Dr. Olga Plakhotnik

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin - Researcher

Lehrstuhl für Ukrainische Kulturwissenschaft

Ernst-Lohmeyer-Platz 3, Raum E. 46

17487 Greifswald

olga.plakhotnikuni-greifswaldde

I am a researcher working at the intersection of sociology, queer feminist studies, and decolonial perspectives. My expertise focuses on Ukraine, particularly in the areas of genealogies of feminisms, sexual citizenship, and LGBT activism. I am also interested in feminist epistemologies, queer migration and diaspora, and anti-oppressive pedagogies. I have gained experience in teaching and conducting research in Ukraine, the UK, Canada, Sweden, and the US. Since March 2022, I have been working at the University of Greifswald. I am a Ukrainian citizen and a first-generation scholar.

My current project, European Queer Mobilities in Times of War, supported by a DFG research grant, explores the complex intersections of gender, sexuality, and transnational mobility, using the case of post-2020 queer migrations to Germany from Ukraine and Belarus. I am open to collaboration with scholars, activists, artists, and community members whose experiences are relevant to my project. Please feel free to contact me via email.

EDUCATION

2019                Ph.D. in Sociology (with distinction), Open University (UK). Thesis: Imaginaries of Sexual Citizenship in Post-Maidan Ukraine: A Queer Feminist Discourse Analysis

2007                MA in Sociology and Cultural Studies (specialization in Gender Studies, with merit), European Humanities University (Lithuania).

2004                “Candidate of Sciences” in Social Philosophy, National Aerospace University (Ukraine)

1991                Diploma (MA equivalent) cum laude in General Psychology, Kharkiv National University (Ukraine)

 

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

Current

2026 – now     Researcher, Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Greifswald

Past

2022 – 2026    Researcher, PI of the UNDIPUS project, University of Greifswald

2020 – 2022    The Bayduza Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the Department of Sociology, University of Alberta (Canada)

2019 – 2020    Research Fellow, Center for Cultural-Anthropological Studies (Ukraine)

2009 – 2016    Docent, Philosophy Department, National Aerospace University (Ukraine)

2010 – 2012    Docent, School of Sociology, Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine)

2003 – 2009    Lecturer, Philosophy Department, National Aerospace University (Ukraine)

2003 – 2005    Lecturer, Cultural Studies Department, Kharkiv State Academy of Culture

1993 – 2002    Lecturer, Social Psychology Department, Kharkiv State Academy of Culture

Books

Olga Plakhotnik and Maria Mayerchyk, eds. (2026 forthcoming) Denaturalizing Europe: Sexual Geopolitics and Queer Affinities on the European Peripheries. University of Toronto Press.

 

Special Issues

2024     Special issue of the Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics (IEEJSP), the thematic issue “Unsettling Gender, Sexuality, and the European East/West Divisions,” Vol.10 (3); guest editors Maria Mayerchyk, Jennifer Ramme and Olga Plakhotnik

 

Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Plakhotnik, O., M. Mayerchyk and M.Yaremchyshyn (2026). New Mobilities, Old Vulnerabilities: European Far East and Coloniality of Ukrainian Gendered Labor, Mobilities 21(1): 36-47 https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2025.2581037

Plakhotnik, O. (2025) Women’s, Gender, and Feminist Studies in Transnational Perspective: What We Can and Cannot Learn When Using an Interpretive Lens. In Maggie Kusenbach and Michaela Pfadenhauer (eds.) Handbook of Interpretive Research Methods. 165-180. Edward ELGAR Publishing. 

Plakhotnik, O. and S. L. Crawley (2024). How are Interpretive Methods Feminist and Queer? Four Discursive Methods for Studying Marginality, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 21:4, 402-425. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2023.2233925

Plakhotnik, O. and M. Mayerchyk (2023). What is Guarded in Toilets? On Transphobia, Citizenship and Militarisation. Femina Politica – Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft 2 (2023): 96–102. https://doi.org/10.3224/feminapolitica.v32i2.10

Plakhotnik, O. and M. Mayerchyk (2023). Pride Contested: Geopolitics of Liberation at the Buffer Periphery of Europe, Lambda Nordica 28(2-3), 25-53. https://doi.org/10.34041/ln.v.874 

Plakhotnik, O. & M. Mayerchyk (2023). Between Time of Nation and Feminist Time: Genealogies of Feminist Protest in Ukraine. In J. Zychowicz (ed.) Freedom Taking Place: War, Women and Culture at the Intersection of Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. 83 – 106. Delaware: Vernon Press.

Plakhotnik, O. & M. Beketova (2022). “For us, about us.” Undisciplined Queer Knowledge Production in Activist Communities – the Ukrainian Case. In K.Aleksander, U.Auga, E.Dvorakk, K.Heft, G.Jähnert, and H. Schimkat (eds.) Feministische Visionen und Perspektiven vor und nach 1989. Provozieren – Einmischen – Gestalten, 395-412. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Verlag Barbara Budrich.

Plakhotnik, O. (2022). On the Limits of Speakability: Debates on Homonationalism and Sexual Citizenship in Post-Maidan Ukraine, Feral Feminisms 11, 51-68.

Plakhotnik, O. & M. Mayerchyk (2021). Uneventful Feminist Protest in Post-Maidan Ukraine: Nation and Colonialism Revisited. In R.Koobak, M.Tlostanova & S. Thapar-Björkert (Eds.), Postcolonial and Postsocialist Dialogues: Intersections, Opacities, Challenges in Feminist Theorizing and Practice (pp.121-137). New York: Routledge  https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003199-11

Plakhotnik, O. & M. Mayerchyk (2019). Between Time of Nation and Feminist Time: Genealogies of Feminist Protest in Ukraine. In A. Bühler-Dietrich (Ed.) Feminist Circulations between East and West / Feministische Zirkulationen zwischen Ost und West (pp.47-70). Berlin: Frank & Timme (Verlag)

Plakhotnik, O. (2017). “Safety” Under the Question: Contesting Competences and Affects in a Feminist Classroom. In E. Just & W. Grahn (Eds.), Theories of Affect and Concepts in Generic Skills Education: Adventurous Encounters (pp. 171–190). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Plakhotnik, O. & M. Mayerchyk (2015). “Ukrainian Feminism at the Crossroad of National, Postcolonial, and (Post)Soviet: Theorizing the Maidan Events 2013-2014”, Krytyka  https://krytyka.com/en/community/blogs/ukrainian-feminism-crossroad-national-postcolonial-and-postsoviet-theorizing-maidan

Plakhotnik, O. (2013). Gender Policy and Education in Contemporary Ukraine: Discourses and Controversies. In O. Hankivsky & A. Salnykova (Eds.), Gender, Politics and Society in Ukraine (pp. 225–252). Toronto: University of Toronto Press

Plakhotnik, O. & M. Mayerchyk (2013). “The Radical FEMEN and The New Women’s Activism”. Krytyka  https://krytyka.com/en/articles/radical-femen-and-new-womens-activism

 

Journal Articles and Book Chapters (in Ukrainian or Russian)

Plakhotnik, O. & Mayerchyk, M. (2019). Between Coloniality and Nationalism: Genealogies of Feminist Activisms in Ukraine, Feminist Critique publication online(Ukr.)  https://doi.org/10.52323/079441

Plakhotnik, O. (2018). “Troubling Education”, Activism, and Academia: Notes on the Margins of the Useful Book, Feminist Critique 1: 77-93. (Ukr.) https://doi.org/10.52323/165801

Plakhotnik, O. (2014). Queer Pedagogy and Post-Soviet Education: Where is The Exit From Epistemological and Political Deadlock. In A.Kondakov (ed.) On the Crossroads: Methodology, Theory and Practice of LGBT and Queer Studies (pp.359-378), SPb.: Center for Independent Sociological Research. (Rus.)

Plakhotnik, O. (2014). Radical Pedagogies in the Context of "Student-Centred" Teaching of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sociology: theory, methods, marketing 4, 171-186. (Ukr.)

Plakhotnik, O. (2013). Non-heterosexual Families in Ukraine: To Keep Silence – To Talk – To Hope? Krytyka 1-2: 15-17. (Ukr.)

Plakhotnik, O. (2011). Incredible Adventures of Gender Theory in Ukraine, Krytyka 9-10 (167-168), 17-22. (Ukr.)

Plakhotnik, O. and M. Mayerchyk (2010) The Radical FEMEN and The New Women’s Activism. Krytyka 11-12: 7-10. (Ukr.)

Plakhotnik, O. (2010). Feminism “By Any Other Name”? Contemporary Ukrainian Philosophy on Sex and Gender, Topos, 3: 93-108. (Rus.)

Plakhotnik, O. (2009). On Institutionalisation of Gender Studies in University Curricula of Contemporary Ukraine, Gendernye Issledovaniya 19: 156-165. (Rus.)

Plakhotnik, O. (2008). The Post-Soviet Feminism: Ukrainian Variant, Gendernye Issledovaniya 17: 183-198. (Rus.)

Plakhotnik, O. (2007). On Marginal Discourses in Education: The Discourse of Corporality, Humanitarian Journal 3: 79-86. (Ukr.)

Plakhotnik, O. (2006). On Marginal Discourses in Education: The Discourse of Sexuality, Humanitarian Journal 1: 93-97. (Ukr.)

 

Analytic Reports

Plakhotnik, O., R. Jones, P. Keogh, A. Beraia and M. Kvaratskhelia (2021). Education to Support LGBT+ Communities in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine: Analytic Report. The Open University.

(Author, editor and editor of the translation into Russian).

Plakhotnik, O., Danylenko, I., Guslyakova, L. & Sukhomlyn, M. (2009). Gender Equality Through the Students’ Eyes (Research Report). Kharkiv: Rider (Ukr.)

 

Translations

Crawley, S. (2018). Autoethnography as Feminist Self-Interview. Feminist Critique, 1, 46–75. (Translated from English into Ukrainian by Olga Plakhotnik and Maria Mayerchyk). https://doi.org/10.52323/179801

Feminist and queer studies
Citizenship and migration studies
Postcolonial and decolonial analysis
Postsocialism and Eastern Europe