We are very happy to announce that one of our doctoral researchers, Olena Siden, has received an MSCA4Ukraine fellowship for 24 months, April 2025 - March 2027. Her project is "Discursive construction of war in French political discourse: case of the Russo-Ukrainian war", which aligns with her dissertation topic. Out of 550 applications, 49 received funding. Most of these were postdoctoral researchers - Olena is one of only two doctoral researchers to become an MSCA4Ukraine fellow. We're thrilled to have her with us for (at least!) another two years!
Olena took the time to answer a few questions about herself and her doctoral research, which this fellowship will support:
1. What are the main themes you aim to explore in your project?
The main themes of my project center around discursive construction of Russo-Ukrainian war on Twitter by French politicians; instrumentalisation and mediatisation of the war as a political tool; manipulation and rhetorical strategies.
2. How did you come up with the idea for the project?
Taking into account that the project is basically my dissertation, I would say that the idea appeared when the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine started. It was the same year I started my PhD in Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (Mykolaiv, Ukraine), so I consider the whole dissertation being a sort of my personal contribution and an attempt to spread the knowledge and awareness how naming anything can shape people's opinions.
3. What are the main goals you hope to achieve during the project?
The main goals I hope to achieve during the project are to develop a deeper interdisciplinary understanding of how political discourse is constructed in times of conflict; improve public media literacy by making manipulation tactics more transparent, and, of course, complete and successfully defend my PhD thesis.
4. How do you and your research fit into HEPP's milieu?
I guess my project fits exceptionally well into the HEPP, since it examines emotive and polarizing political discourse. It also aligns with HEPP’s interdisciplinary approach, combining linguistics, political science, communication, and social sciences. And as a HEPP member, I have already engaged in HEPP events and contributed to one of its ongoing Horizon projects (e.g., PLEDGE).
5. What do you see as HEPP's main contribution to the field(s) that its research covers?
I would say that HEPP's main contributions are academic collaboration and interdisciplinarity. It creates a network of scholars, merging different researchers and fields.
We're looking forward to following Olena's work, and we wish her the best of luck in both this fellowship and her future endeavors!