Ukraine Lab

Ukraine has often been called a laboratory when it comes to global challenges in the spheres of environment, information, and security. The site of the worst nuclear catastrophe in history, the primary target of the Kremlin’s troll farms and disinformation campaigns, the country to spark the collapse of the Soviet Union and to stand up to its neo-imperialist successor: Ukraine has been the first to face and, at times, set in motion processes that have worldwide consequences.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion has compromised the global system of security, the value of Ukrainian knowledge and experience can no longer be dismissed. The urgency to learn with and from Ukraine is now existential for the rest of the world.

This unique collection presents creative nonfiction essays by emerging authors from Ukraine and the UK which employ cross-cultural dialog and the art of storytelling to open up Ukrainian perspectives on the challenges facing humanity worldwide.

Dr Sasha Dovzhyk completed her PhD in Comparative Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Since 2021, she is the Special Projects Curator at the Ukrainian Institute London. In 2022–2023, she has also been appointed an Associate Lecturer in Ukrainian Literature at the School of Slavonic and East-European Studies, UCL. Her previous books include Decadent Writings of Aubrey Beardsley (edited with Simon Wilson, MHRA, 2022) and Ukrainian Cassandra: New Translations of Works by Lesia Ukrainka (Live Canon, 2023). Her articles and chapters have been published in, among other outlets, Modernist Cultures, British Art Studies, and Oxford Handbook of Decadence. She has also written for CNN Opinion, The Guardian, New Lines Mag, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Ecologist.

Olesya Khromeychuk is a historian, writer, and the Director of the Ukrainian Institute. She received her PhD in History from University College London. She has taught the history of East-Central Europe at the University of Cambridge, University College London, the University of East Anglia, and King’s College London. She is author of The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister (ibidem 2021 and 2023, Monoray 2022) and ‘Undetermined’ Ukrainians. Post-War Narratives of the Waffen SS ‘Galicia’ Division (Peter Lang, 2013).

Sofia Cheliak is a TV host, cultural manager, translator from Czech, and a member of PEN Ukraine. Since 2016, she has been a Program Director of Lviv BookForum. In 2022, she started work at the Ukrainian Book Institute, as the curator of Ukraineʼs national stands at International Book Fairs.

Since 2020, she has been working for Ukraine Public Broadcasting Company. Cheliak is the author of three collections of poetry in translation: Václav Hrabieʼs, Jana Orlovaʼs, and Petr Chikhonʼs.

Kateryna Iakovlenko is a Ukrainian visual culture researcher, writer, and curator focusing on art and culture during sociopolitical transformation and war. Currently, she is Cultural Editor-in-Chief of Suspilne.media (Kyiv) and a visiting scholar at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (2022–2023). Among her publications is the book Why There Are Great Women Artists in Ukrainian Art (2019) and Euphoria and Fatigue: Ukrainian Art and Society after 2014 (special issue of Obieg magazine, co-edited with Tatiana Kochubinska, 2019).

Olena Kozar is a Kyiv-based journalist. Her articles have been published in Bird in Flight, It's Nice That, Kunsht, Post Impreza, and Telegraf.Design.