Kutsenko Olga Dmytrivna

Her research interests cover synthetic sociological theories of society, socio-structural and relational analysis, societal transformations, social inequalities, political culture, the processes of democracy and democratic resilience, civic activism and comparative sociological research.

Academic degrees and titles:

• Doctor of Sociological Sciences (2001, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, topic: «The agency-structural potential of the transformation process: towards a conception of class formation», academic consultant Prof. O. O. Yakuba)
• Candidate of Philosophical Sciences (1990, Kharkiv State University, topic: «The labour collective as a subject of the formation of an individual’s political culture», under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. A. I. Andriushchenko)
• professor of the department of sociology (2003)
• associate professor of the department of sociology (2001)

In 1983 she received a diploma as a lecturer in political economy with the specialisation «economist-sociologist», Gorky Kharkiv State University (now the V. Karazin Kharkiv National University). In addition, in 1997 she completed a certified training programme for lecturers in social policy (under the TACIS programme).

She has considerable experience of leading and taking part in international and national research projects, in particular under grants from the Humboldt Foundation (2025-2027), the Einstein Foundation (2023-2025), the World Bank (2020-2022), NATO (2005–2015), OSI/HESP (2009–2012), INTAS (2005-2007), the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (2002-2012, 2013-2014), the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the University of Alberta (2016-2017), USIA/IREX, DAAD, Erasmus+ and others.

Author of 215 scholarly publications (as of June 2025), among them monographs and chapters in them (including with the leading publishers Routledge, Springer, Edward Elgar, KRAMER and others) and articles in leading international journals (including Q1 quartile).

For the list of main publications see here

She created and headed the department of political sociology at the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (2005–2007). Since 2007 she has headed the department of social structures and social relations at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. As a guest lecturer she has taught at the universities of Vienna, Berlin, Cambridge, Lund, Lviv, Nova Gorica and Dubrovnik.

Her expert experience includes serving as head of the specialised academic council for the defence of doctoral (candidate’s) dissertations in sociology at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (2009–2021), as a member of the Academic Council of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (2021–2023), as a member of the Academic Council of the Polish Science Foundation (2023-2024) and others. Under her supervision 18 candidate’s and 3 doctoral dissertations have been successfully defended.

As a research fellow she has worked at the State University of New York SUNY in Albany (IREX, 1996), at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (OSI/CEU, 1998), at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom (Cambridge Hospitality Scheme, 1999), at the Berlin Social Science Center WZB (under contract, 2004, 2007) and at the Technical University of Berlin (DAAD, Berlin Einstein Foundation, Humboldt Foundation, 2022 to the present).

She holds the diploma of an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Higher School of Ukraine, division of political science and sociology (since 2016)

Professional awards:

Badge of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine "Distinguished in Education" (2021)

Award of the Sociological Association of Ukraine «Bohdan Kistiakivskyi Medal for an outstanding contribution to the development of sociology» (2021)

Certificates of merit of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and of the Sociological Association of Ukraine, certificates of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, the V. Karazin Kharkiv National University and others.