ABOUT

Olga Onuch (DPhil, Oxford) is Professor at the Politics Department at the School of Social
Sciences (University of Manchester). In 2021-2022 she was appointed Senior Research Associate at CERES at the Munk School of Global Affairs (University of Toronto). From 2014 to 2020 she was an Associate Member of the Politics Group at Nuffield College (University of Oxford). In 2017 she was appointed Fellow of the Davis Center (Harvard University). And since 2017 she has been an Affiliate of (previously in 2014 a Fellow of) the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (Harvard University).

PROJECTS

I study the Comparative Democratization of Eastern Europe and Latin America. My scholarly work has examined the micro-foundations of citizen responses (vote, protest, and migration) to, and perceptions of, critical junctures in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Venezuela, and Argentina. My policy research has interrogated: EU cultural diplomacy, think-tanks as reform actors (SIDA/OSI), ‘new’ EU members’ role in eastward enlargement (NISS), good government indicators (OECD), democratic dialogue (UNDP), and governance (World Bank).

PUBLICATIONS (selected)

I am the author of more than 20 scholarly publications as well as several large policy reports, briefs, reviews, and popular articles. My scholarly articles have appeared in leading journals in my field (Journal of Democracy, Europe-Asia Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, Post-Soviet Affairs, GeoPolitics among others). My book “Mapping Mass Mobilizations” (2014, has received praise Europe-Asia Studies and was nominated for a prize). 

TEACHING

My teaching has been recognized by the SoSS UoM Leadership as having obtained an outstanding result – as I teach several of the “highest [rated courses] in the School.”  To this end, in 2017 I was awarded the Political Studies Association National Sir Bernard Crick Award for Outstanding Teaching. I was also twice nominated as Most Inspirational Lecturer, by my students.