Oleh Kotsyuba Photo

As the Manager of Publications at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, Oleh Kotsyuba directs the Institute's publications program that includes scholarly monographs and translations as well as Harvard Ukrainian Studies, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles, documents, reviews, and scholarly discussions in all fields of Ukrainian studies.

Dr. Kotsyuba's own research focuses on literature that struggles to come to terms with the experience of living in authoritarian contexts, focusing primarily on 20th century and contemporary Russian, Ukrainian, and East European literatures and cultures. His dissertation offered a radical revision of the strategies that culture employs to evade the demands that oppressive regimes impose on art and artists. His study of the works of Ukrainian and Russian writers of the Soviet period broke new ground in reconstructing the conditions of cultural and political transformations in the late Soviet Union.

Dr. Kotsyuba's current project examines the cultural afterlife of oppressive regimes after their formal demise. He focuses on the responses in Ukrainian and Russian literature and theater to the recent events of the Russian occupation of the Crimea and the hostilities in Ukraine's Donbas region. His research points to a deep ethical crisis that Russian society and culture face when dealing with the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine.

A dedicated and experienced educator, he teaches courses that introduce students to Slavic literatures and cultures, allow them to read prolific writers in the original and in translation, discuss and write subtly about complexities of the social and cultural life in Russia, the Soviet Union, Poland, and Ukraine in the 19th–21st centuries, while also paying attention to relevant interdisciplinary approaches, social and historical aspects of culture.

Latest News

Coming soonUkraïnica: The Primary Database of Ukrainian Studies will be launched soon! The database will provide assistance to K-12 and college educators in using primary sources on Ukraine in their modules and courses on broader topics.

In September 2020, Dr. Kotsyuba launched a new digital product—an online platform that features the books published by the Ukrainian Research Institute and allows access to most content through ebook and online rental options. The new platform relies on most recent trends and developments in the area of publications for a user-facing product experience and will make it possible for the website users to access all content online in the times of social distancing and remote learning. The creation, design, and programming of the website was overseen by Dr. Kotsyuba.

In February 2019, after a period of intensive work in product development, architecture, and design, Dr. Kotsyuba unveiled the new website of the journal Harvard Ukrainian Studies, whose creation he directed. The website offers innovative ways for the readers of the journal to access the content of the past 45 years of publication, categorize all content by subject, follow the publications on the topics of interest and by specific authors, as well as to subscribe to the online or print edition of the journal for individual and institutional subscribers. Read more about the website here.

In the fall term of 2018–2019, Dr. Kotsyuba will teach two courses on Vladimir Nabokov as the Visiting Lecturer in the Russian Department at Wellesley College. Read more here.

In February 2018, Dr. Kotsyuba joined the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard as the new Manager of Publications, directing the Institute's publication of scholarly monographs and the journal Harvard Ukrainian Studies. More about the appointment and future plans here.

Follow Dr. Oleh Kotsyuba on Twitter@Oleh_Kotsyuba

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