Olesya Kochkina

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Olesya Kochkina (she/her) returned to academia after fifteen years of professional engagement in the international development sector. She deeply appreciated the rich intellectual environment and the stimulation of critical thinking offered by the Gender and Social Justice (GSJ) Program at the UofA’s WGS Department. This experience inspired her to pursue PhD studies under the supervision of Drs. Lise Gotell (WGS) and Sara Dorow (Department of Sociology). Olesya’s research interests include intersectional analysis of social policies affecting how people with most marginalized identities experience gender-based violence (GBV), including GBV services (or the lack of such), housing, employment, healthcare, and childcare. She is interested in praxis-oriented research prioritizing community-based, participatory approaches to knowledge production. She finds non-Western ways of knowledge production very inspiring and enriching and tries to keep herself open to learning.

Olesya is balancing her PhD studies with being a full-time mom. Her favourite thing to do in her free time is to trek in the mountains with her family.