Teaching IR in Wartime

Dr Michèle Knodt studied politics in Darmstadt and Mannheim. She is Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair, ad personam, at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Knodt has received research grants from the German Federal Ministries of Education and Research as well as Economic Affairs and Energy, German Research Council (DFG), Volkswagen Foundation, and European Commission. She is co-author of, among other books, Bilateral Energy Relations between the EU and Emerging Powers (Nomos 2017). Knodt’s papers have appeared in, among other journals, Media, War & Conflict, Cooperation and Conflict, Regional & Federal Studies, Energy Research & Social Sciences, European Security, and Local Government Studies.

Dr Maksym Yakovlyev studied social work and comparative politics in Kyiv. He is Head of the International Relations Department and Director of the School for Policy Analysis at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Yakovlyev is the author of Teorii zmov (Conspiracy Theories; Vykhola 2023), co-editor of Constructing a Political Nation (Stylos 2017), and a member of the Public Council at Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His articles have appeared in, among other outlets, the Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Foucault Studies, and the African Journal of Economics, Politics and Social Studies.

Tymofii Brik is the rector at the Kyiv School of Economics and National coordinator of the European Social Survey in Ukraine. He received his PhD in social science from Carlos III of Madrid university, an MSc in sociology from Utrecht University and Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University. In 2018–2023, he had visiting positions  in Northwestern, Stanford, and NYU universities. His papers appeared in Governance, Journal of Comparative Economics, Problems of Post-Communism. His paper “When church competition matters?”, published in Sociology of Religion, won the N. Panina award in 2018 by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine.

Mridula Ghosh was born in India, and holds degrees in Political Science, Masters and Ph.D. in International Relations and Foreign Policy. She has work experience in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy (UNDP). Currently she is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of International Relations, NaUKMA, a regular columnist and writer in media, a civil activist, and policy researcher. 

Thomas Fetzer is the head of the International Relations Department at Central European University in Vienna. He received his PhD from the European University Institute in Florence (Department of History and Civilization) in 2005. Before joining CEU, Thomas held post-doctoral research and teaching positions at the Max-Planck Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung in Cologne (2006), the London School of Economics (2007–2008), and the University of Warwick (2009). His current research interests are primarily related to the role of ideas in the international political economy, with a specific focus on (economic) nationalism, as well as the impact of economic globalization on socioeconomic inequality and processes of collective interest formation. In a recent project, Thomas has also explored the emergence of various notions of 'economic Europeannness'. Beyond his own research, Thomas is interested in a number of other fields, including the comparative political economy of labour and industrial relations, EU social policy and the European social model, the history and contemporary development of multinational firms, the politics of consumption, as well as the broader area of contemporary European and transnational history, in particular with regard to issues of collective memory and identity. He also has a strong interest in the methodological debates about the relationship between history and the social sciences.

Olena Khylko has experience in research and teaching (as Associate Prof) IR, security studies, regionalism, Ukraine/Eastern Europe in World Politics etc. at the Institute for European Studies and IR, Faculty of Social and Economic Studies, Comenius University Comenius University (Bratislava), Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv.

Ian Manners is professor in the Department of Political Science, Lund University, and has previously worked at the University of Copenhagen, Roskilde University, Danish Institute for International Studies, Malmö University, University of Kent, Swansea University, and University of Bristol. His research is on the European Union’s normative power in planetary politics, examining the symbioses between planetary society, economy, ecology, conflict, and polity. His learning and teaching uses research to inform courses on the Masters in European Affairs, international relations, and research methods, including courses on 'European Governance', ‘Europe in Global Affairs’, ‘Everyday Europe’, ‘International Relations’, and ‘Political Cinema’. His current research is focused on understanding the EU in planetary politics, including projects marking the twentieth anniversary of the normative power approach, such as a special issue on ‘Normative Power in the Planetary Organic Crisis’ for Cooperation and Conflict and a forum on the ‘Arrival of Normative Power in Planetary Politics’ for the Journal of Common Market Studies.

Galyna Solovey received a Bachelor's and Master's degree in philosophy at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, she is Master of Development Policy (KDIS, South Korea). From 2003 to 2010, she worked as a Junior Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where she received a doctorate in social philosophy in 2007. From the first day of the opening of the Faculty of International Relations in 2019 at NaUKMA, she has been working here as a Senior Lecturer, having developed, and taught 9 academic courses. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, in parallel with teaching online at NaUKMA, she taught full-time 1 semester at the University of Amsterdam and the 2022-2023 academic year at the University of Carlos 3, Madrid.