Dr Olena Stiazhkina, a well-known Ukrainian writer and historian, has been announced as the second Ukrainian Writer in Residence. The scheme is funded by various colleges, including University College, as well as several University faculties.

Olena has published eleven works of fiction in Ukrainian and Russian as well as many articles and books on modern Ukrainian history. She is currently leading research fellow at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Until the 2014 occupation of Donetsk, she was Professor of Slavic History at the University of Donetsk.

English-language translations of her novel Cecil the Lion had to Die and her Ukraine, War, Love: A Donetsk Diary are both forthcoming with Harvard this year. Columbia University Press published her collection of historical essays Zero Point Ukraine in 2021. Olena is also part of an ongoing research project on Ukrainian spatial history with Professor Polly Jones, Schrecker-Barbour Tutorial Fellow in Slavonic and East European Studies, which she recently wrote about in a blog for History Workshop.

During her residency, Olena will write and publish several pieces on Ukrainian history and current affairs, as well as give lectures and seminars, including some with the faculty’s first Ukrainian writer in residence, Oleksandr Mykhed.

Olena commented, “It is a great honor and great responsibility for me to being awarded a virtual fellowship. I consider it my great duty to tell people about Ukraine, Ukrainians, our history and culture to those who support us and believe in our Victory.”

This Writer in Residence scheme is funded by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, TORCH, the Faculty of History, several Colleges (University, Somerville, Lady Margaret Hall, Wadham, and New), and individual donors.

Published: 9 February 2023

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