Authors
Oksana Lemishka is a media and culture researcher, sociologist. She headed the Center for Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development in Ukraine for four years, working with UN agencies, USAID projects, and the EU representation in Ukraine and abroad. Currently consulting international theater projects as a dramaturg and working on personal artistic projects.
Orysia Demska
Orysia Demska is a Ukrainian linguist, Doctor of Philology, professor at the National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy," organizer and the first chair of the National Commission on State Language Standards, a great teacher at the Ukrainian Leadership Academy, and a member of the Commission on Names of the Kyiv City State Administration. She is an expert in the fields of language policy, science, and culture.
Olha has made significant contributions to national projects and has been a persistent advocate for the rights of Ukrainian children in forced migration, promoting access to education in their heritage language. As a member of the Program Board of the Migrant Education Center at Krakow University, she supports initiatives that foster linguistic and cultural integration for migrant children.
Olha Shevchuk-Kliuzheva is a researcher and PhD in Philology with a specialized focus on state language policy, language management in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and the role of the Ukrainian language within Europe’s linguistically diverse landscape. Her academic interests include language contact phenomena, code-mixing (surzhyk), and the development of children’s speech in multilingual environments. Olha’s work explores how language policies can adapt to contemporary sociolinguistic realities, especially in regions with high linguistic diversity.Currently, Olha is furthering her expertise through postdoctoral studies at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University. Her dissertation centers on children’s speech development in multilingual environments, offering insights into how young learners acquire and navigate language amidst diverse linguistic settings.
Her career spans impactful roles across public, academic, and advocacy sectors. From 2020 to 2022, she served on the National Commission for State Language Standards, influencing policy development and the standardization of the Ukrainian language. She collaborated with the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, contributing to comparative linguistic studies that support cross-border language policy and advocacy. As the former Head of PR at the Ukrainian Book Institute, she promoted Ukrainian cultural diplomacy and literature. In her current role as Head of the Sector for Coordination of Advocacy Projects at the Alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations, Olha leads initiatives in advocacy, knowledge-sharing, and policy development to address Ukraine’s humanitarian and sociolinguistic needs.
Tetiana Kostina
Tania was born in Avdiivka, Donetsk region. She established La Boussole esthetic magazine about firstly traveling around Ukraine, later about mindful and research yourself in 2014. Tania has wrote articles and conducted interviews for the magazine. In 2021 she wrote a first book for her daughter Look Up and founded own publishing house. After beginning a full-escalated russian war against Ukraine Tania started to collect women stories about their experience living during the war.