Olga Onuch (DPhil Oxon, 2011) is Professor (Chair) in Comparative and Ukrainian Politics at the University of Manchester (UoM), making Onuch the first-ever holder of a Full Professorship in ‘Ukrainian Politics’ in the English-speaking world. She is the author of Mapping Mass Mobilisation and The Zelensky Effect.
Onuch is an internationally leading scholar of comparative Ukrainian and more broadly central and east European (CEE) and Latin American (LA) politics. She is particularly well regarded for her work on democratic engagement, quality, resilience, backsliding, and democratic duty and civic identity. Thus, her research combines themes from comparative politics, political behaviour, and public opinion on and citizen engagement in geopolitics and international relations.
In a recent series of works she has examined the pull and push factors associated with support for stronger relations with autocratic [Russia] and democratic [EU] powers in central and eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine and Belarus) and Latin America (Argentina). Professor Onuch joined UoM in 2014, after holding research posts at the University of Toronto (Munk School of Global Affairs 2010-2011), the University of Oxford (St. Antony’s, Nuffield, OSGA & DPIR 2011-2014), and Harvard University (HURI, 2013-2014). Since 2014, in addition to her post at UoM, Prof.
Onuch has been: an Associate Member (Politics) of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford (2014-2021), a Fellow at the Davis Center at Harvard University (2017), a Visiting Professor at Universidad Di Tella (2019-2020), and a Senior Research Associate at CERES, Munk School at the University of Toronto (2021).
Since 2023, she has been a Visiting Professor by invitation at College d’Europe Natolin in Warsaw. Onuch’s research on Ukraine has resulted in her consulting government agencies, ministries, and policymakers in Canada, Ukraine, the UK, and the US. Professor Onuch also has worked for international non-governmental and intergovernmental institutions including the UNDP (NYC HQ), The World Bank (IBRD in Kyiv), OSCE, OECD, and OSF.