Dr. Irina Mützelburg

What is your project and why did you choose it?

​

My project explores the educational life of pupils who fled the war in Ukraine, arriving in Germany after February 2022. Through interviews and a survey, I am researching the everyday situations of these pupils and their parents, in particular, their choices and their representations regarding their education in the present and future. From a policy perspective, I am interested in the way in which the innovative strategies used to include Ukrainian pupils might trigger a more fundamental change in the educational policies of the German state towards non-German pupils in the future. I plan to also look at the development of educational policies in the Ukrainian state regarding their citizens abroad.

​

What brought your interest to the region?

​

My interest in the region developed over time. I have family roots in Ukraine, but I did not seriously begin learning about Central and Eastern Europe until university. During my research masters (Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, 2012), I chose CIS as my focus region and, through courses and an internship in Kyiv, I found myself drawn towards Ukraine – a country which seemed to be in constant political change and instability. Ever since then, both in my PhD (Sciences Po Paris, 2019) and my more recent research, my topics have changed but I have continued to work on Ukraine.

​

How has Russia's war against Ukraine affected your project?

​

Initially I had planned to work on educational policies within Ukraine and to begin my fieldwork there in April/May 2022 but, with the full-scale Russian invasion, I had to completely rethink my project. I then discovered the important debates happening within the German state surrounding the best way to educate incoming Ukrainian students and so, I decided to transfer my project from education in Ukraine to education of Ukrainians abroad. This updated project allows me to work on issues more immediately relevant to many Ukrainians, without needing to postpone my fieldwork until the end of the war.

​​

Irina Mützelburg is a post-doctoral researcher in political science at ZOiS where  she co-coordinates the Limspaces project. She worked at Sciences Po Lyon and the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder, after having completed her PhD at Sciences Po Paris on international norm and policy transfer in the field of asylum in Ukraine. Her research has been published, among others, by Palgrave Macmillan, the Journal of Intercultural Studies, the European Journal of Migration and Law, the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs and the Revue française de science politique.