Professor Kataryna Wolczuk

• PhD Russian and East European Studies (Birmingham)
• MSocSc Russian and East European Studies (Birmingham)
• Magister of Law (University of Gdansk, Poland)

Professor Wolczuk specialises in East European politics. Currently she is researching relations between the EU and the post-Soviet countries within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership. She is also conducting research on Russia's role in the 'shared neighbourhood' and any potential impact for EU's role and policies in the post-Soviet space.

Previously she studied the dynamics of state-building in Ukraine (especially constitutional reforms, institutional framework, legislative-executive relations), as well as the conception of nationhood and national identity in Central and Eastern Europe. Her research interests also included Polish-Ukrainian relations in the context of EU enlargement and relations between Ukraine and the enlarged EU.

Professor Wolczuk contributed to numerous policy-related initiatives and cooperated with and advised a number of UK governmental bodies, international organisations and think-tanks on East European politics, the consequences of EU enlargement and the relations between the EU and its eastern neighbours.

She has extensive media experience, including TV and radio interviews, as well as publications in the British and international press.

In 2002-03 she was Jean Monnet Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, the European University Institute, Florence.

Her language competencies include:

• Polish - native
• Russian - advanced
• Ukrainian - near-native
• Belarussian - full comprehension
• French - intermediate
• Italian - introductory

Undergraduate

• Contemporary Russian and East European Politics (2nd and Final year options)
• Cultural Politics of Russia and Eastern Europe (2nd and Final year options)

Professor Wolczuk has extensive experience in successful supervision of PhD students from numerous countries on various topics related to Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. She is happy to supervise doctoral researchers on domestic politics and international relations of the post-Soviet countries, especially with regard to the EU and/or Eurasian integration.

She has recently competed supervising the following doctoral students: Katharina Hoffmann (Germany), Duncan Leitch (UK) and Nino Kemoklidze (Georgia).

Research interests

• Relations between the EU and the post-Soviet states in Europe in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership
• Impact of the EU on domestic change in the eastern partner countries
• Integration processes in the post-Soviet space (with particular reference to the Eurasian Economic Union)
• Institutional framework, constitutional politics and executive-legislative relations in the post-Soviet states
• Nationalism, nation-building and national identity in the post-communist countries

Current and recent projects

• Partner in the EU-funded H2020 consortium EU-STRAT ‘The EU and Eastern Partnership Countries: An Inside-Out Analysis and Strategic Assessment’, coordinated by Free University Berlin (overall funding of the consortium: 2.3mln). Duration: 2016-2019.
• UoB Lead for the EU-funded FP7 project ‘CASCADE: Security and democracy in the neighbourhood: the case of the Caucasus’. The project provides a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary analysis of the challenges related to security and democratisation in the Caucasus region. Project duration: 3 years (2014- 2016).
• ESRC-funded interdisciplinary project ‘Russia and the EU in the Common Neighbourhood: Export of Governance and Legal (In)Compatibility‘ under the ‘Rising Powers’ call. The project investigates how and with what effect Russia engages in the export of governance to the post-Soviet states in Europe and its implications for the EU's system of regional governance. The project involves empirical research in Russia as well as Belarus, Ukraine and Armenia. The co-applicant is Dr Rilka Dragneva-Lewers (School of Law, UoB). The total funding of the project is just over £380,000 and the project’s duration is 3 years (Jan 2013- Dec 2015).
• ESRC-funded international collaborative project EUIMPACTEAST - Exploring the Impact of the EU on Domestic Change in the Post-Soviet States (Jun 2011- June 2014). The project examines domestic changes in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership. This is an international UK-French project in collaboration with Dr Laure Delcour (under the Open Research Area in Europe scheme).
• 'Declarative Europeanisation': Ukraine and its Policy towards the European Union (funded by the British Academy, 2006-7)
• RIME (Releasing Indigenous Multiculturalism in Eastern Europe) funded by the European Commission under EIDHR programme on 'Combating Racism, Xenophobia & Discrimination against Ethnic Minorities & Indigenous People' (2003-6)
• (participant in) an international project 'Ukraine and the Enlarging EU' by the Stefan Batory Foundation, Warsaw (2002-4 & 2009-10)
• ESRC-funded project 'Fuzzy Statehood' and European Integration in Central and Eastern Europe' (1999-2001)

Current activities:

• Associate Fellow, Chatham House (Russia and Eurasia Programme)
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House.
• Judge for the annual book prize on East-Central Europe for the British Association for Slavic and East European Studies (BASEES)
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Review of Central and East European Law

Previous activities:

• Member of the Advisory Board of the Polish-American-Ukrainian Cooperation Initiative (PAUCI) Warsaw / Kyiv
• Member of the Advisory Board of the East European Studies Distance Learning Programme, the Free University Berlin.
• Acted as an Expert to the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament