My research looks at how Ukrainian and Russian children's literature has responded, and continues to respond, to increasing militarisation in the respective societies since 2014. I understand militarisation in a broad sense in the Ukrainian context, as encompassing explicitly military themes about current and past experiences of war, and in terms of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has precipitated an increase in publishing on themes of traumatic history for children. I look at how children's literature works through trauma and how traumatic events may be understood in relation to each other. In the Russian context, I am interested in the ways in which children’s literature is utilised as a political tool to promote different visions of nationalism. I explore the narratives of war, past atrocities, and heroism in both state-sponsored and independently published texts. Throughout my corpus, I am interested in how post- and second-generation memory are activated and transmitted, and to what effect.

Prior to my DPhil, I completed a BA in European Languages and Cultures at the University of Groningen, and an MSt in Slavonic Studies at the University of Oxford (Lady Margaret Hall). Before commencing my studies, I spent two years working with an NGO in Belgrade, Serbia, where I taught German and English to refugees on the Balkan route, developed language curricula, and lead recreational workshops in Belgrade and northern Serbia.

My project is funded by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP and St John's College.