Law, successfully completed ‘Interdisciplinary Program Anti-Corruption Studies’ (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy) and Invisible University for Ukraine Certificate Program (Central European University). Experienced project management expert in the field of democracy governance, transparency and accountability of national and local authorities, civic engagement in democracy processes and human rights protection.

KIU research project: Access to public information as a legislative basis for the formation of democratic control over the observance of the Rule of Law in modern Ukraine (after 1991)

The project explores ways of understanding the concept of openness, transparency and accountability of power in Ukrainian society through the legal institution of access to public information. It analyzes the legality and reasonability of restrictions on access to public information  and influence of instrumentalization of public information access on participatory democracy processes during crises of democracy in history of independent Ukraine.

Research interests:

• participatory democracy processes in Ukraine and Europe

• public information access and information protection
• technical and anti-corruption expertise of legal acts
• non-democratic regimes collapse and violence escalations

Mariia Tkachenko is a literary scholar. She received bachelor's and master's degrees in the subject area of Literary Arts, Ukrainian Language, and Literature at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. In 2017 she started her research on the history of Ukrainian Soviet Literature at the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Along with academic activities, she is engaged in art journalism.

KIU research project: Depictions of Soil in the official Ukrainian Soviet literature during Collectivization, 1928-1933

The research project is to analyze how official Ukrainian Soviet literature depicted the worth of soil and plants grown on it during 1928–1933, the period of Collectivization in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. To accomplish this, the theoretical views of the members of the literary organization Pluh, as expressed in their journal Pluzhanyn, will be studied to see how members of Pluh, a union of peasant writers, active from 1922 to 1932, crafted the understanding of Ukrainian Soviet peasant literature and ways to articulate the causes and the benefits of Collectivization.

Research interests:

• soviet Ukrainian literature

• socialist realism
• art and Literature at the end of 1920s-beginning of the 1930s
• soviet marxist aesthetics, proletarian art and literature