Oxana Shevel

Oxana Shevel is a professor of comparative politics at the Department of Political Science at Tufts University. Her research and teaching focus on the post-Soviet region, especially Ukraine and Russia, and issues such as nation-building and identity politics, citizenship policies, memory politics, church-state relations, and the democratization process in the post-Soviet region. Her most recent book (co-authored with Maria Popova) - Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States (Polity, 2024) - examines the root causes of the Russo-Ukrainian war and locates them in the growing domestic political divergence between Russia and Ukraine post-1991. It was awarded the 2025 Canadian Association of Ukrainian Studies (CAUS) book prize. Her earlier book, Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe (Cambridge, 2011) examined how the politics of national identity and strategies of the UNHCR shape refugee admission policies in the post-Communist region, leading countries to be more or less receptive to refugees. The book won the American Association of Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) prize for best book in the fields of Ukrainian history, politics, language, literature and culture. Professor Shevel's research has appeared in a variety of journals, including Comparative Politics, Current History, East European Politics and Societies, Europe-Asia Studies, Geopolitics, Journal of Democracy, Nationality Papers, Post-Soviet Affairs, Slavic Review, and in edited volumes. Her policy commentary has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Just Security, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, National Interests, and in other national and international media outlets.

Outside of the department, Professor Shevel currently serves as President of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), Vice President of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), and a board member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTShA). She previously served as the Director of Tufts International Relations Program, and as President and Vice-President of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies (AAUS). She's also a country expert on Ukraine for Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT), a member of PONARS Eurasia scholarly networks, and an associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Outside of academia, Shevel has served as a consultant for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe High Commissioner on National Minorities, and for the US Department of State, and has provided expert testimony on applications for asylum in US courts.

Professor Shevel holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University, an M.Phil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge in England, and a BA in English and French from Kyiv State University in Ukraine.