Olga Burlyuk is Assistant Professor of Europe’s external relations at the Department of Political Science (PETGOV research programme) and an affiliate of the Amsterdam Center for European Studies (ACES). She teaches courses in BSc and MSc minors “European Politics and External Relations” (EPER).  Prior to joining the University of Amsterdam, Olga was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) at Ghent University (BE) and worked as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kent (UK) and the College of Europe (campus Bruges). In 2019, she spent a semester at Harvard University (USA) as a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI). In 2017, she taught in the University Immersion Programme at the Sichuan University (China).

Olga holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Kent (UK), an MA in European Studies from the University of Maastricht (NL), and Master and Bachelor in Law degrees from the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (UA).

Olga does research on Europe’s external relations, with a focus on EU efforts to transform third states and societies through the promotion of democracy, the rule of law and human rights, trade, development cooperation and cultural interactions. While her work is rooted in IR and European studies, it is also situated within development studies, legal studies, cultural policy studies and area studies – Eastern Europe, post-Soviet space, Ukraine and Russia being the geographic area of her interest and expertise. Her latest  work  includes  book  projects Unintended consequences of EU external action (co-edited with Gergana Noutcheva, Routledge,  2020)  and  Civil  society  in  Ukraine  post-Euromaidan  (co-edited with  Natalia Shapovalova, Columbia UP/Ibidem Verlag, 2019) and articles published in leading journals in her field (Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, International Spectator, Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, East European Politics and others).

Additionally, Olga works on coloniality and/in/of knowledge in academia. Following the publication of her autoethnographic essay Fending off a triple inferiority complex in academia (Journal of Narrative Politics, 2019), she is currently co-editing a volume Migrant academics’ narratives of precarity and resilience (with Ladan Rahbari from the Department of Sociology).

Olga is also writing an (auto)ethnographic book on motherhood, featuring thirty anonymous first-hand accounts by highly-educated working immigrant mothers (in Western Europe) alongside her own narrative.

At the University of Amsterdam, Olga teaches elective courses in BSc and MSc minors “European Politics and External Relations” (EPER):

• Introduction to European Politics and External Relations (BSc)
• The EU and the politics of Central and Eastern Europe (BSc)
• The EU and post-Soviet space (MSc)

She has previously taught the following courses and seminars at other universities:

• EU Politics and Governance (MA, University of Kent)
• Foreign Policy Analysis (MA, University of Kent)
• EU Cultural Diplomacy (MA, the College of Europe)
• European Union’s Neighbourhood Policies (MA/BA, Ghent University)
• MOOC: Russia between East and West (MA/BA, Ghent University)
• EU Migration Policy (MA, Ghent University)
• The EU and Brexit (MA, Ghent University)
• The EU and the Ukraine crisis (MA, Ghent University)
• Research seminar in EU studies (MA, Ghent University)
• Master thesis workshop (Ghent University)
• European Union Neighbourhood Policy (BA, Sichuan University)
• European Union in the World (MA, University of Kent)
• Fundamentals, Dissertation and Research (MA, University of Kent)