# Oleksandra Keudel Associate Professor, Department of Public Policy and Governance, Kyiv School of Economics ![Photo of Oleksandra Keudel](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-03/Keudel_2023.jpg?itok=dbX6Yhc_) email laptop\_windows [Faculty Profile](https://kse.ua/people/oleksandra-keudel/) - [ Twitter ](https://x.com/sashkovska) - [ Linkedin ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/oleksandrakeudel/) #### HURI Research Fellow at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University (September - December 2024) Supported by HURI with the Alex Woskob Family Foundation Endowment Fund ### Research Project #### Local Governance and Ukraine’s Patronal Democracy During Russia’s Full-scale Invasion With Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, research has largely focused on national politics, with significant findings already published, such as in Balint Madlovics and Balint Magyar's 2023 volume. However, the impact of the war on local politics and centre-periphery relations in Ukraine remains underexplored. This project aims to address this gap by examining how the war affects local elite coordination and its influence on Ukraine’s wartime democracy, specifically in Chernivtsi, Kharkiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Lviv, and Odesa. Using a unique qualitative dataset on patronal networks up to 2020, the project will map changes in elite coordination, including non-patronal, collaborative networks that may promote democratization. The study will contribute to both Ukrainian studies and democracy scholarship by theorizing the effects of elite coordination on democratic transformation and resilience during external shocks and offering insights relevant to Ukraine’s post-war recovery and decentralization efforts. ### Biography Dr. Oleksandra Keudel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy and Governance at Kyiv School of Economics. She studies democratic transformation and societal resilience in hybrid regimes with specialization in Ukraine’s sub-national politics. Keudel obtained her Ph.D. (2021, magna cum laude) in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), MSc (2016) in International Administration and Global Governance from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, with distinction for the thesis and MA (2009) in International Information, with distinction, from the Kyiv Institute for International Relations. She completed post-doctoral research at Freie Universität Berlin and was a visiting researcher at the George Washington University, NYU and Södertörn University in 2022-2023. She authored [*How Patronal Networks Shape Opportunities for Local Citizen Participation in a Hybrid Regime: A Comparative Analysis of Five Cities in Ukraine*,](https://cup.columbia.edu/book/how-patronal-networks-shape-opportunities-for-local-citizen-participation-in-a-hybrid-regime/9783838216713) published with ibidem/Columbia University Press (2022). Her related paper received the 2021 Best Paper Award at the Association for the Study of Nationalities Annual Convention. Her publications appeared in *East European Politics*, in *Eastern European Politics and Societies, and Cultures*, and the *Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice*. Dr. Keudel is a member of PONARS Eurasia and German-Ukrainian Academic Society. She combines academic research with policy consulting on open government and public integrity for international organizations, such as the Congress of Local and Regional authorities of the Council of Europe and IIEP-UNESCO. She has been teaching courses and classes on social science research methods and Ukrainian politics at Kyiv School of Economics, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Central European University and is frequently invited to speak at policy conferences in the EU and the US. - ## Fellowship Type [HURI Research Fellow in Ukrainian Studies](/fellowship-type/huri-research-fellow-ukrainian-studies) - ## Fellowship Year [Fellows for Academic Year 2024-2025](/fellowship-year/fellows-academic-year-2024-2025) - ## Fields of Expertise [Contemporary Ukraine](/fields-expertise/contemporary-ukraine) [Political Science](/fields-expertise/political-science) [Russia-Ukraine War](/fields-expertise/russia-ukraine-war) - ## Role [Fellows](/role/fellows)