Nina Boichenko

I have been quite good at art since I was a child, but I have never pursued this interest until recently. Research and aid work on the humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border led me to seek additional means of expression, and I took up painting. Since then I have identified myself as a member of both the research and artistic communities. Due to my academic work, my activities consist mainly of absorbing and processing information from the outside world. A year ago I felt a strong need to change the direction of this flow, to sublimate, to externalise myself, to pour out what is inside me by creating art. During the residency I would like to explore this and try to identify and understand what I need. I am fascinated by the interdisciplinary and holistic nature of science and art. I am passionate about education and outreach. Above all, I need to be looked after and feel safe during my residency. I would also like to explore the changes taking place within me. As a result of my huge involvement in the humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, I have been functioning in a state of chronic stress since 2021, which directly affects my body. Using the financial support provided for the process, I would like to work with psychosomatics and pay for physical therapy and psychological support.

I am originally from Kyiv and have lived in Poland for the past ten years. I graduated in Cultural Studies and Psychology from the M.P. Dragomanov National Pedagogical University in Kyiv and earned a Master’s degree in Cultural Studies from the Jagiellonian University. I am currently a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Humanities at the Polish Academy of Sciences, and my research interests include borderlands, national minorities and migration from a sociolinguistic perspective. I am writing my dissertation on the refugee experience and adaptation processes in the narratives of Ukrainian IDPs (2014–2021). I co-founded the inter-university project Researchers on the Border (Badacze i Badaczki na Granicy BnG), which focuses on the humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. Since 2019, I have been a regular collaborator of the Centre for Migration Research at the University of Warsaw, where I have held coordinating, research and mentoring roles. My research and academic interests include modes of communication and linguistic constructions between actors involved in (or entangled with) migration processes.