Olesia Herashchenko is a PhD researcher in cultural studies at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, where she studies visual art as a tool for peacebuilding. She has received certification as a business mediator from the IHK Academy for Munich and Upper Bavaria and the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School. She has also received a master’s degree in international law from the Ukrainian State University of Finance and Foreign Trade and in international business administration from the Kyiv National University of Economics. 

She works as the head of the Ukrainian Center of Concordance, an NGO that creates platforms for young leaders across the country to build understanding and work towards community reconciliation. Her 2022 book (Sub)Conscious Art. Artistic Reflections. Ukraine After 2013 collected interviews with artists, curators and art critics on the role of art in addressing societal conflicts from 2013-2021, which she followed up in late 2022 with a wartime audio archive with recordings of public and artistic figures on the impact of the invasion on Ukraine’s cultural and social fabric. Her work has been featured on podcasts and on YouTube. She gives lectures and writes articles on her areas of interest.

Selected Publications

Herashchenko, O. (2022) ‘Subconscious Art: Artistic Reflections on Ukraine After 2013’, Kyiv: Osnovy.

Geraschenko О. (2020) ‘Visual Art: Facilitated Conflict Transformation. Approaches and Limitations of the Instrument’, NaUKMA Research Papers. History and Theory of Culture, 3 (November), pp. 62-71.

Herashchenko, O. (2024) ‘“So What Do You See?” Project Findings. Visual Art in Reconciliation in Ukraine’, International Scientific Conference Current Trends in Art and Culture : Conference Proceedings (April 3–4, 2024. Wloclawek, Republic of Poland). Riga, Latvia: Baltija Publishing, p. 32-40.

Геращенко О. (2019) ‘Візуальне мистецтво як інструмент реорганізації посткатастрофічної пам’яті’, Культорологія , 1 (4), c. 43-46